The myth of agility during turbulence
“You have to put one foot in front of the other and keep going. Put blinders on and plow right ahead”-George Lucas
This unprecedented pandemic has placed a grinding challenge for all-side of business in the United States since the beginning of March. A new relationship between customers and brands is growing due to the rule of social distance. For example, it accelerates the volumes of food-delivery when people are forced to stay home and drives the sales of online shopping. Therefore, it alters the entire landscape of business, requiring marketers to implement different strategies to offset the loss.
1. The trend of cashless transaction become more prevailing and applicable.
According to the data from eMarketer, the amount of digitally shopping for groceries has been doubled since early March. The surge of eCommerce has become an essential replacement for the decline of mortar-and-brick stores. Still, in the meantime, consumers are unconsciously forced to change their paying behavior from cash to cashless. Because of the pandemic, a significant amount of retailors adapt to use mobile payment and another electronic platform to offer convenience during the hard period. So, given that the change of consumers’ behavior of paying and brands’ adjustment, it is predictable that the cashless transaction will prevail and get accepted by more prospects.
2. DTC: manufacturers start to present their dignity in front of consumers.
The mode of direct -to- consumers will be applicable for more brands after the pandemic. Since last year, Nike had announced to retrieve back its products on Amazon and aimed at building a direct channel to reach buyers. By developing that, brands can obtain a more extensive database to understand their customers. Since the outbreak of Covid-19, with an increasing number of people shopping online, it will be a valuable opportunity for brands to collect data if consumers purchase a single channel instead of third-party websites. Therefore, brands will move into the DTC to access more data.
3. Content-management becomes important as Gen Z shifts attention to experience-consuming.
Let’s take a brief glimpse at the history. Back in the financial crisis of 2008, the slowdown of economic tremendously cut down the quantities of jobs available for the graduates and forced them back to school. A statistic states that almost 52,000 first-year law students enrolled in 2009, but only 39,000 enrolled in 2019. The recession of the economic 2020 undoubtedly would encourage students to achieve an advanced degree instead of work due to the scarcity of jobs. So far, Gen Z makes up 27.7 % of the population in the US. During the pandemic, a majority of Gen Z has invested in educational-related activities online instead of shopping. So, creating content that is preferably a nurturing and learning process comes more naturally to approach this generation.
4. Customer experiences weigh heavily on the performance of AI/AR
The function of AI appears as a remarkable role when tons of consumers flow into the digital platform. Under this circumstance, the speed of response, accuracy, and relevance of answers are critical elements for the AI system, such as Chatbot. An intelligent chatbot serves to solve customer problems as the shop assistant in the store; however, a staggering machine will suspend people’s interests on the subject. So, the influx of technology is inevitable. Brands need to be fully aware of their significance and activate the function with 100 percent effectiveness.
5. Customer privacy is in urgency
Data-leaking has always been a heated discussion in the current days. Followed by the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal, the software company, zoom, which provides service for video conferencing, faced the danger of information-leaking in the last days. Besides, Nintendo, the most popular video game during the pandemic, has confirmed the breach that 160,000 users’ information has been leaked. The concern of data privacy puts a threat to some high-tech companies while the Internet becomes a leading platform for people to navigate their social life. Therefore, in views of the recent privacy-related issues, how to better protect consumers’ data is an urgent question to figure out.
Conclusion
At some points, tons of rattled workers will return to the workplaces, and millions of exhausted stores will reopen. Nonetheless, this pandemic has reshaped the dynamic of the business markets and challenged the ability of brands to make adjustments in real-time. To sum up, facing the overturned economy, instead of finding ways to recovery, brands need to reinvent their image in front of the public.
