Pivots your eCommerce business should make, post-COVID

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the way we do business. For eCommerce companies especially, the challenges caused by the virus meant shake-ups in day-to-day operations while meeting changing customer needs.

When the virus finally begins to ebb, eCommerce companies will need to pivot—or continue to pivot—to meet the needs of a changing economy. Luckily, however, the pandemic should have been great practice for a flexible digital business strategy.

While the coronavirus continues to affect businesses in Colorado and across the world, you can analyze and apply the following strategies to enhance your eCommerce approach.

Here’s what you should know.

1. Embrace Remote Work

The trend towards remote work for all kinds of employees does not appear to be going away anytime soon. According to a poll by Gartner, at least 48% of employees will likely work remotely at least part-time after the pandemic, making digital collaboration an essential aspect of any business approach.

Modern eCommerce companies need to fully embrace remote work and accept that it isn’t going away anytime soon. Instead, the tools, policies, and practices needed to make remote work efficient should now be defined and honed.

This means training employees in digital communication tools, setting clear communication expectations, and implementing goal-oriented tasks that employees can thrive with under little supervision.

2. Streamline Management

Ensuring your success in the uncertain economic conditions to come will be contingent on your ability to streamline all aspects of your management style. This includes changing employment norms, shifting customer concerns, reducing costs, and improving systems at every turn.

For example, many companies are moving away from full-time workers and opting for a workforce of contractors or contingent employees instead. This can save companies serious cash since this method ensures you only pay for necessary work.

At the same time, the nature of roles within a company is changing as well. Now, the emphasis is on adaptable skillsets and creative encouragement. Empower your workers to offer suggestions and make changes as needed to maintain productivity.

3. Construct a Social Safety Net

The pandemic has seriously shaken up norms in terms of accommodations made for employees. Lately, many businesses have taken a much more flexible and humanistic approach to navigate employee needs and wellness. Such empathy and accommodations will be expected from post-COVID workplaces.

The best way you can support your workers is to institute policies of care and flexibility. This means a supportive social safety net that offers access to resources from healthcare to childcare.

There are many ways an eCommerce company can go about providing these—from insurance plans to simply understanding employee’s needs. Either way, the productivity and success of an eCommerce company are dependent on its ability to improve employees’ health and well-being—now and into the future.

4. Enhance Marketing Efforts Through Social Media

The success of eCommerce companies is also tied with their marketing success, which relies on content and social media. These two tools—often used hand-in-hand—allow for greater outreach and customer engagement where customers increasingly live: online.

The use of content marketing, for example, is a growing necessity. With unlimited search engine optimization (SEO) and visibility offered by a quality content marketing approach, eCommerce businesses must be on top of crafting content for the digital age, whether that be through video or social media.

The popularity of video content on platforms like Instagram and TikTok is exploding all the time. For small businesses looking to grow in a post-pandemic world, using social media platforms to disseminate your content is an absolute must. Analyze your media demographics to create the best possible messaging for your social media pages. Although utilizing these social media platforms will inevitably improve your marketing campaign, going more digital will also require more security steps as well.

5. Focus on Changing Customer and Employee Needs

The future of digital business will require changes to maintain the safety of data and efficiency of results. The pandemic has caused a massive increase in cyber attacks, creating a huge demand for trained cybersecurity professionals. At the same time, expanding internet services to rural users is a necessity for growing online businesses.

Luckily, a group of some of the top business leaders in Colorado has come together to project a “road to recovery.” This plan calls for better technology training as well as resources across Colorado that will help citizens navigate challenges. ECommerce companies can emulate this plan to increase their chances of success.

By striving to train or hire employers with advanced technological skills, eCommerce businesses can build in the kinds of security and innovative ability to survive any economy. Supporting efforts to increase broadband access can help in these endeavors.

While the pandemic brought substantial changes to business processes, eCommerce companies can pivot for success in the post-COVID world. This will entail embracing the changes that have already occurred while managing a flexible and empathetic work environment for your workers.

ECommerce decision-makers can start now by analyzing and re-evaluating their business processes. Remember, a people-first approach may be the best way to achieve the results you want from the post-pandemic economy.