How was your website strategy pre-pandemic? For many companies, the website is secondary only to their actual physical store or office. Although there has been a wave of digital transformation in the last decade, not all companies are caught up to the latest in eCommerce and digitalization. But the pandemic forced businesses—from small-scale to large-scale—to take a look at their websites and how these can help them survive the shakeup.
To say that the coronavirus pandemic has forever changed consumer behavior is an understatement. People will be more conscious of the way they spend their money for the next years to come. They will never feel comfortable spending $1,000 on a pair of shoes again. If there’s anything they learned in the past 10 months, it’s that even the most stable of companies can buckle under the weight of a health crisis. Nothing is ever safe.
The past 10 months should also make you realize how important your presence on the internet is. Can your target market easily find you? Do you appear on the first page of Google’s search results? This is the perfect time to consult a local SEO company, so you can understand what your company needs in terms of online presence.
Posting of Coronavirus Message
First and foremost, to deny that the coronavirus exists and has affected your business is the biggest mistake you can make. There can be no denying the fact that Covid-19 has an impact on your business. You need to address the elephant in the room, as they say. This means letting your audience know the steps you have to take for your business. Will you close your store? Are you going to be strict about visits? Are you going to require an appointment before you meet a client? Where can they reach you if not in your store/office?
Transition to eCommerce
Next, you have to build an eCommerce platform. Your website should be your primary marketing strategy. If your business will succeed, it needs to be visible online. The only way for you to continue selling your goods and services is through an eCommerce website. This is different from your main website. You have to build this from scratch and use proper SEO strategies to make sure your target market lands on your online shop.
If you haven’t done this in the last 10 months, you have missed out on a lot of opportunities. Luckily, you’re still not too far behind as many companies are still just beginning to embrace the promises of eCommerce. Start building that website right now.
Review of the Backend
If you do have an existing website, how’s the backend of it? The backend refers to the components that make up the whole website. Things like the metadata are part of the backend. If your website has always played second fiddle to your actual store or office, that’s because things were not like this before. During and even after the pandemic, your target market will be more demanding. They will not want to wait more than three seconds for a web page to open.
That’s why you should have reviewed your website’s backend. The height of the pandemic was the right time to assess the quality of your website—from the loading speed to the keywords used in the metadata. Clean up the backend, increase your site’s bandwidth, and update the content’s metadata.
Stricter Security Measures
Consumers did a lot of online shopping in the past 10 months. That’s an indication of a shift in consumer behavior. They have never been this ready to provide their credit card information online. The pandemic somehow forced them to transition to online shopping. That’s going to stick for a long time. It’s not a trend. It’s the new norm in retail.
The lockdown measures gave you the time to start upgrading your site’s security. The safety of the information entrusted to you by your consumers is a priority. Lose that respect and you lose these customers forever, too.
Building a Community
One of the very few good things that emerged from the pandemic is the community built on websites and social media sites. Since the consumers were online most of the time in the past 10 months, it became easier for retailers and marketers to engage with their customers. More, these customers became friends themselves. Many of them found solace in reaching out to others who like the same brand and products.
Engaging with your market the past months should have been part of your strategy. An engaged audience will generate web traffic. They will also be loyal clientele.
Although the pandemic pushed many businesses to the edge, you have a lot of opportunities to grab. After all, the likes of Bill Gates started changing the world during the oil embargo recession in 1975. Several other well-known companies such as Uber and Airbnb opened their doors during the 2009 recession. You have to find that bit of opportunity and cling to it hard. Right now, that’s your website.
