As the second wave of the pandemic kicks in businesses especially e-commerce businesses will have to rethink for the second time in a new year how they are going to survive during this period.
Nobody prepares for a pandemic and despite the increased wave and severity of the situation, you can see that there is an increase in the kind of traffic that goes to e-commerce websites. A critical example is that while global retail stores recorded a reduction in their sales e-commerce sites like Amazon and Walmart went up by up to 40% during the same. Many e-commerce businesses will benefit from this change in the buying habits of consumers.
For e-commerce companies and distributors, this can be a form of goodness but you need to remember that e-commerce businesses still have a lot to do. One of the most important things that can be done is to understand that the pandemic will change the way business is done. E-commerce businesses need to invest in a process that will keep them in business now and will not impact their ability to remain in business, long after the Pandemic is gone.
Consciously remind your customers that your e-commerce store exists.
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One of the things you should do is to consciously remind your customers that even if your physical store is closed your online store is open. By doing this, you remind your customers of your presence online and remind them that they should purchase from you. Having done that, you should expect to receive more customers on your e-commerce platform so you have to get ready.
Invest in Your Ecommerce Platform
You must invest in your e-commerce platform, your website, or your mobile application if you have one. If you don’t, now would be a good time to hire a website design and development company to create one for you. These website design and development agencies will help you create an identity and manage the system for you. Most of them offer web design for small businesses and can offer you competitive rates.
If you can maintain an in-house custom web design team, that would be great. That way, you can monitor, make edits, and apply all the results you have got from data from your business. A lot of businesses especially small retailers and small scale businesses might not be able to afford a development team permanently or the website and design company can always swing in and do a good job for your online platform.
If you sell household items you might not necessarily have a mobile app but you want to be sure that your website is working properly, has a good feel and look, and loads in record quick time. Website for small businesses can be a Savior in this particular time where everything is being held up by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Increase Your Digital Marketing
Another thing you can do as an e-commerce business is to increase your marketing. While you may be looking for ways to cut costs for your business, marketing is not one of those places where you should cut costs from. While the times are uncertain, it is a very good time to keep your digital marketing campaigns going. It is because eventually the pandemic will go and only companies that have their products in the marketing campaigns and social media platforms where people turn to again in the sleep after the pandemic or after the pandemic has passed. But you don’t have to wait till such a time. You can just hire a custom web development agency to create one for you.
This is because with an e-commerce store you can still channel with your e-commerce store and deliver the items after they have purchased them.
Improve on Your Technological Infrastructure
Another thing you have to happen during this period is that technological improvement has not necessarily been slowed down like all other businesses. So as an e-commerce site it will make a lot of sense to make all the necessary technological improvements to keep your site working.
What you can do is turn to a web design service for small businesses depending on the one you are subscribed to or even a custom web development company to carry out an audit of your e-commerce sites and make necessary adjustments and recommendations as necessary. Because one thing you want to avoid is the fact that people are turned away from your business because of a technological era the list of things you can do including rearranging the array you place and display your products making your e-commerce site easier to navigate and get better visuals for your products. All of this will lead to customer attraction and retention.
Understand Buy Trends and Act With the Information
Make a conscious effort to understand the trend that buyers will take on during this period. Subscribe to blogs that talk about consumer behavior, watch out for buying trends in the area, and make sure to learn how these trends can affect your business. In this way, you will learn what to stock in your store and what not to stock.
One of the other things to do during the pandemic will concern the way goods are delivered. Customers will express concern and rightly so about how they are going to get their goods and services. You must put out messages that show solidarity. Messages that outline all the processes that your store is taking to ensure that they accept the COVID-19 regulations.
After the Pandemic, customers will still be reluctant to return to regular shopping so the e-commerce infrastructure will still be very important. That is why it is necessary that when you are working with a website design and development company, you specifically request for it. That they set up the right technological infrastructure that will help you maintain your e-commerce platform, even when the pandemic is gone or very much subdued. Some web designers and developers for small scale business will understand these needs better and help you scale in the way that you want to, and at a minimal cost.
Set Up Your Customer Support
The customer support feature is another thing you should let the website design and development services add to your website. As people will be purchasing more online, you will need to guide them through the buying process. However, this will be through phone calls and chats. You can ask the web developers to create a bot that will respond to some frequently asked questions. On the other hand, you need to ask them to place a call feature that transfers your online buyers to your customer care line. That way, there is no break in their buying and they do not have to wait in a long queue to make the purchase that they want.
Secondly, this will necessitate that you will need a few more hands. If you have road sales representatives, this will be a good time to change their job description. You can ask them to work as customer care representatives as they handle the many calls taken. Let the website design and development company run a general tutorial so that they can understand the new e-commerce platform and guide your customers to where they are supposed to be or how to pick their products. This will keep you efficient both during and after the lockdown period.
Go International with Your Business
Selling to an international audience is another thing you should consider during this period. Ecommerce sites are open to the internet and can be seen from anywhere around the world. You must assess your e-commerce site to monitor the location of the traffic. There might be an opportunity to expand that you are ignoring.
The next thing to do once you have the data is that you will have to ask your custom web design development company to consider that. You will have to answer the question of deciding whether you need to translate the information on your site to a certain language where you seem to be getting a lot of traffic.
You also need to make sure that you have the right shipping infrastructure in place. This is important because your flight partners may disappoint, given the rate at which flights are being canceled. You should have more than one shipping partners so that you can properly hedge your business against any possible failure. The importance of free shipping cannot be overstated. It is important to include it in your service as it is a game-changer for most small businesses. Smartly negotiate a free shipping agreement with your partners so that you can still make your regular profits.
Consider Mobile Customers
One more thing you can ask the website design company for small scale business to look into is the usability of your website on the mobile interface. Most people will make their purchases via mobile phones and you don’t want your e-commerce site to be boring when they get one.
These are some of the things you can do as a small scale business during and after this Pandemic to keep your business going.
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