What Does Coronavirus (COVID-19) Mean For Yor Business

by | Marketing

Coronavirus (COVID-19) is rapidly taking the whole world hostage. Health concerns are rising for everyone, especially the elderly, the stock market has been destroyed, and e-commerce is… well, on the rise! By the end of this article, you will have a better grasp of how COVID-19 may affect your business and what you should be prepared for.

1. Brace Yourself

The United Kingdom, United States, Spain, France and so forth are all under lock downs, restrictions and quarantines. Restaurants, shopping centers, retailers, nightclubs and all “non essential businesses” are closed. Only supermarkets and medical stores are open to provide the population. The same population is doing its best to abandon their habits and to convert to the new rules. As of the release date of this article Italy has been on lockdown for almost 6 weeks. That’s 6 weeks of consumers being unable to purchase products in store. 

As the general population avoids physical locations to avoid getting infected with the virus, online store sales have seen a considerable growth being the direct result of the quarantine.

When looking at China’s case, which has been dealing with the quarantine for over 2 months by now, JD (China’s largest online retailer) quadrupled their sales of common household staples when taking last year in comparison. 

But then, shouldn’t the same happen to e-commerce in the western world?

2. E-commerce Sales Increase

People still want to buy! Yes, our lives changed as we all are quarantined, but people that buy clothes in a physical store will shift towards online shopping. My father’s birthday is coming very soon, and I am still buying him something, but I will buy it online instead of getting it in the physical store. People will not stop consuming (or the economy will crumble!), they will adapt the way they consume and prioritise online stores. See the “positive” side, from now, people will spend more time watching YouTube or on social media which is a great opportunity for e-commerce to be heard and seen.  With our clients accounts we are noticing tremendous increase in search volumes across Google too. People are searching more and more online for the products they want to buy.
As a result of the stores closing and onlines sales becoming the only option more and more businesses are advertising online. In the coming weeks we could see more than double the amount of business advertising online. This will have an impact on the price of ads, they will go up. The time to act is now, especially if you have not advertised online before. As always you will need to keep a close eye on your ROAS (return on ad spends) – how much money you make back from advertising. Over the next few weeks the cost of advertising online is likely to be volatile. 

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3. Supply Chain Issues

While we’ve been  increasing marketing budgets and sales for some clients we’ve had to decrease for others. It all comes down to how much stock they have. Client A has his warehouse full which will last him for a long period. On the other hand, client B cannot be restocked due to the supply chain being heavily affected by the coronavirus in China. Your advertising spend needs to match your stock levels and capacity at this difficult time. 

Our clients are not the only ones affected, many manufacturing companies in Asia or Europe completely stopped producing their products due to the COVID-19 outbreak which leaves much e-commerce with stock issues. 

Take a second and assess your stock situation. You should think about spending your digital marketing budget accordingly.

Important – With the proliferation of online shopping it is inevitable that the delivery time will be delayed and you should be proactive and let your clients know. The delivery companies are not shaped to take care of so many deliveries, specially right now, therefore, the delivery time will certainly be longer temporarily.

4. Save Your Brand

It is better to be proactive and let your customers know from the beginning that the delivery time may be longer than expected, instead of apologising afterward when the harm was already made. Remember that customers that have an awful experience are 8 times more likely to talk about it through a review, and believe us, most of the clients will not care that the COVID-19 negatively affected your supply chain.  Moreover, we cannot stress it enough, be proactive and inform your customers of the consequences of the virus. It will heavily reinforce your brand’s reputation and encourage your customers to be loyal. Evana’s Advice – Customers may be worried to buy online products as the delivery and other factors may affect the product getting to them. Don’t hesitate to send an email to your customers letting them know that you are still open for business online. We are seeing fantastic open rates in these emails that include COVID-19 in the subject. 

5. Coronavirus Market Response

China was the first country affected by the COVID-19 in December. As soon as February the country was hit with a forced quarantine which increased app downloads of 40% higher than in 2019. Isn’t it crazy?

As mentioned previously, online retailers are greatly benefiting from it such as JD in China. Having your sales for common household staples quadruple compared to last year is a great source of profit.

Businesses that have digital products such as Netflix, video games or software are all seeing increased sales. Netflix saw an increase of 8% while the Dow fell by 10% the very same day, by far, its worst trading day since 1987!

What are the takeaways from this article?

There are many! It all depends on what you’re looking for, either general information or precise information for your e-commerce. Let’s summarise it for you:

  • COVID-19 has been spreading rapidly in western countries and the worst is to come, therefore, brace yourself.

  • CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) might be lower or higher, it will all depend on how companies will react to it in the future. However, at Evana Design, we will put our bet that CPA will be lower as the number of online purchases will increase.

  • Be proactive and inform your customers about plausible delays when it comes to the delivery times.

  • Emphasise on your public relation! Take care of the situation and your consumers will thank you forever. It is time to build brand loyalty.

To help you capitalise on the current situation we are offering our specialist digital marketing services on a No Results, No Fee basis. We’ll create, design and run your digital marketing companies and only take a small fee from the sales we make you. Too find out more, click here.  

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Get More Online Sales Than Ever Before Risk-Free With Our No Results, No Fee Marketing Offer.

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