From small-medium enterprises (SMEs) to multinational companies, COVID-19 has affected all types of businesses. The onsite retailers especially have been severely affected due to the global lockdown, ban on travelling, and social distancing. Sadly, COVID-19 has deprived people of feeling the products before buying.
Here comes the eCommerce and digital revolution to the rescue of small merchants to pivot their businesses.
Read along to learn how businesses and retailers adopt digital products and embrace innovation to enhance the online shopping experience.
New Type of Consumer
One should never underestimate the power of retail therapy, whether it’s onsite or online. The new shoppers are certainly concerned about health and wellbeing and try to invest in buying the essentials.
However, it doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t buy non-essential products online. For instance, people buy different electronics, smart devices, tech gadgets, clothes, and other products online.
It means there is a silver lining for the retailers if they want to go digital and sell their non-essential products online to reach a wider audience.
COVID-19 has introduced new business terms such as digital brand experience allowing the customers to explore, compare, and buy the products.
Furthermore, consumers these days do a lot of research online before buying a product. That’s why social media influencers play an integral role in making or breaking a brand or a particular product.
The Key to Catering for the Needs of the Modern Customers
Improved Online Visibility
It’s a need for time for the retailers to improve their online visibility even when the shops are closed. This way, the customers will have an alternative option to shop online if the company has an eCommerce website.
Furthermore, it’s important to understand that the eCommerce website shouldn’t be a backup for the closed, onsite shop. Instead, it should be a go-to place for the customers unless they need to visit the store. That’s why digital user experience should be the top priority of retailers to compete with businesses with an outdated online presence or no website.
Other aspects of digital branding include online payments, contactless delivery, chatbots, and self-service portal.
Instead of waiting for the lockdown to be lifted, the retailers should adopt a proactive approach to pivot as the world would never be the same as before Covid-19.
Let’s take the example of Walmart, which instantly improved the buying experience during the pandemic by setting up an online shop. This way, the customers can get the products at their store and schedule a time for the pickup.
It means the retailers can still expect sales growth if they are flexible to adopt the new business strategies and switch to an eCommerce platform.
Due to the increased online visibility of different brands, the retailers can get information about the competitors and their online business strategies. It certainly poses a lot of pressure over the retailers to stay in the competition; however, the businesses try to improve the product and customer experience.
The Key to Digital Branding
Once we understand why it’s important to focus on a digital customer experience, the next question is how to achieve it. The answer is simple – small retailers and businesses can take full advantage of software such as NetSuite. This way, the businesses can manage the inventory without any hassle.
Similarly, the retailers can dedicate their time and energy to online sales instead of database administration, inventory management, and other automation.
The key to attracting a worldwide audience is using NetSuite SuiteCommerce software to manage in-store and online processes. As a result, the retailers can use the online platform for online sales while the backend services ensure smooth and safe operations.
Almost all the businesses had a digital transformation strategy that they wanted to implement over the years. However, the pandemic catalyzed to prioritize digital transformation over other business strategies.
Cloud-Based Business Solution
Retailers shouldn’t consider that cloud-based business solutions are designed for corporate or multinational companies. Instead, the NetSuite SuiteCommerce offers several features to facilitate retailers to set up online shops in no time.
Moreover, the comprehensive eCommerce functions ensure customer engagement by notifying them about the latest updates about your business.
The retailers are required to pivot to new opportunities and software to automate the processes of the online and onsite shops. Moreover, they need to develop innovative ideas to revamp the existing operations by engaging with the customers online.
Moreover, you can reap the following benefits of the SuiteCommerce:
Orders Completion
It doesn’t matter if the inventory is located remotely in a different location; SuiteCommerce manages all the orders with minimal error. Not only that, but it automatically updates the online inventory count to prevent manual calculation.
This way, you can improve customer satisfaction with lesser missed or incomplete orders.
Digital Connection
One of the most significant advantages of having an online presence is to connect with the customers digitally. Moreover, you can offer different promotions, scheduled pickup and delivery, and other offers.
Hence, you minimize the human connection yet engage with the customers more digitally. It’s certainly a win-win situation for the retailers to keep the customers updated about the latest products, sales, and other promotions.
The retailers can now target a wider audience courtesy of the Internet. Moreover, they can contribute to the economy of the country by increasing exports.
Marketing Campaigns
You can design different marketing campaigns to notify the customers about the delivery tracking and other promotion sales. SuiteCommerce allows you to target the right audience at the right time to boost online sales.
Conclusion
From digital banding to improving the online shopping experience, Covid-19 demands companies adopt new marketing strategies to stay in the market.
To sum up, those retailers who sit back and wait for the shops to reopen will be at a greater loss compared to the small number of businesses who digitize their products using platforms such as NetSuite.
Success comes to those businesses and retailers who are willing to leave the traditional businesses strategies behind. It’s a digital era in which retailers and businesses are expected to have an online presence via eCommerce platforms such as SuiteCommerce. With certified NetSuite partners like Folio3, you can implement and integrate a customized NetSuite for your business and take your eCommerce business to the next level.
