The whole world has been trembled by the COVID-19 pandemic, with almost every individual and business affected. While Government authorities are working to keep their people safe, economies are working hard to stay stable. Every small business around the world has been challenged economically, being enforced to adapt to new forms of selling.
Nearly, every country was locked down to restricted crowding to break the chain of COVID-19 infection. With lockdown, it is apparent that organizations across the world have encountered a major loss in business. Businesses that are specifically dependent on manual brick-and-mortar style of business have seen the greatest impact.
As we find the way through this coronavirus pandemic and prepare for its end, there are many other ways and techniques that eCommerce businesses can strategize to create the most out of their situation. Let’s go through five useful tips that can direct your eCommerce development business to enhance sales during and after COVID-19.
Regulate Your Marketing Strategy
The first thing you should have done once the pandemic started was run through your current marketing messaging and get rid of whatever is inappropriate or irrelevant. If you haven’t looked through all of your scheduled campaigns, email marketing, and social media posts to determine what needs to be eliminated or altered.
Here Are the Biggest Digital Marketing Success Stories During the COVID Crisis & What to Learn From Them.
It’s also a good idea to consider how you can incorporate distancing or health safety into your existing marketing while keeping relevancy. As we move closer to the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, we may be able to swing back to normal, but you should stay alert about how you’re communicating to existing and potential customers. You can utilize these approaches:
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- Your messaging should be precise regarding the pandemic.
- Adopt a compassionate tone, as many customers may also be going through difficulties at this time.
- Avoid making jokes about the circumstances or approaching the pandemic with unfortunate humor.
- Don’t be serious all the time as a lot of people want a smile during these times. If your eCommerce business can deliver that, customers will always remember you.
You must not use the pandemic as an excuse to promote your products. As an alternative, motivate yourself how you can assist with your services, instead of capitalizing on an unfortunate situation. It may be alluring to boost your sales this way, but customers can tell when you are taking advantage of a hard time.
If you’re running PPC campaigns, you need to keep them updated regarding your inventory. You don’t need to market products that are obsolete or out of stock. You can pause or lower the budget of your paid ad campaigns if you’re struggling financially due to the pandemic. Fortunately, you can still promote your eCommerce business for free by employing SEO services. Let’s talk about that.
Improve Your SEO
Your business must be optimized for search engines if you have an online presence. During the pandemic, it’s significant that your eCommerce business performs high up on search engines when customers search for your products or services. You can’t depend on customers walking past your physical store through the pandemic, so you need to recompense for that lost traffic with improved online traffic.
People are shopping online during the pandemic more than ever before, and there’s no sign that this trend will be ending once the pandemic is over. However, SEO looks different during the pandemic for small businesses selling unnecessary items. Searchers are now looking for answers to news and health-related queries instead of products.
This is not about that Search engine optimization is not important for small businesses, it means that you have to take a different approach to optimization. SEO is an extremely complex topic with many unpredictable factors and approaches, so let’s discuss some most important things you should optimize for during and after the pandemic.
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- Increase your page and site load speed. This makes it simpler for customers to rapidly navigate your store and find the products you want and also helps you rank higher. SEO agencies should aim to search terms associated with COVID-19 if they are appropriate to your eCommerce business. Many more people are using search engines to look for information on the pandemic instead of other channels.
- Create and revise evergreen content within your niche. This will remain appropriate over time irrespective of the current trend and develop trust among your base, sooner or later turning interested visitors into customers.
- Update and optimize your Google My Business listing for local search. If you have an open physical business, this helps searchers locate your business as it appears upon “near me” and “open now” inquiries. On the other hand, if you’ve had to close your physical business, you can use local search to guide users to your online store.
- No SEO and social media marketing strategy would be whole without tracking your progress. Utilize the main eCommerce development solutions and metrics in Google Analytics to comprehend the impact of your optimizations.
