During the lockdown, all businesses must become online businesses
During a national lockdown, almost every business that lacks an online facing store needs to adapt and quickly launch one, so they can sell their products/services.
If they won’t push for this, it may lead to their business going bankrupt.
Making the transition to an online-present business would also be beneficial for the consumers, as they now suffer from a major scaling back of their access to the necessities they need and other consumer goods they want.
So how can you give your business an online presence?
Here are some important steps you can take:
- Create social media pages. This is a first step for moving your business to the internet, and most businesses, even the ones that don’t take orders over the internet, have already taken it, with at least a Facebook page for their business that they created.
2. Create an online store that can accept online payments. Shopify is one example of a platform that lets any business launch an online store relatively quickly and easy.
3. Set up a courier/delivery service or partner with one so that you can get your products to your customers’ hands without your customers having to leave their house. This is key during the pandemic and associated lockdowns.
If you provide a service that does not need in-person interaction, like consulting, then get the software and electronics you need to provide your service remotely, through voice or video calls. Zoom and Skype are two video calling apps that are effective for business video calls.
4. Set up a store currency to reward your customers for continuing to patronize your business during the lockdown. Physical stamp cards and loyalty cards would be useless when all customers are shopping online, so the store currency you create needs to be digital.
The MyCurrency app makes it incredibly easy to launch your own store currency. With MyCurrency the only fee you’ll ever pay is 5% of the value of the store currency you issue on the platform, and this fee is not paid in national currencies like dollar, pounds, peso or yen; it’s paid in your own store currency, so that you’ll never have to tap your cash reserves — which can run low during economic downturns — to use the platform.
By taking these measures and saving your business, you would also be helping to keep the economy running during the lockdown. With more businesses accessible to their customers, hoarding and panic buying become less of a problem as well, because consumers will be less worried about the possibility of running out of a product and being unable to replace it, given they will be able to easily order online once their stocks run out.
Without a concrete plan and a date when quarantines and lockdowns will end, this has to be acted on immediately by businesses, both for the well-being of the individual business owner, and so that the economy is prepared for the worst case scenario of national governments running out of funds to financially support their citizens during the lockdowns.
The economic damage from such a government bankruptcy would be much less severe if most businesses have adapted by going online, than in a scenario where most have failed to make the transition, and have shut down.
So in conclusion, it is not only in your own financial interest to put your business online during the COVID-19 crisis, it is critical for your economy’s well-being that you and business owners like you, do so.
