COVID-19 has drastically impacted different factors of life across the globe. Either it is social interactions, individual lifestyles, cultural activities, economic, or government policies – everything has been in the influence of this pandemic.
As per the ongoing spread of COVID-19, it would be wrong to say that this global pandemic will likely end in the next five years.
Therefore, it has forced businesses around the world to evolve into different methods so that they can continue running. So, it has been changing situations for almost every business. Either it is a restaurant, food, fashion, electronics, or any other business – each of them has faced halts globally.
E-Commerce store increased global interactions
People are coming to terms across the globe due to interconnecting via online presence.
All over the world, shoppers have started to shop online more and more after the pandemic. Similarly, retailers have moved from listing bulk products from their storefronts to their websites. Thus, globally, shopping behaviors among consumers have changed as well.
With the impact of lock down, consumers are avoiding reaching markets for unnecessary shopping. People are normalizing limiting the shopping for unnecessary products and shopping for the essentials in the new normal now. However, the change in essentials and non essentials fluctuate over time and trends. This is why brands are adopting a flexible approach to meet customer demands.
Make the best decisions for your brand during COVID-19
This article is aimed to provide you with the right information and suggestions. By the end of this article, you will be able to make the best decision for your brand during such times.
In the sections below, this article contains some facts about how shoppers’ behaviors are changing, what products they are buying, and what methods retailers can opt for to continue selling.
How buying and selling behaviors are changing
The change in products and selling methods is very clear after the pandemic. As far as the products are concerned, they change as the demands vary. Like nowadays, retailers are buying medical supplies like sanitizers and masks for their e-commerce stores due to high demand. Thus, consumer demands change over time and needs.
What methods do retailers choose to continue selling during lockdown
This global virus has forced almost every business to start its e-commerce store. There are many ways available to start selling online. It all depends upon what scale your business is. It could be a large-scale enterprise or some medium or small business.
However, the following is a list of ways from which you can opt for anyone to start selling online.
- Social Media Platforms
- CMS Software
- Online Store Builders
Let’s read these methods in detail to know how they have given rise to online shopping during the lock down.
Social Media Platforms
This option is good for small-scale businesses. Many retail businesses have started selling via Facebook during the lockdown. Thus, you can create a Facebook page to start selling your products online. With the added features of social media, you can promote your products by setting the right demographics while marketing. This will help you target the right potential customers. Therefore, you can generate sales.
Similarly, the Instagram page can also act as an e-commerce store for small to medium retail businesses.
Their plus point is, you don’t have to have any technical knowledge to create and run Facebook for your store. But as per the industrial trends, enterprise-wide businesses do not solely depend upon such platforms. However, they are fine for small businesses.
CMS Software
CMS Software solutions like WordPress and Magento are very common in the IT world. Especially, they are very popular in the e-commerce industry. These software solutions are easily playable if you know how to set up and configure a website and its necessary plugins etc.
It’s not right to start urgently with CMS software if you don’t have any prior knowledge of setting up its plugins etc.
However, with a little understanding, knowledge, and experience; you can begin selling via these software solutions.
Online Store Builders
Online store builders are one of the widely used methods to start an e-commerce store. After lock down, when businesses could not run their storefronts, the use of website builders has highly increased.
There are many such software solutions available on the internet. Some are a bit hard to handle as they need some necessary third-party integrations for an e-commerce store. While some are perfect and specially built for the e-commerce industry. One such software is the 3S cart. It is an all-in-one solution and perfect for the e-commerce market. Besides that, it allows you to enhance your online presence on search engines. You can visit its website to better understand if it fits right for launching your brand online.
Benefits of e-commerce stores for merchants
The trend of online shopping has restricted unnecessary shopping but it has also provided merchants with many benefits. However, the following factors have been simplified with online stores.
- Products’ management and maintenance to be nicely displayed
- Staff recruitment
- Staff salaries
- Store’s maintenance costs
- Manual order management
All of the above hassles have been reduced with online stores. Also, you can sell products 24/7 with automatic order processing. Additionally, there are similar benefits that merchants enjoy, if their brand has an online presence, like reaching targeted customers and generating more sales.
Conclusion
As the above text states, COVID19 has greatly impacted businesses, workplaces, and industries all over the world. And still, there’s no certainty of the stop of its spread. Moreover, the global lock down has given rise to contactless shopping. Therefore, now online stores have been in trend more than ever.
Consequently, the e-commerce industry has been moving in a higher dimension due to lockdown. This is why the trend of online shopping has much increased.
