COVID-19 to Bring Changes in Commerce: Are You Ready?

Coronavirus (COVID-19) is having sweeping effects on the way people are living their lives. Major gatherings like the Coachella Festival and South by Southwest have been cancelled. The stock markets took a massive dive and remain unstable. And imports from China have diminished, affecting the inventories of many important industries here in the US.

These trends are going to progress as the pandemic continues to get worse. More people are working from home. The public is becoming increasingly wary of going places where there is a high probability of encountering large groups of people.

This is already affecting concerts and sporting events. Retail and other places of consumer spending will see dips in sales as public unease grows. Many retailers began closing stores in China early on in the outbreak. This tendency is projected to grow. Businesses are placing great emphasis on protecting both their employees and their customers from the spread of the virus.

This is going to change the way consumers spend their money. Are you prepared for the changes this will bring?

Ecommerce Viability

The decreased willingness to visit a physical store isn’t going to diminish people’s needs. They will still spend but the way this is done will evolve. Internet shopping is already a popular means of purchasing certain items. This tendency is going to increase.

Are you positioned to accommodate this?

An easily-navigated and reliable ecommerce platform is going to be essential as people become less willing to travel into physical stores. Ecommerce web design requires planning and expert execution to align your items in a way that doesn’t discourage the visitor.

These necessities can be put into place if you are not currently set up to support online sales.

Contact the experts at Horton Group to optimize your ecommerce capabilities.

User Experience Infrastructure

Customers like being helped. And a business is accustomed to helping customers when they enter their physical store. This level of service needs to be transitioned to the online experience as well.

A simple contact form isn’t going to do the trick. There needs to be contact numbers that go to actual people during a set period of the day. Business hours can apply to your ecommerce shop just as they would for a physical shop.

Customer support closes sales. Open questions leave the customer unsure, and people don’t purchase products when they are unsure. Have someone there to guide them through their questions and explain why your product or service will fulfill their needs.

Responsive Website

While we’re examining your website design, you should try to be sure your website is responsive. This means your website adjusts to the various sizes of screens your customers are using to view it.

However, there’s more to a responsive website that simply giving it the capability to resize pictures and chunks of text. It involves making your website faster and easier to use.

Not only will this keep your ecommerce customers on your site by making their experience easier, it helps your website’s SEO rankings. This will get your website more views from the many people searching the internet for the items they previously bought in person.

And just like the ecommerce considerations we discussed above, we can help you achieve these results at Horton Group.

Discoverable Content

Search engine optimization (SEO) is how potential customers find you even if they’re not looking for you. Search engine algorithms are constantly looking for ways to provide relevant search results to their users. SEO helps your website reach the top of these results.

These leads are beneficial because they already have an interest in your industry. Getting them to your page is the only way to harness their buying potential.

Search traffic rules the internet these days. And if you aren’t catching your share of it, you will be drowned out in the cacophony of options.

Are you set up to maximize this potential?

Horton Group offers everything from specialized blog posts to optimization of your web page copy. These tactics produce results. And you need to use every tactic you can to attract the growing number of online customers.

Logistics Concerns

There are many ways you can get your products in the hands of your customers. The size and type of product you offer will dictate which service works best for you. Whether it’s simple USPS shipping or something more specialized, you want to be sure you have this figured out as thoroughly and quickly as possible.

Completing a sale is only half of the job. Then you have to deliver. You need to be sure you can handle the increase in online sales if you expect your traffic to pick up. And if you set yourself up for success by addressing the above concerns, your traffic is going to pick up.

Call Today

Call Horton Group for help with your COVID-19 considerations today. Set up a virtual consultation with a web design and marketing consultant. We’ll help you put together a plan for addressing these concerns to put you in the best possible position to navigate the evolving consumer habits.

COVID-19 is going to continue to change the way customers interact with businesses. It’s in your best interest to stay on top of all the shifting trends and set yourself up for future success. Public unease is going to continue to grow and this will affect the way we think about concerts, sporting events, and consumer spending.