In this global pandemic issue, many working places are forced to close. Some of the company has relied on their income revenue on their online. Online sales are becoming one of the fastest-growing sales since social distancing went into effect. the impact of quarantine causes e-commerce to become hyperdrives.
According to Sarah Hofstetter on Forbes.com, Online sales have been growing by triple-digits since social distancing went into effect. More consumers are trying Instacart, Shipt, and Amazon Fresh than ever before if they can even get a delivery slot. Look at this picture:
Impact of quarantine-driven demand surge, through the lens of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. PROFITERO
Based on the data above, we know that Brands that are already well prepared for e-commerce and are high on the maturity curve certainly have an advantage. But most, unfortunately, are not prepared. Profitero and Kantar surveyed 200 brand executives just a few months ago and found that only 17% believe their organizations are leading competitors in e-commerce. The vast majority (71%) say their organizations are merely catching up or keeping pace. For this 71%, the next several months will be made or break time as organizations are pushed to the max to meet demand.
How should brands be getting more prepared for the next stage of hyper-growth in e-commerce? Here are four areas to prioritize.
1. Less talk, more walk
Leading companies don’t just talk the talk about e-commerce, they walk the walk. They make e-commerce a part of everyone’s job and even build e-commerce KPIs into bonuses. They hold brand teams accountable for quality content on retailer websites. They hold finance and sales teams accountable to online margin metrics. Setting cross-functional e-commerce KPIs is the only way to overcome natural silos that occur when incentives are not aligned. However, Profitero and Kantar found that only 11% of organizations have functional-level e-commerce goals in place and 40% still lack even the most basic e-commerce goals at the company level. If you don’t have clear goals, set them before doing anything further.
2. Be found
Because of SEO consumers are more willing to substitute brands if they’re available and visible. This is where SEO, showing up brilliantly, strong ratings and reviews, and other tactics around product discovery can make or break your numbers.
3. Stop applying offline tactics to online
In online sales, your brand will compete with more brands than you sell in one of the stores. In online sales, pricing, assortment, and promotional changes are happening constantly online. And retailers can algorithmically match competitor price changes as soon as they are lowered. Leading companies recognize the differences between offline and online within the same retailer. They take pains to develop unique product assortments for each online retailer, supported by tailored promotional strategies. Lagging companies, on the other hand, use a one-size-fits-all approach applying the same brick and mortar assortment and pricing strategies online. The result is channel conflict that erodes the profitability and damages your brand.
4. Make agility a competitive advantage
E-Commerce is the ultimate consumer learning laboratory. In online sales, you can change your content or promotional strategy in real-time and quickly measure effects. Brands should use the dynamic nature of e-commerce to their advantage and constantly run experiments to test the impact of new variables on traffic. Only 37% of brands test and optimize their content to improve sales impact, according to Profitero and Kantar. 61% do not use digital shelf analytics or shopper panel data to test, measure, and improve their digital execution strategies. Standing still is going backward.
For the following months, the brand will try to sell its product online. The brands who act swiftly now to get their organizations e-commerce prepared and acting will emerge stronger from the crisis.
Resource: FORBES.COM
Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahhofstetter/2020/04/06/hyperdrive-impact-of-covid-19-on-e-commerce/#42786cd4758e
