The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken up the retail world, but it has also contributed to record online sales. For ecommerce businesses, this presents a golden opportunity. People are sitting at home with debit cards in hand, ready to click on that shopping cart logo. But if you want your business to thrive now and through any future pandemics, there are a number of important lessons that should be heeded.
1. Businesses Must Prepare for Surging Competition
In the face of a global pandemic, online businesses ramp up their marketing efforts in order to stay afloat. That means that less proactive businesses get left behind. What’s worse, brick-and-mortar businesses are often forced to close up shop entirely. To combat these problems, every retailer should:
- Take their products online, if sales are currently limited to in-store purchases
- Invest in quality ecommerce SEO services, thus ensuring that the business is visible online and able to weather the increased search engine competition
- Emphasize stellar customer service, such as by offering on-demand live chat and a generous return policy; this fosters the kind of customer loyalty that becomes invaluable during an economic downturn
The time to start is now, before the next pandemic hits. During a global emergency, it’s more important than ever to be able to compete with power players like Amazon, and the way to do that is to build a strong foundation online right now. If you wait until the emergency strikes, it’s already too late.
2. Businesses Must Diversify Their Product Offerings
Demand can shift tremendously during a pandemic. For example, the COVID-19 lockdown has contributed to soaring sales for fitness equipment but a steep decline in apparel sales. By offering a range of different product types, you’re better equipped to weather the shifting trends.
This doesn’t mean you should venture into entirely different industries. Even different but complementary products can help strengthen your product line. For example, the women’s fashion brand Alice + Olivia began offering designer face masks as apparel sales started to decline.
3. User-Friendliness Is Essential in a Shopping Cart Platform
As we’ve seen with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, product demand can shift overnight. You may be required to update your homepage and highlight new products on the fly. If you have to do this on the back end, or if your ecommerce platform is too complex to accommodate easy updates, you’re going to have a costly and frustrating problem on your hands—especially if you can’t afford to pay a web developer during the downturn.
Now more than ever, every business owner should choose an ecommerce platform that they can update themselves at a moment’s notice. Options like BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and Shopify are user-friendly enough for most business owners to manage after the initial setup has been completed.
4. Businesses Should Consider Multiple Carrier Options for Delivery
During a pandemic, some carriers have limited delivery capabilities. This means that your customers might be left high and dry if you currently have just one carrier option. Consider making multiple carriers available. If one of them proves unreliable for a given customer during a pandemic, they’ll still have options available at their fingertips.
As an added bonus, a multi-carrier strategy can contribute to greater customer satisfaction in any economic environment. It means greater flexibility on returns and a greater ability to accommodate the needs of customers. It’s a win-win.
A global emergency is a scary thing for businesses, but if you take steps to prepare in advance, you’ll have a significant edge over the majority of your competition.
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