With the Covid-19 pandemic, ecommerce is
experiencing a boom in most parts of the world. As consumers stay home to curb
the spread of the coronavirus, buying important supplies online is the only
path left.
Chinese ecommerce giants, Alibaba and JD Doajia,
reported a 220{1652eb1ffa4184925f6a63a9c04ea6b421acb7a78117241e7d4325cdca8339fa} and 470{1652eb1ffa4184925f6a63a9c04ea6b421acb7a78117241e7d4325cdca8339fa} increase in sales this year when compared to last
year. In the US, online grocers Instacart
and Farmstead
saw a 10{1652eb1ffa4184925f6a63a9c04ea6b421acb7a78117241e7d4325cdca8339fa} and 30{1652eb1ffa4184925f6a63a9c04ea6b421acb7a78117241e7d4325cdca8339fa} increase in orders and deliveries in one week in March.
French online grocer, Ollca,
says it achieved Christmas level sales within 3 days in March.
This boom is surely good for the ecommerce businesses and may just drive rapid adoption in different parts of the world.
But what about the consumers driving this
boom?
Consumers are having a hard time.
According to Professor of Psychology and Clinical psychologist, Dr. Ramani Durvasula:
Anxiety, uncertainty and daily changes are major stressors for people during the coronavirus pandemic.
People are overwhelmed with information and dealing with the new normal, which differs from how things have always been.
She says:
Economic uncertainty around loss of business and jobs contributes to the anxiety and stress people are facing. Managing economic uncertainty with familial relationships takes a toll on everyone.
The long and short of it all, ecommerce stores
are experiencing a huge boom, but their customers are experiencing the
opposite. Consumers are worried about keeping their jobs, feeding their
families, keeping a roof over their heads and so much more. Businesses have a
responsibility to their customers that goes beyond providing them a
service/product for money.
Without customers, ecommerce businesses would not exist. Here are some ways your ecommerce business can take a customer-focused approach to support your customers during this pandemic:
Keep Stock Available
One major source of anxiety for customers during this pandemic is finding necessary supplies and food. This anxiety often translates into people stockpiling products when they find them to ensure they have enough. Ipsos MORI reports that many consumers see stockpiling as the cause for grocery and medical supply shortages rather than supply chain disruptions.
As a business, it may be tempting to let customers panic buy all your available stock as this increases your revenue in the short run. With great uncertainty about finding supplies, limiting the number of products a customer can add to cart will reduce hoarding. This ensures that products are available to everyone who needs them while not hurting your bottom line.
Joris Bryon of Dexter Agency, an ecommerce focused CRO agency, says:
Use banners to optimize for clarity about stock availability and logistics on your website. Direct customers to drop their emails so you can reach out once stock becomes available.
Be transparent and communicate this move to buyers. It will reassure them. Use banners on product pages of essential items like food, masks, hand sanitizers, thermometers, first aid kits etc. to let customers know why you are limiting the number of products per buyer.
Be Transparent About Logistics Issues
With a lot of time to kill stuck indoors, many
customers are monitoring their online orders as they go about their day. And
any delays in delivery will have your customer service agents overwhelmed in no
time.
Your logistics apparatus may be swamped with more orders than usual. Be open about any logistics challenges you are facing with your customers. If your store handles logistics in-house, hire more people or outsource some of your deliveries to meet with more demands. If your store exclusively outsources delivery to a shipping company, work with them to find solutions to meet the demand. Whether or not logistics is in-house, let your customers know the steps you’re taking to fulfill their orders. For example, Whole Foods’ online grocery service is swamped with increased demand and many customers reporting delays in delivery. Its parent company, Amazon, is hiring 100k new workers to deal with increased demand across its entire business.
Keep Employees Safe
Anxieties are high about the novel
coronavirus. People are constantly bombarded with information about new
infections, total cases and death tolls
caused by the pandemic.
You know what doesn’t ease your customers’
anxiety during this crisis? Finding out via the news that there is a coronavirus case
in a warehouse owned by an ecommerce store they just
purchased something from.
One of the best things you can do to support
your customers is keeping your employees safe. Your workers are taking
incredible risk working during the pandemic. Making sure they are safe is the
right thing to do, and it helps reassure your customers.
Use social media and your website to share the steps you are taking to keep your workers safe. These steps may include installation of hand washing stations, limited number of workers per shift, temperature checks, paid time off, etc. For example, Trader Joe’s announced steps it was taking to keep its workers and customers safe on its website. These measures include offering 2 additional weeks of paid leave, regular hand washing breaks, closing early so the stores can be cleaned thoroughly.
Since close contact with an infected person is
a way to get the SARS-CoV-2 virus, people worldwide are socially distancing
themselves from others by staying home. To minimize their risk to others as
they use your ecommerce
platform to shop, add contactless delivery to your
offering. This way their items are delivered to your customers’ doorstep, and
they are notified to pick it up without coming in contact with the delivery
person.
This method has been tried and tested in China. Companies like Delivery Hero, Glovo and Deliveroo are already offering this service across their operations in Europe. In the US, Postmates and Instacart are also offering non-contact delivery services to their customers.
Optimize the Ordering Process for Ease
Now may not seem like the best time to
optimize your checkout process, but it is an absolute necessity. The entire
marketing world is in uncharted territory. Buyer personas are out the window. Consumer
behavior right now differs vastly from the norm.
Your store is most likely seeing unprecedented
traffic levels. A significant portion of your visitors are older people, new to
online shopping. Alibaba
says orders from customers born in the 1960s quadrupled this year compared to
last year. Older people are more vulnerable to Covid-19. Many will have to
adopt online shopping technology to survive this pandemic.
Since your typical buyer personas have changed
because of this outbreak, taking another look at your website to optimize for
current types of visitors is prudent. Take a dive into your analytics
demographics data to see what has changed and how you can simplify the ordering
process for customers given how stressed out and anxious they are.
Look at your add to cart process, contact, cancellation, product and checkout pages to see what you optimize to make them easy for customers to use. Simplifying your order process could reduce anxiety for many customers and help them through this global crisis.
Improve Customer Service Responsiveness
More orders mean more calls to your customer service agents especially from customers new to online shopping. Prompt response to these many queries by your customers service personnel can dispel anxiety and make shopping on your online store easier for your customers.
Francis Teo of Blue Lambda says:
Because the whole world is basically in the same situation, customers are pretty understanding and flexible when it comes to delays when receiving the products they ordered. Having good and quick customer support to reassure them that everything is going to be okay goes a long way in keeping them happy.
Hiring more customer service personnel to handle the increased calls and queries will improve your store’s responsiveness to customers and help them during this trying period. Remember, people who have a positive customer service experience are more likely to become repeat customers.
A recent study in The New England
Journal of Medicine found that
SARS-CoV-2 which causes the Covid-19 disease could be active on different
surfaces. The virus can linger
up to 3 hours in air, 4 hours on copper, 24 hours on
cardboard and 2-3 days on plastic and steel.
Given this new information, customers are rightly anxious
about coming into contact with plastics and cardboard packing materials from
deliveries. As a store specializes in shipping items using both plastic and
cardboard wrapping, your business needs to share a PSA with customers about how
to handle delivered items.
The CDC recommends cleaning and disinfecting frequently touched surfaces such as doorknobs, tables, light switches, with household cleaners and disinfectants. Your store can apply the CDC’s recommendations to handling delivered goods and inform customers to follow this process to stay safe. This will reduce your customers’ anxiety about getting infected with the virus if they order something online.
Conclusion
Be open and transparent with customers about the steps your business is taking to provide products and services while keeping them safe. This will help you build trust and loyalty that will outlast this current pandemic.
