Disclaimer-mark
This is a user generated content for MyStory, a YourStory initiative to enable its community to contribute and have their voices heard. The views and writings here reflect that of the author and not of YourStory.
Disclaimer-mystory

How to Re-Start Online Business Post COVID-19

The discovery of a novel coronavirus turned into a pandemic for the world and affected the lives of billions of people. This COVID-19 disease was spreading like a wildfire and Governments all around the world had to take some measures to control the spread. Many countries put their citizens in lockdown to the lessor the community spread from person to person. 


Due to this lockdown, businesses and their supply chain were disrupted badly. Some of the businesses sustained their operations. But as the global demand for essentials and other items were increasing, many online businesses have to shut down their operation due to insufficient supply. 

Now, the lockdown is getting less restricted and people are coming out of their houses, manufacturers have started the production and businesses are opening up again. But the pandemic is still here and re-starting your online business post COVID-19 would be a difficult job. The eCommerce business owners have to take a holistic approach to restart their business. That's why we have come up with a guide on how to restart online business post COVID-19. Let's Deep into this,


1. Outline the Detailed Map for Restarting Your eCommerce business

Post COVID-19, the market has become highly volatile, and therefore, online business owners need a strong framework, a roadmap to relaunch their business operations. And the best way to do so is by developing a detailed restart map outlining the priority measures to seize opportunities. 

This kind of roadmap will help different departments like production, supply, marketing, and sales, etc. to recover at a sustainable rate. The roadmap to relaunch your online business should include base scenarios and their alternate ones. This is to safeguard your eCommerce business from high impacting market variables like the renewed rate of COVID-19 spread. This roadmap of restarting your business should be tested against similar kinds of scenarios to overcome and reallocate resources if deemed fit.

If you don’t have any experience in outlining the roadmap for restarting your business, then ask help from experts. If your store is running on the Magento platform then you can Hire Magento developers from MageComp for various needs of yours.


2. Restore Trust and Faith of Customers with Safety Guarantee

The customers and your business clients would be more cautious about their safety demands since they are emerging out of a pandemic. The services and products your online business offer during COVID-19 should adhere to the health and safety guideline. Customers are becoming more aware of the severity of the situation and want to safeguard their health most importantly in any circumstances. 

Many businesses all over the world are adopting new standards like the contactless product and payment delivery, alcohol-based gels to sanitize hands after visiting any place or touching outside objects. Communicate measures you have taken with your customers to regain their trust and faith in your brand in a way that helps to reopen your online business.


3. Take Care of the Health of Your Employees

If you are restarting your online business that means you are also asking your employees to return to their desks. They might be eager to come back to work but not at the cost of their health. So, companies need to find ways to motivate and ensure their employees about their safety in the post-COVID-19 world. 

Online businesses should take care of hygiene and safeguard the workplace before employees return to their jobs. Control the access to the place and make it in accordance with the safety regulations. Regularly take the temperature of every person coming into your workplace. And if any illness is found, suggest medical checkup with a quarantine period. If possible, then provide the option to work from remote locations like homes to minimize the travel and risk of COVID-19 infection.


4. Revive the Demand for Your Products and Services

One important thing to consider before reviving the demand for products and services is to revive your customer base. Once the new customer base is acquired, they will automatically revive the product and service demands. As an online business owner, you have to be ready to explore and reallocate expenses on the pockets with rapid growth. 

For the same, you can adopt new ways to market your products with the help of new tools and resources. For example, social media, particularly Instagram, holds significant power to revive the demand for your products and services. With proper use of channels and store could help revive and boost sales for your eCommerce business. 


Also, ease the way for your customers to shop on mobile devices. Many customers will spend their time on mobile devices to surf the internet to find the perfect product for their needs. So, tools like mobile login for Magento 2 that lets customers login quickly and shop immediately on mobile devices. 


5. Restart Your Business Operations and Supply

Gradually restart your online business operations at the desired rate, which helps you to recover and serve the demand due to the imposing of lockdown. Don’t think of going faster than the rate of recovery at any moment because it can put your business in jeopardy. 

Also, business owners should take some necessary steps to ensure that their competitive edge is maintained. Strategically procure the products to revive the supply chain in an orderly fashion. Expand and diversify your online business’ ability to meet the current market demand of the product you are selling. Give a little time to your online website to recover in a phased manner, site by site. If you have set up multiple storefronts and want to manage from one single interface in Magento 2,


6. Restart Online Business with Care

If you want to restart your eCommerce business successfully, you must have to show speed in taking decisions. You may have to address many issues at once, which are interdependent. Maintain the ease of business, speed of execution, and simple decisions to handle the crisis effectively. Form a team that plans subsequent scenarios during the recovery phase of your online business.

Regardless of the scenarios, ensure that you give attention to working capitals to manage and recover through the crisis with sufficient cash flow. Determine proper factors so that your online business can have financial resilience. Because the restarting your eCommerce business requires a further boost in liquidity pressure. 


Wrapping Up

So, lockdown restrictions are easing off gradually all around the world. The COVID-19 situation in many possible terms is coming under control because of the awareness in people. Therefore, the right time has arrived for online businesses to restart their operations and gain recovery at a sustainable rate. And for the same, we have given a holistic approach and steps on how to restart an online business post COVID-19 situation. Start with outlining a roadmap that leads to success for your business. Regain the trust and faith of your customers, then revive the product demands with the help of tools. And gradually reach a point where your growth becomes sustainable.