Covid-19: The key to getting over the crisis in stores

In the times we are living, many small companies, especially in the retail sector, have had to change creating eCommerce stores to adapt to people’s habits when consuming. Now, in addition to being recommended, this is mandatory amidst the coronavirus crisis.

The measures imposed by the state of emergency force people to stay in lockdown, except for essential services, and make people work from home. That is why companies that were not adapted have to do so now. 

Physical stores that do not sell food or medicines had to close, meaning that many businesses can only keep on working in minimal conditions. So, the population has had to digitalize their buying habits.

In this post, we will explain how you can adapt to the digitalization of your physical store so it doesn’t disappear.

Steps and advice to modify your business in times of the pandemic

First, you’ll need to evaluate your capacity for storage and distribution. Also, you’ll see your and your employees’ skills and knowledge about e-commerce. You should ask yourself things like: Do I have transport? Do I have an adapted website? Can I stock goods? If not, you should check your options.

Here you have some pieces of advice to move your business from offline to online:

• Adapt your web to possible online purchases.
• Move your marketing campaigns to  Marketing using Adwords, Bing, or social media ads where your public is. These channels will help you increase your reach. 
• Your employees will not be able to go to the store to work, so they will have to manage the new warehouse, prepare orders and adapt to new ways of purchasing during the quarantine. 
• In this sense, you will have to weigh the risks and legal changes in the adaptation. 
• Come up with a plan together with your employees about how internal communications are going to work. 
• Make a list of all the databases with your client’s information that you have. Check the data available and update it. We remind you that with LabsMobile you will be able to see fast which information is valid and which one is not.

Covid-19: The key to getting over the crisis in stores.

• After this, let your clients know that you have a new online delivery service. You could mass SMS messages for this. 
• Implement a loyalty plan for first-time and recurrent buyers. You could offer promotions, free delivery, gifts, discounts, points…
• Start using banners on your website and implement ads for these campaigns. 
• Make sure you enough stock to provide for your online clients. You will not be able to go out and buy more.
• Get in touch with your providers with SMS messages, just like food companies do nowadays.
• Come up with a multichannel strategy for fast communication. Use SMS messages to keep people posted about their order status.

LabsMobile, your company for communication via SMS

LabsMobile can be your company when managing the crisis, helping you communicate with your clients, providers or employees in a fast and effective way, and above all, cost-efficient!