Covid-19 has already changed the way we do business
Business has changed in just a bit more than 2000 hours. Financial stock markets have undergone heavy turbulences. Businesses are struggling to adapt their logistical infrastructure to the rapid shift of consumer behaviour. Information is spreading uncontrollably at lightspeed. When chaos reigns, control seems unthinkable.
In this situation, people demand adequate responses from businesses. If they do not come up with ways of dealing with this situation, dissatisfaction will accumulate and customers are likely to turn their back on business.
Covid-19 and the digital challenge
It’s the business’s task to shift from panic to daily business and reassure customers of their capacity to adapt to a new reality. Digital is the tool and channel through which fast response and acting agile is possible. Digital the realm of opportunities. Businesses who already are positioned well in terms of digital have a good starting point. It is those who are not well prepared which will suffer from this situation. Let’s have a look what the coronavirus pandemic implies for two sectors: Retail and luxury.
Surviving retail
Retail has been shaken up since the beginning of the 2000’s: shifting needs and priorities of their customers, rethinking logistical chains and new modes of customer interaction with word of mouth at a global scale. The whole sector has performed a shift towards digital, setting the fertile ground for the emergence of dominant corporations such as Zalando and Amazon.
Once people take a habit, it’s hard to convince them to go back to the old: Ordering online has become normal since. In times of Covid-19 this will confront retail business with the challenge of delivering in time, since online ordering is very likely to increase. Delay will be inevitable. But the way businesses will respond will define their role in the future.
Competing in luxury
Even in times of distress, people still want to indulge in costly pleasures and make gifts for their loved ones. Even today it is rare to see a well-positioned luxury brand digitally. However, when people stay away from public spaces, the digital boutique becomes the most important point of contact with potential customers and an important asset in uphold relations with existing ones. Even if global consumption will fall, those luxury brands with a sound digital stance will be the winners of tomorrow.
How you can take back control
The marketing impact of coronavirus is remarkable. It will reward digital companies and punish those who are not ready. At Enigma, we believe that business can take back control by using opportunities the digital marketplace has to offer.
- Collaboration in an integrated digital workplace allows for working at a distance instead of a physical place
- A virtual market place where people can still see each other and distribute content
- Creating a Covid-19-customer journey to intervene at given touchpoints to respond to avoid client dissatisfaction created by a disruption by Covid-19
- Distribute content via influencer networks to create closeness with your audience and customers
- The digital department store, so that the goods still reach the people
- Reach your audience via digital advertising inform customers that food, goods and services can be delivered at a distance
- Develop a market plan to intercept all the people, whose plans have been affected by the pandemic
- Expand your offer and create value so that you do not have to cancel but can adapt at reasonable costs
In short: Adapt your distribution, improve your advertising, optimize your website, integrate interactive tools in your workflow, distribute the content to your target audience.
These changes might be temporary and level out with time. But we haven’t reached the peak and it is not foreseeable how long this state of exception is going to continue. In any case, if you’re fit for Covid-19, you’ll be for the time to come.
We’re happy to help you adapt to constantly shifting landscape. We’ll help you spread information, not the virus.
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