COVID-19 … Disrupting Product Ordering and Delivery
To say the pandemic has changed the way we do things is an understatement. Who would have thought you could attend Annual General Meetings (and vote online when the only options available pre-COVID were to attend in person to vote or vote by proxy? Who would have thought churches could move completely online? Remember how before COVID if you didn’t go to church a couple of times, you’d receive some judging looks or queries? Talmbout leaving/forsaking the presence of God! Who would have imagined a whole month of Ramadan without the social bits we are so used to — the joy of eating together after prayers, spending the evenings in the mosque reciting the Quran? Did I mention virtual graduations yet? I doubt the class of 2020 anticipated graduating in their pyjamas and messy hair behind their computer screens!
By March of 2020 when lockdowns were being implemented in many countries, this image was all over the place:
There’s no denying that COVID-19 has been a bigger digital transformation driver in the past year if not the biggest. And from every indication, the digital transformation is not slowing down. Many businesses and organisations have in the past year sought out ways to continue their operations with little or no physical contact. My dad owns a tile shop, and pre-pandemic, the default was that prospective customers would walk in to make their choice and pay for goods, even people who had found him by Google search. Months into the pandemic, he has entered into business and completed transactions with several people he has never met. He sends tile samples via Whatsapp or other preferred medium, they make their selections, pay via bank or mobile money and the tiles are sent to them. Businesses which hitherto did not accept mobile money but are now big MoMo campaigners and are all for contactless payments.
Food establishments are now more open to deliveries and have contracted third party delivery companies to partner with and boy, are they outdoing themselves? There’s a pizza place about three kilometres from my house, pre-pandemic, they’d deliver at a fee of GHS 10.00. A year in, I pay no delivery fee. Delivery service providers like UberEats and DoorDash are now offering contactless food delivery. Instacart and Amazon have had to hire hundreds of thousands more contractors to fulfill orders. Amazon had to repurpose their budgets towards expanding their delivery services. This has not only resulted in greater customer satisfaction but higher profits as well. One of my favourite hair extension shops holds annual sales where hair pieces are on sale at discounted prices. Every year, there’s a big turnout, the shop is packed to the brim, there’s always a queue. And if you find parking near the store, it’s by divine intervention. At the onset of the pandemic, I was worried about how they would run the sale because I had my eyes on a particular piece and had been saving towards it. I should say now that they ran the sale and I got my hair. At first, customers were skeptical about a virtual sale but they pulled it off. This is not to say there were no issues but given how virtual sales was a new adoption, I can’t wait for the improved version this year.
After lockdown, we have run two week shifts in and out of the office, and I can’t believe I used to go to work everyday of the month before this, because, how was I doing it?
As vaccines are being rolled out all over the world, many people have hopes of a return to normalcy or some semblance of it. But let’s ask ourselves what really is the normalcy we crave or will we just continue in our acceptance of the new normal. I don’t see us going back to our pre-COVID lifestyles. Nowadays, when I see pre-COVID pictures of sporting events, parties etc, I slightly cringe and ask myself “did we really use to do that?” What were we doing at crowded beaches? Concerts? Did we really use to sit so close to strangers in enclosed places to watch movies?
The same way our social life and activities will not return to “normal”, businesses and organisations will only seek to improve in the technological additions that they have made to their businesses in the past year. We’ll continue to sit home or at work and order clothes online and have them delivered, order food, furniture, stationery and whatever else comes to mind and it’ll be delivered. Now and in the post-COVID future, businesses will outdo themselves to serve customers at their (customers’) convenience. Product ordering will be done with more ease with each passing day. This is the new normal.
It’s natural to feel anxious about a post-COVID future. What you do not have to be anxious about is how your business will survive the changes that have come with it, you need to adapt and thrive.
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