Business Changes that will remain post pandemic
December 8th, 2020 by Heather Maloney
I have been thinking about all the changes business has experienced this year due to the pandemic, and which changes I expect to stay with us, impacting business in the years to come. These are my thoughts – I look forward to hearing yours as well, so please add your comments below.
Ecommerce
Ecommerce has not just increased in volume, out of necessity, it has reached many new categories and people who weren’t comfortable with it before, are now buying online as their default method. I expect that we will still revert to preferring physical shopping for some things – clothing, for example (at least until you know your size in a particular brand), and when we want to have the “experience” of shopping. Bustling in amongst all the goodies, playing with potential gifts, admiring beautiful Christmas windows, and stopping for a coffee and something sweet in a cafe just can’t be replaced by online. Well, not yet anyway!
As a stop gap measure while international travel is nearly non-existent, some tourist destinations have ramped up their use of virtual reality to promote the destination and/or promote the safety of travel to their location, to would-be travellers. Of course, you need to own a VR headset in order to watch e.g. an Oculus Rift headset and HTC VIVE are popular. You can read more about tourism’s use of VR in this article: Coronavirus: Is virtual reality tourism about to take off?. I am not expecting everyone to rush out and start enjoying virtual reality, regardless of the pandemic [the surge in sales over the last year has been mostly driven by the release of a VR game, rather than the general public seeking out the technology]. I expect to see ecommerce websites will be seeking to bring as much of a feeling of having an “experience” into their online stores as they possibly can, to bring back the shopper again and again. This is particularly key for online stores with large numbers of items for sale.
Consolidation of brands (due to smaller businesses closing down as a result of the pandemic), and the move of consumers to online stores selling a wide range of products (e.g. Amazon) is being discussed as an outcome of the pandemic, particularly in America. However, that means your more tailored, unique, one-of-a-kind products will stand out much more than before.
The increase in ecommerce will also drive greater activity in all areas of digital marketing – email marketing, pay-per-click (PPC) ads, social media events and advertising. PPC was already increasing in price, I don’t expect that to change anytime soon. It will be important to continue to innovate in your use of digital marketing. Whether that’s introducing video into your ads to stand out from your competitors, looking for smaller keyword niches, targeting your ad spend more carefully…
Postal / Courier Delivery
The use of postal and courier services has also escalated alongside the rise in ecommerce, and we have become much more used to concepts such as click and collect, and ring and collect, options. Having parcels dropped at your home without signature is also very convenient. Unfortunately I expect that we will keep being impacted by slow mail deliveries for awhile to come, so we need to be more organised, planning further ahead for the things we need, if we don’t intend to go to the store.
Businesses will need to focus even more on delivery of their product, not just attracting buyers and getting the sale. Speedy delivery will stand out.
Shopping locally, as in really local, has gained more importance and people are more connected to the shops that are close to their homes, and wanting to support them. I expect people will continue to source staples as close to home as possible and support local traders.
How we Meet and Work
The rapid uptake of video conferencing for business meetings has been well documented, as is how sick people have become of being on yet another Zoom meeting. Whilst it is better to have video conferencing, rather than just a phone call, I expect that as soon as we can get back to physical meetings, we will. I believe that the long lasting effect of the pandemic is a greater acceptance of being able to meeting using video, rather than needing to fly to meet with someone. Travel bills for organisations should stay much lower than pre-pandemic levels. More people will be able to present over video, rather than in person at events. We will just accept video as a viable alternative.
Along similar lines, I expect to see greater support for employees who want to work from home, but most likely a hybrid model will operate, where all employees are at least a few days per week in the office. Whilst there are benefits to be enjoyed by working from home, I believe that the ideal for both work-life balance, and for productivity, is for everyone to be together in the one place. Gaining hours back in your day by avoiding a long commute is the most obvious benefit of working from home; I expect we will see a trend to choosing to live closer to work.
Prevailing Kindness
I have always tried to be kind and compassionate in business, and have from time to time been shocked into reality when others have operated in a very different way. However, I have noticed since the pandemic, a much greater dose of kindness and consideration in dealings with other businesses. People have been forced to take stock of what is really important in their lives, and relationships and their loved ones, and just looking out for one another, have come up trumps.
Of course, I want kindness and compassion to continue after the pandemic, and I definitely don’t want anyone to try and manufacture this into their DNA as part of a shallow marketing strategy. However, I do expect that organisations will do well when they operate with kindness, real feeling, treating people as people who might be having a difficult time of it …
I expect that relationships between people in businesses will again be given more importance when deciding who you want to work with as a client or as an employee.
Scrappiness – doing things with more speed, heart, and a little less professional finish – has become much more acceptable, even welcomed, by people both in B2C as well as B2B environments. Scrappiness enables businesses to be faster to market, and is often cheaper to execute.
Hygiene
I expect it will eventually wear off, but for the next 6 to 12 months (timeline depending on how long we continue to see big spikes in covid cases) people will continue to be mindful of hygiene – not touching anything and everything; regularly sanitising their hands when they enter stores; no handshakes / kisses on the cheek. Businesses will continue to build a good reputation by supporting people’s focus on hygiene – keep it top of mind and be considerate, provide the opportunity to use sanitiser at business entrance, lift wells and in toilets. Practice elbow bumps in favour of handshakes.
Focus on Innovation / Comfort with Change
As the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention. Businesses who pivoted during the pandemic will now be even more agile into the future, and more willing to implement significant change, quickly. Responding to the pandemic has helped business leaders and employees to build resilience and cope with change. The pandemic has also made it very clear how unexpected events, and government / societal response to them, can affect your ability to trade.
I expect that business leaders and employees alike will be more focused on innovation, and more willing to try something new and radical.
What else do you expect to remain as a result of the pandemic? Please add your thoughts via the comment form below.
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