The ecommerce sales are significantly increasing in the testing times of the Corona Virus pandemic or COVID – 19. From the way of networking to the way of working and shopping, slowly, we are moving online. The ecommerce business has turned from non-existent to a multi-billion market from the last decade. Although there was a rise in the number of people shopping online, the boost in sales during the pandemic is unmatchable and continuously increasing, like never before. The COVID – 19 implications are sure to bring a major shift in the next decade. The pandemic situation is witnessing rapid changes including social distancing norm, closure of malls, shut down of all public gathering places, adapting to the work-from-home lifestyle, and so on. However, the major change experienced by people during these unprecedented times is the change in their shopping behaviour that includes the way they shop, the time they shop, the number of products they purchase, and most importantly the things they choose to shop.
With the government imposing strict laws to restrict the spread of the virus earlier in many cities and countries, the ecommerce industry had faced a sudden shut down creating a major impact in the sales. However, with the constant rise in the number of cases and the stooping fall in the economy of the countries, the government has slowly taken down all the impositions. With that, the ecommerce industry has witnessed an enormous rise in sales. People are now living with the fact that they need to adapt to these rapid changes and make them the new normal.
Is ecommerce safe for online shopping in 2020?
It is known without saying that the year 2020 has witnessed more disasters than any other year in recent times. However, the most significant one was the coronavirus or COVID – 19 pandemic. Although the economies of many countries were hit by the sudden shift in the environment, the ecommerce industry has seen significant growth during these times. To know how safe it is to shop online, we are providing a few adaptations of the ecommerce industry that has been done or must be done to strive during the hard times.
Need for optimization
If you are an online seller, you might already know the importance of optimizing your store, products, checkout process, images, and everything you have for selling online. However, if you are new to this business this year, do know that it has become the most essential factor; more than ever! There is a significant rise in the demand for online services this year due to the coronavirus wave and major shut down of brick and mortar businesses. Businesses now are either going online or are updating their online services to stay ahead of the curve. Whether you have been negatively hit by the crisis or positively advantaged from the situation, you need to optimize your online services. The on-site testing program must be on-bar to satisfy your existing customers as well as to win new customers. The major benefits of optimizing are an increase in the speed of your online website/ store/ mobile app, boost in the efficiency of your service, and provide on-time updates to your more-impatient customers.
Inflow in online shopping
Apart from the rules imposed by various governments, people now fear to go to crowded places, even for purchasing their essential goods and groceries. This situation has led to a whopping inflow in online shopping. Many business giants including Walmart, Amazon, Flipkart has reported a massive increase in online sales as compared to the previous years. The coronavirus has surely not impacted the ecommerce economy; not for a long time, anyway. However, for ecommerce businesses with problems dealing with maintaining stocks, managing delayed deliveries and out of stock products, it could be a hard time growing until things get back on track. If you are selling on Amazon, it is essential to keep the product in stock to avoid getting backlashes from the marketing algorithms and organic search results. If the products are out-of-stock for more than a month, Amazon accounts it as a product that has no sales history. This will eventually lower the rank of your products due to the significant drop in the use of keywords which was once a strong source of selling online.
Concerns for the supply chain management
With the expanding demand for online shopping and delivery come the unavoidable delays. People are now bound in their four walls to avoid contacting the fatal virus that eventually gives rise to increasing demand for online deliveries. Customers now value faster deliveries than ever before. All major countries involved in the supply chain rely on products manufactured from china in some or the other way. With the COVID – 19 pandemic, many factories in China are shut down. Major mass of businesses has stopped receiving goods from China, creating havoc and heavy disruption in the supply chain. Businesses shall experience a major drop in casual shopping as well as a drastic rise in the essential goods’ shopping that includes health products, groceries, and toiletries. Moreover, many foods delivering businesses, adapting to the situation, has started contactless deliveries for their services.
Demand for technical updates
Going online corresponds to going technical or better say, using technical tools. This year, there is a significant surge in the use of mobile phones and eventually mobile apps and games. The need for faster downloading speed has increased like never before. Studies indicate a 75% rise in the demand for bandwidth. The pandemic impact has also considerably boosted the consumption of online streaming services and television. Ecommerce business can advantage with a steadfast mobile application and other online services to meet the customer demands. As an online seller, you need to be sure that your online services are updated with the latest technologies to cope with the situation. Remember, the faster your customers can be happy with your online services, the faster is the rate of them being impatient for slow deliveries and low technical usage.
Innovation at its best
Every online seller was once an online shopper and you might have noticed the changes in the selling patterns as well as the product sold before and after the coronavirus outbreak. Every business now, no matter what their business niche was, has a separate section for selling essential products including variants of masks, sanitizers, gloves, and so on. As a business owner, you might also have thought of innovating your services to cope with the pandemic hit and survive in the ecommerce market. This year has indeed given a chance to all business enthusiasts to take their businesses a level up with innovation. Whatever the source of innovation be, the year has been fruitful to ecommerce businesses with the opportunity to communicate with customers through social media platforms, create brand awareness, and most essentially, provide customers with what they need during the need of the hour.
The virtual marketing
In such hard times, businesses are trying and must try to endeavour for their benefit. There is a huge increase in the attempts to virtually market products and services to customers in their comfort zones. People are now spending their maximum time on social media platforms and why not, they are not meant to go around taking a break from their daily routines! Online sellers have found a way to motivate customers to purchase their products or services online even when the pandemic has hit hard. One of the most successful ways is to do it is the way they like – videos! You can either create videos that they may or may not watch or interact with them via live videos, webinars, and tutorials. For instance, Builderfly Ecommerce Platform has sorted their marketing using the live webinars that they conduct every weekend. They are providing live tutorials that guide a user to use and sell more online using their platform. The icing on the cake is; all the webinars are completely free of cost. All interested people would only require registering from their website. Moreover, during this pandemic, our suggestion would be to go online with Builderfly; it can help you grow your business, establish your online presence, and sell more products without being a technical genius.
Conclusion
Determining the way out from the hurdles caused due to the coronavirus pandemic and keeping the products in stock are the only two factors that can help an ecommerce business strive through this outbreak brunt. With more and more customers staying home for work or studies, businesses can easily reach them through television advertisements, online advertisements, social media advertisements, and every place where they spend the majority of their time. The requirement of transparency in the services has increased than ever before. Considering the fears of your customers regarding the COVID – 19 outbreak, providing a transparent service including the estimated date of delivery, reasons for the delay of order, out-of-stock products, the safety measures your business takes, and such can help you earn some loyal customers for the long run. No matter how deep the coronavirus pandemic has affected the ecommerce business, it is already finding ways to start a new version of selling online. The year 2020 may have been depressing, but ecommerce has found their normal and will continue to grow as it did before.
