The world is caught under the deadly spell of COVID-19 and while we find a way to break out of it, we must put this time for good use like re-thinking our habits towards mother nature, re-shaping our lifestyle, and recognizing some digital ways to transform the shopping experience for customers. Since the first two is upon you and we can’t do anything to help, there are some points you can take note of for the third one which if implemented, will without a doubt take your business to the next-level post-COVID.
The Effect Of Coronavirus on Business
The global pandemic is not just a health disaster but has shaken us to the core in all terms – physically, mentally, socially and the worst – economically. The one which was considered to be a common flu virus is continuing to create irreparable losses all over the world. We are losing lives, many sectors like education, entertainment, travel have come to halt, businesses are shutting down, all with no clue when will be back to normal.
What if this going to be the new normal? Now people are accepting the fact that we have to live with it and its time to make the changes as per COVID-19 to stay alive and keep going with our lives. From small to large scale businesses including online ones experienced the devastating effect of COVID-19 during the lockdown and have understood the need to reform themselves to survive the crisis. So, instead of cursing COVID-19, how about mapping a business strategy to live with it and prepare for the future ahead? Ready?
Keep Calm and Embrace Digitalization
Offline businesses were the worst affected due to lockdown because when shops were shut, people flocked towards online to procure products and services, therefore; first of all, you got to understand that it is a myth that getting online is an expensive affair or is a waste of time and money. We are living in a digital world and half of our day-to-day activity is becoming online, hence; when your customers are hanging out there online, it is important for you to to build your online presence in order to reach out to them and to survive the crisis as well as the competition in the coming future.
COVID-19 Impacts on Shopping Habits
Shutdowns and stay-at-home, the need for social distancing, fear of the spread of the virus, all of these have caused a significant change in the consumer behaviour on how, what, and why they buy. Even if the stores have reopened, consumers fear to return to crowded stores. The changing buying behaviour has made ecommerce a more necessary part of any business.
Therefore, the need for investing in a gripping digital experience is becoming more obvious for the post-pandemic phase and we are going to list out how you can create one such captivating online multivendor marketplace software solution of yours.
Steps to Create the Best Digital Shopping Experience for Your Customers
No one can predict when the world will be free from the pandemic and even if we become hopefully soon, digital transformation has become the need of the hour. It is high time to implement new technologies into businesses as people are becoming more and more tech-savvy and soon online shopping will be more like a habit to all. Therefore, if you wish your business to escalate and stand strong in the future, it’s time to become digitally mature.
- Get ready as with more people shopping online and businesses thinking to get online, you need to have a digital experience that stands out from the crowd. Create a customer-centric, rich, and compelling shopping experience as it is what captures and holds customer’s attention and encourages them to come back for more.
- Don’t forget to personalize experiences as it will connect your customers emotionally. Product recommendation, ratings, reviews, and feedback, push notifications, all such features will make your customers feel wanted.
- Find ways to keep your customers engaged as the engagement with your brand will positively impact brand perception and help them better understand your products and services and will also provide you with some tangible benefits, like increasing conversion rates and customer loyalty.
- For those already having an online presence, take time to access the current state of it. Take care of needed repairs and declutter before any unwanted thing becomes a security concern, make sure all your technology is updated and still providing value and try to improve your digital property to create a rich and compelling shopping experience.
- Keep a close watch on your competitors. Take note of how they are bringing their brand experience to life? How are they positioning their products? What tools and tactics are they using to increase conversions and retention rates? Don’t try to imitate them just think of how you can be a step ahead.
- Mobile readiness is a must. With mobile traffic outgrowing others, your mobile presence is must and it got to be appealing to customers in all manner as you don’t want to miss the wide customer network on mobile.
- Ensure the site speed of your online multi-vendor marketplace software solution is up to the mark and don’t forget to conduct a CRO (conversion rate optimization) audit to check upon what is making or breaking the conversions across your ecommerce site.
- Keep an eye on web analytics and gather data about the user journey — like abandoned carts or bounce rate to improve the customer experience.
- Display and list out your products systematically, make product search easy, navigation of the whole site smooth, and a quick and simple checkout process as all these directly impacts the consumer behaviour.
- Relevant and fresh content in the form of text, visual, or multimedia is a great way to engage your customers while they’re on your site and even return for more.
- Make your marketing game strong be it e-mail or on social media, try to reach out and be in touch with your customers all the time to make them feel how much they matter to you.
What We Mean to Say….
COVID-19 is bringing a big change in the shopping habit of consumers which is going to directly impact the success of a business, hence; it is necessary to transform accordingly so as to survive the competition. If consumers are migrating to online shopping due to the fear of future outbreaks, you must too gear up and get online without wasting any more time thinking whether it will be profitable or not.
Building a remarkable digital experience now is necessary and will give you more returns than every penny you will be investing without a doubt. Therefore, it is time to give your shoppers an outstanding digital experience in the form of b2b ecommerce software solution or an online multivendor marketplace software solution from the top-notch ecommerce website and mobile app Development Company.
Author Bio:
Rakesh Jain is CEO and Co-founder of MobiCommerce that is top-notched eCommerce website and mobile commerce Development Company offers a full-fledged range of eCommerce and mobile commerce development service and solution that create a success story. He and his enthusiastic team help retailer in bringing everything in one place for gearing up your multivendor store at a glance.
