The COVID-19 pandemic has been incredibly difficult for local businesses who rely on footfall and passing trade to survive, or who may be focused on orders solely from within their local community. With coronavirus changing demand for certain products and services, here are some of the top ways that local businesses can keep up and continue to give their customers the best service possible amid this drastic change to the way that they are run.
Create an Online Shop
The first step that local businesses should take is to set up an online store, especially if demand for brick-and-mortar stores continues to fluctuate even as the pandemic recedes. An online store will enable you to continue to run your company and to provide your customers with the products that they are looking for regardless of the latest restrictions. This will also enable you to serve people in the wider community and even on a national level, and to cope more easily with the number of sales that you are making.
Hire an Order Fulfillment Company
If you have recently set up an online store, you will know how difficult it can be to fulfill orders, especially if the coronavirus pandemic has led you to open up an online store for the first time. Then, to make sure that you can meet your customer’s expectations every time, you should consider hiring an order fulfillment company. By outsourcing this, you will be ensuring that you can get all of your orders out on time as well as complete your other responsibilities, no matter how much strain is being put on your online services. If you are interested in product fulfillment, click here to be taken to Reg Stag Fulfillment’s site.
Find New Income Streams
One of the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic is that it has cut demand for certain products while also leaving you unable to provide many different types of in-person services. If this is the case, you should consider attempting to find new income streams that could pad out your cash flow and ensure that you can survive during this difficult time. This can help you to cope while your main stream of income fails to be in-demand. For instance, you might instead offer online services, such as online workshops on Zoom, as well as different products that match the latest trends, such as loungewear within the fashion world.
Communicate with Customers
If you are struggling to cope with changing demand, the main direction that pressure will be coming from is your customers – dissatisfied patrons will flock to complain to your customer service team. To prevent the team from being overwhelmed and to ensure that you can retain customer loyalty, you should make sure that you maintain regular communication with customers about your business’s situation through updates and posts on social media and by email.
Manage Your Cash Flow
Poor finances are one of the top reasons why businesses fail not just during the pandemic, but every year. However, the pandemic has led to a change in demand from shops, with businesses seeing a fluctuating number of orders throughout the year. This can easily destabilize your cash flow. You should learn to manage this by creating an emergency fund, encouraging purchases through sales and incentives and by using an accountancy app to track and cut down on your expenses until shops and businesses can start to reopen in full.
