5 ways to adjust your e-commerce strategy during crisis

Perfecting an e-commerce strategy is no easy feat during normal times. Given everything this year has thrown at us so far, companies are struggling to adapt their e-commerce strategy during crisis…after crisis…after crisis.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted customers’ shopping behaviors, leaving brick and mortar stores struggling to meet increasing and ever-changing demands from consumers as people turn to online shopping more and more.

This means one thing: e-commerce businesses ought to adapt a go to market strategy that will help improve customer experiences, reach target audiences, maintain productivity, and gain a competitive edge over the competition.

While a company has no control over a dilemma that’s brought on by external influences, it can take the right steps towards success. Here’s what you need to know.

How to adjust your e-commerce strategy during crisis

1. Begin by analyzing consumer insights: Conducting market research is essential because it enables you to keep track of your target audience’s behaviors, expectations, and preferences in response to a current crisis. As a result, you can align your marketing strategy in such a way that addresses their current pain points.Gathering relevant feedback and tracking sentiments of your current consumers are part of the digital transformation process. Leverage strategies such as interviewing focus groups and doing surveys. When it comes to surveys, be sure to craft questions that produce the kind of data you need. Most importantly, keep them simple, direct, and understandable.
2. Use SEO to increase your online visibility: Search engine optimization or SEO helps e-commerce businesses be discovered by more potential customers by positioning it at the top of Google’s organic search results. If you’ve already been doing SEO, you may need to rethink and update your strategies to appeal to your audience’s changing behaviors.Are there new keywords that need to be researched? You might be able to uncover important search queries that will help drive more awareness and sales during this time. Utilize those keywords to create content that isn’t just optimized for search engines, but also improves customers’ experiences. Is your piece of content clear and understandable? Does it address their problems?Speed is another critical aspect to optimize when you’re expecting a massive influx of visitors to your e-commerce website. Pages that take time to load can lead an audience to choose competitors. Every website visit should be a pleasing experience — and that’s by ensuring the performance and accessibility of your site.
3. Reach the right audience at the right time using PPC: Pay-per-click advertising or PPC brings favorable results for big and small e-commerce brands alike. PPC ads appear alongside search engine results.Rather than driving potential customers to your site organically, as in SEO, you “buy” your visits. For starting businesses, PPC advertising’s biggest advantage is its ability to reach prospects in a short amount of time.Make sure that you only advertise for available stocks. There is no point in displaying ads for something that isn’t currently in your inventory. Before you even implement a PPC strategy, first, you need to check your existing data.You’ll want to pay attention to your conversion rates. Are people still spending more on certain products or has their interest shifted? Identify your best-performing products as of the moment, and then bid low on underperforming items.
4. Leverage Google My Business for local e-commerce: Google My Business or GMB allows brands to create a business listing in Google if they have a brick-and-mortar store that customers can visit. As long as your e-commerce business has a storefront and operates at certain business hours, you’re eligible for a Google My Business listing.When you get yourself listed, it can be an effective tool for helping more people find your business while they’re searching on their mobile devices. For stores that still operate during a crisis, Google My Business helps maintain an influx of local customers. Online companies also benefit by attracting more clicks to their website.On that note, it’s crucial to provide all the necessary data to your customers. This includes your updated business hours, service area information, phone number, website link, and photos.Leverage GMB Insights to monitor the performance of your listing. This helps you learn deeper about how customers search your business and the actions they take on your listing.
5. Consider layoffs and downsizing: When your business is facing an economic crisis, at some point, you may have to consider laying off or downsizing your workforce. This is an unfortunate, but sometimes necessary reality when it comes to adjusting your e-commerce strategy during crisis.Harvard Business Review offered an interesting insight — employers that are left in a company can experience “survivor guilt” since their co-workers have become their close friends. The key to supporting your remaining employees is to maintain open communication with them. Allow them to ask questions and express their feelings. Be willing to accommodate their needs.