The UK is now a few weeks into the lockdown period, as the government responded to the COVID-19 outbreak, and the profound effects this measure has taken on everyone’s thinking is becoming clearer.
Naturally, we were all shocked. We probably had the same conversations with family, friends and colleagues. It’s given us a lot of time for thinking. Possibly too much. And the actions we’re taking are becoming a little clearer.
Those actions on our spending patterns have also begun to show some interesting insights.
The current trading climate for many industries is a brutal but simple one to understand – people don’t have the choice to spend. But eCommerce is different. It’s not so cut and dry.
For some eCommerce businesses, it’s a time to capitalise and be extremely busy. Many people have focused on the essentials during the lockdown period, and in keeping with the Government’s advice on unnecessary travel, it makes sense to buy online and have them delivered safely where possible.
There are also positive figures shared for businesses selling products for the home, in particular, to help facilitate home working for obvious reasons. There are also some encouraging numbers for fitness products, technology and gardening to name a few.
For others, the picture is clearly not so rosy, even though the choice is still with the customer. As people turn their attention to making home life more comfortable, products to be enjoyed outside of the home aren’t quite so important right now. For example, the fashion industry probably isn’t top of that list. Let’s face it, you’re probably not so concerned about new clothes for a quick trip to the supermarket! And it’s obvious that travel-related products aren’t so high on the list either, with planes grounded for the foreseeable.
In response to this unprecedented period for most industries, action has taken a back step and thinking has taken over. That thinking, initially, has to be focused on planning the best way to make it through this painful period. But future planning shouldn’t be ignored, even if the light at the end of the tunnel seems a way off.
Some of that thinking, planning and strategy will be impossible to carry out as we just won’t know the exact landscape of each industry in the coming months. This will naturally unfold and will require careful evaluation of the best next steps to take.
But in the short term, there are still so many positive actions to be taken for eCommerce businesses. There is no shortage of great technologies that can help positively impact many areas of a store’s vital stats. Also, technologies that fit into the wider ecosystem of eCommerce that can make the operation more streamlined, efficient and ultimately more profitable. Reviewing user experience and analysing analytic information is a key activity that can be carried out. Competitor analysis, both in terms of the user experience and online marketing is a vital activity. The opportunities to review are vast.
Compiling data for future implementation can assist massively when the time comes. When the landscape is fully revealed, to be able to quickly create a plan of action, this information will be vital.
This is where Deploy can help. As eCommerce specialists, we have over a decade’s experience in technology selection, front end usability and digital marketing. As a growth specialist, we’ve helped small and large businesses transform their online performance over time. During this tricky period of time, we’d like to offer our assistance to eCommerce businesses who are using their time to forward plan.
How are we still working?
Our business is fully set up to deal with situations like this, we use a combination of softphones (external) and internal communication tools such as slack, StandUply etc. All customer tickets go through Service Desk which we can access remotely from anywhere.
Access to secure data? Yes, this is also possible, we use a password manager called 1Pass, this keeps all credentials nice and secure, but importantly for times like this, we can access them from anywhere too!
Notice the theme? The quality of service will not change and we can continue to work as normal, except for face to meetings of course. But we love video conferencing. (We can’t promise you won’t get any expected attendees though, expect to see the odd dog, small child etc)
If you need any advice in regards to working remotely, get in touch we are happy to share our knowledge where we can!
