10 E-commerce Tips To Beat The Coronavirus Pandemic

solutions for e-commerce in coronavirus pandemic

The global spread of the Coronavirus has made a tremendous impact on every aspect of our life; e-commerce is not an exception. While most brick-and-mortar stores are being locked down, online businesses also witnessed dramatic changes, especially in consumer habits.

Due to the surge in demand, there is an ample opportunity for online stores that sell essentials (e.g., foods, medical supplies…) to increase their sales and revenue. The opposite side is proper for those that do business on the non-essential goods. 

This article will suggest some helpful tips to expand sales for e-stores with high demand, as well as practical solutions for the majority of e-commerce businesses to overcome this critical time.

How E-commerce Stores Respond To High Demand

  1. Plan & create omnichannel marketing
  2. Look for local suppliers
  3. Find more shipping options
  4. Manage inventory effectively
  5. Shift website homepage focus

1. Plan & create omnichannel marketing

Omnichannel marketing ecommerce

The habit of online shopping is not the same for a considerable number of online shoppers during the pandemic. Some people prefer purchasing directly on the websites, but others like buying on social networks (e..g.: Facebook, Instagram…). Therefore, promoting your products on various channels (social media, google ads…) will help increase brand awareness and boost sales.

2. Look for more suppliers

Your products play vital roles in the daily activity of your customers, so it is crucial to provide them sufficiently throughout the crisis. Nevertheless, many countries (China, the US, UK, New Zealand,…) have informed the national lockdowns, which stops the manufacturers from conducting international trading. Consequently, your supply chains are not guaranteed if your goods are imported from international sources.

To deal with this case, you should consider working with several local vendors as a temporary solution to the pandemic. Or, you can think of product imports from other countries. For example, assuming that you were selling fruits supplied by Chinese providers, it might be good to import your fruits from Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines instead.

3. Find more shipping options

manage shipping in pandemic

Some shipping carriers are limiting resources in certain areas, leading to delay in delivery to your buyers. Hence, preparing a list of shipping carriers for your business is necessary to make sure that your products will reach your customers on time, even in severe circumstances.

 4. Manage inventory effectively

Among the peak time of the pandemic, managing your inventory tightly will help avoid order cancellation due to out-of-stock products. Moreover, too many unfulfilled orders might influence your brand reputation.

inventory management

If your products are in high demand, you may consider renting more warehouses. Since the cost of renting a place seems to be going down because of the hitting of the pandemic, occupying more storage is a rational option.

5.  Shift website homepage focus

Another piece of advice for e-commerce stores is to determine what people often purchase and then re-organize categories to make the best-selling items stand out. Also, the owners can build some simple landing pages to promote specific products and get higher total traffic to the site.

It’s worth noting that merchants should focus more on the items that are easy to be packed and ship.

How Online Stores Deal With Low Demand

  1. Improve your site performance
  2. Keep advertising during the pandemic
  3. Stay connected with your buyers.
  4. Launch alternative products
  5. Hiring temporary employees

1. Improve e-commerce site performance

e-commerce website improvement

On the one hand, loyal customers could see the positive upgrade of the website and feel more attached to the brand. On the other hand, seamless site performance will attract potential guests even if this number is inconsiderable during the Coronavirus outbreak.

When the crisis is over, your e-commerce business will be ready to come back with the highest website performance and a high level of customer satisfaction.

2. Keep advertising during the pandemic

Because of dropping sales, your priority is probably cutting the cost, especially the advertisement fees. However, it would be more harm than good since your customers may forget you when the Coronavirus pandemic is over. You should keep sending them emails about your store updates or promotions as usual. 

tips for businesses corona

In the dull quarantine period, many people spend more time on their mobile phones and applications. Hence you are highly recommended to run the advertising on mobile apps to reach more target audiences. 

Another suggestion is to create a marketing campaign that will donate part of its revenue to the isolated areas where doctors, nurses, and volunteers… are attempting to save lives. This campaign is a great way to contribute to your community while also gaining positive attention to your brand. 

3. Stay connected with customers

During the Coronavirus pandemic, it would be harder to communicate with your buyers at the physical store. How about integrating the 24/7 live chatbox directly on your site to interact with the customers?

How Coronavirus is Impacting E-commerce

Another exciting idea is adding a COVID-19 FAQs page on your website for two reasons:

Firstly, the popular topic of Coronavirus/COVID- 19 somehow increases traffic to your website.

Secondly, it helps to build up the trust of customers in your brand. Specifically, they would have the feeling that your brand deeply cares about buyers. Isn’t it engaging to find helpful health information while visiting an online store?

4. Launch alternative products

You can change what your business is providing to adapt to the current market demand.

ideas for ecommerce business coronavirus

Let’s think of the products that are closely related to your current ones. For example, if you have traded sports equipment for years, you should pay more attention to the home gym equipment since social distancing keeps people away from the gyms.

5. Hire temporary employees

A lot of people have lost their jobs due to the spread of Coronavirus disease. However, after the next 3-4 months, the labor market might be bustling again. The returning of companies will boost recruitment to high demand.

Therefore, offering part-time positions to your full-time staff in your company, instead of firing them, would not only ease the salary burden but also hold the experienced team with you. As a result, your e-commerce business might avoid the labor shortage after the crisis is over.

When Will The Coronavirus Pandemic Be Over?

No one can know how long the Coronavirus pandemic will last. Therefore, it’s urgent to find solutions to handle current e-commerce challenges and prepare for the future.

To support online businesses in overcoming this challenging time, Tigren is offering an attractive discount (up to 30%) on many of our services:

  • New e-commerce website development
  • Website performance optimization
  • Web platform migration
  • Progressive web app development
  • Mobile app development

Contact us ([email protected]) to get helpful advice and the best deals for your store!

Read more:

9 Online Shopping Trends That Will Change eCommerce in 2022

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