1 . Inform your visitors
Every consumer engaging with you right now is thinking about the coronavirus in some ways. Don’t try to avoid the elephant in the room.
According to Multichannelmerchant, “Amazon, UPS, and FedEx have all been announcing delivery delays caused by spikes in online ordering related to coronavirus concerns.”
If it affects your delivery in any way, inform your visitors. If not, you should still make a note, so they are not worried about it.
Here’s how our notification nanobar looks like:
Create a template for those of you who manufacture or supply your goods from China (or any other countries that are hugely affected by the COVID-19) and had to close your store temporarily. See below.
2 . Be ready to act quickly
There are constant changes to restrictions, and you need to be prepared that it might affect your deliveries.
Be ready to take action fast if needed, and stay on top of activities within the eCommerce industry. Also, you must take stock of your online sales capability and consult with your logistic partners. Don’t forget to inform your customers as well about the changes.
Here’s notification sidemessage template
3 . Target new audiences
In a recent article, eMarketer quoted their analyst, Mark Dolliver: “Since older individuals are the ones for whom the virus has been most fatal, they may be especially likely to alter their behavior. This could mean more adoption of ecommerce, an area where they’ve been laggards. People whose attitude has been ‘I’d rather die than buy online’ may rethink this if they feel going to crowded, germy stores truly could kill them.”
Members of Generation X don’t have high levels of trust for online businesses, but during this time, they might change behavior. So, it would be best if you considered targeting them as well in your ads.
4 . Send an email to your customers
It’s worth sending informative emails to your customers where you give updates about your store, share what actions you took, and provide some tips and suggestions.
For example, you can advise customers to:
- Order online instead of going to your offline store
- Pre-order their usual products now, while you have no delivery problems
- Pay online
- And so on
You can send a simple notification email as well to inform your customers that you will continue to operate at full capacity, as Shapeways did in the example below.
Relevant offers and incentives
Ecommerce sites always have some promotion because it is a great way to acquire new customers and grow revenue. For instance, you can offer free shipping, percentage-based discounts, a spring sale or end-of-the-season sale, and so on.
It would be best if you could come up with some new ideas that are more relevant during this time.
For example, you can create coronavirus-related articles for your blog. If you have a food blog with recipes, you can share recipes for quarantine that last a long time. If you sell disinfectant gels in your store, it could be another great, relevant offer to give away a smaller jar of hand sanitizer for every purchase made
Conclusion
We know that times are hard and we all struggle, but being in the eCommerce industry is probably the best right now. In China, offline sales have dropped 47% this year, but online sales only dropped 3%. It should give us hope.
Don’t worry, prepare for every situation, and your business will be fine. I hope my tips could help you get the most out of this situation.
Stay safe,
Jayesh Khagram