Reconsider Your Offering
It’s no secret that the inception of COVID-19 has transformed the way we live our lives every day. And you cannot overlook this situation when it comes to your potential customers. Some products you sell might be inappropriate to their requirements, while others may be more significant than ever.
You may be selling products or services that aren’t relevant to your customers anymore in the pandemic. For example, you may be offering travel or live event accessories, but as traveling and live events are very limited due to the pandemic, so you may not be selling any of those which are not relevant. To adapt to this and alleviate any dropped sales, you need to take out those products or modify them in a way that can fit at-home use.
Alternatively, once things start moving back to normal, you may find that some of the products you added to your store are no longer required by your customers. Many online stores have now started selling medical supplies, such as face masks and hand sanitizer, once the pandemic began to meet a requirement in the market. Once the pandemic begins to loosen up, decide if those products are still relevant to sell and if they should become permanent kinds of stuff in your portfolio.
However, you should add only those products to your catalog if it makes sense for your eCommerce business. Whether customers need assistance processing a return or finding a relevant product that they want, expanding the reach of your customer service can make a big difference.
Here are some ways that you can expand your customer service during and after the COVID-19 pandemic:
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- Offer extended customer service office timings. This can help structure the fact that customers cannot see you physically.
- Use additional channels to boost your online support. Maintain accessibility on multiple channels, including phone, email, live chat, and even on social media.
- Generate more resources for self-service support. Assemble a complete knowledge base, glossary, How-To tutorials, and more to assist customers.
- Be honest about estimated wait and delivery times. This is significant if your staff has been working from home or limited due to the pandemic. Delivery times have also been deferred around the world, to notify customers how you’re handling this issue.
Communicate with Customers
During and after the pandemic, you should regularly interact with your users. Businesses and customers are both going through many changes in their life, whether it’s a financial struggle or a change of routine. As per the research, 43% of consumers find it comforting to hear from brands that they know and trust during this time.
Make use of your messaging channels, including social media, to update customers about what’s changing with your eCommerce business. This consist of the following:
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- Will all products still be offered?
- Are you discontinuing delivery to any countries or areas?
- Will there be any production delays?
- What is the revised estimated delivery time for products?
- What services are persistent as the pandemic loosens up?
By opening up a channel of communication with your customers, you can find out what changes or modifications they’d like to see your business make and respond to that valued feedback. Make them aware that you care beyond just a customer’s wallet, and that you’re really concerned about how you can help them in a meaningful manner.
Start Planning Ahead
If you had no disaster plan in position before the pandemic, then your eCommerce business might have caught unexpectedly and suffered consequently. There’s no better time to start planning on how you’ll be approaching the rest of the pandemic and how you will be returning to normal once it is finished.
Obviously, the pandemic has been unpredictable, with lockdowns starting off and ending up quickly. It’s difficult to plan with particular dates for reopening, so give your plan space to alteration if the situation varies at all. Even though we all want to enhance sales, we also don’t want to drop sales either – watch out for what your eCommerce business is doing at the moment and track down any weak points.
To initiate your plan, execute an audit of your business. Where are you dropping or gaining sales? and where have you stagnated? Determine how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted your business as a whole and take actions to alleviate the damage. Focus on these important components:
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- Remote employee efficiency and association
- Interrupted supply chains and processes
- Tax and trade concerns due to lockdowns
- Brand response to COVID-19
- Suspended projects and campaigns
- New projects that focus on staff and customer needs
- Emergency funding and debt-relief contributions
You also need to keep an eye on how imminent your country is in its economy and travel, as this can directly influence your eCommerce business during and after the pandemic. The decisions of your country’s government can impact the decisions of your business too, so stay alert of all changes.
Conclusion
As case figures increase in some countries and drop in others, it’s tough to predict when the COVID-19 pandemic will stop challenging the world. However, there are chances that your eCommerce business can alleviate losses and enhance sales during and after the pandemic. By meeting new customer requirements, communicating frequently, planning efficiently, regulating marketing strategies, and focusing on SEO, your eCommerce business can make the best out of this challenging situation.
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