If there’s ever something that brings out the best in pushing on progress, it’s a crisis. In this case, a global pandemic.
2020 has seen an interesting one for me. In my day job, I spend far too much time lamenting inadequate online shopping experiences. Trying to squeeze another 0.1% out of the conversion rate, which can make £100,000s of difference. Never mind the ones who don’t offer online at all. Jokes on you, Primark!
But now we’re in a situation where retailers have been forced to adapt. No online? And no footfall? You’re dead.
Some have scrambled and got something online. Which is of course, step one. But my hope is – will the ecommerce landscape actually make a step-change and grow for some smaller retailers post Covid-19? Or is it a hotfix flash in the pan? Will traditionally offline, footfall-reliant, resistant-to-change retailers stuck in industries who for the longest time have avoided the internet finally ‘get it’?
I’m not so sure.
With bricks and mortar retailers being forced online, one thing I’ve seen more of is one man bands, and smaller retailers who wouldn’t normally dream of having an ecommerce store up and running, just to sell anything. The agility is amazing when you think about it. You’ve been running your family business for 120 years without any real online presence, and suddenly within a week you’ve turned it around? It’s great, but What Took You So Long?
These businesses are typically the ones who are every resistant to change, though their hand has been forced. It’s do or die.
My main hope here is that in a post Coronavirus world, these retailers have seen the potential of their ecommerce store and continue to offer an online service. Even if they remain ‘offline first’, it’s having that duality of being able to offer both angles. For things like vegetable boxes, sausages in the post, and restaurants that usually rely on bums on seats not microwave reheats. You can serve people face-to-face and online. You can do it.
Take for example Ken Holland. A vegetable grower out of Northumberland. He serves the high-end restaurant trade. Grows first-rate veg, and delivers it to their door.
His business went kaput in just one sentence: ““we are telling – telling – cafes, pubs, bars and restaurants to close tonight, as soon as they reasonably can, and not open tomorrow”.
But he’s admirably thrown up an ecommerce store in order to sell direct to consumer and is doing a roaring trade in veg boxes to the Joe Bloggs of the world. It’s a fantastic proposition, and has got to be the way forward for any business in a similarly sticky situation. It’s that point of ‘WHY HAVEN’T YOU TRIED THIS BEFORE?’
It’s a compelling offer to consumers, who frankly have always had the option. It’s being forced into choosing an alternative to shopping in the supermarket – which lets be honest, ‘in these unprecedented times’ is a horrible mess of masks, one way systems, and ‘should I even touch these unpackaged potatoes’. Solution: in a few clicks, get some locally grown/highly artisanal products, delivered to your door. You get that feel-good vibe for helping a local business. The business thrives.
It’s sad that’s it’s taken a global pandemic, but as I mentioned. Change is often driven by tough times.
The future
It’s now approaching August, and even now, you can see some businesses just about getting their shit together. I’ll be honest, they’re not doing it fantastically. See:
❌ No stock
❌ Websites that can’t handle demand
❌ Unclear delivery options
❌ Complete absence of mobile experience
❌ All of the above!
I’d always reiterate that simpler is better here. But crucially, anything is better than nothing.
Until things truly return ‘back to normal’, having an ‘online storefront’ is proving hugely successful for some. But I wonder if it will continue? Will it be that once we get to the point of being able to sit in an open restaurant, or a taxi without a mask, or shake hands at a business meeting, that the whole notion of ecommerce subscriptions, online stores for micro-businesses, and even convenient click & collect services are discarded, and retailers act like it never happened?
Or come 2021, will we still see ultra-local farm shops continuing to grow their business online, selling their homegrown organic fennel via their banging little Shopify site, delivered direct to your door (with free delivery, of course)?
I really hope so.