Blog/Opportunities in Lockdown
4th May 2020
As we in the UK approach six weeks in lockdown prompted by the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses find themselves in a struggle to survive the forced public inactivity.
The divide appears to have been drawn between industries, with gaming, online retail, and online entertainment and communication tools naturally thriving, and those industries that require people to leave their homes, such as leisure and tourism, offline retail and transport, as you would expect, taking an enormous hit.
Businesses that exist in the real world (as opposed to online-first businesses), such as gyms, restaurants, hairdressers etc have taken the brunt of the lockdown.
But as time goes by, we are seeing more and more traditionally ‘offline’ businesses attempting to bridge the gap between failure and success by attempting to launch a digital element to their operations – perhaps something they’d been reluctant to have tried before, even though the mechanisms were in place for them to do so.
In recent days, we’ve seen traditional chip shops launch an online ordering and payment system to allow deliveries of their fish and chips to allow trade to continue with very little person to person contact.
Another client – a Pilates teacher – has begun classes online, using everyone’s favourite video messaging service that allows her to not only lead the class, but also to see her clients and allow her two way communication making it possible to give feedback to those in the class.
And most recently, pub chain Greene King are proposing to re-open their pub beer gardens, and rather than have their customers order drinks at the bar, they are developing an app that will allow ordering and payment to be completed on any smartphone, and your drink of choice will be delivered to your table while you social distance. (Not quite sure how they plan to deal with the need for toilets however!)
Many of our clients have found themselves forced to work from home rather than working in their office, and have found that not only is it not difficult with the amount of technology we now have at our fingertips, but it’s actually easier, more adaptable and most importantly working from home is actually more conducive to work.
The world has changed significantly, and there’s no talk that the lockdown will end any time soon – indeed the effects of the lockdown will almost certainly last much much longer than the lockdown itself. We could be looking at many more months and even years before it’s even possible to return to the ‘old way’ of doing things, if indeed that’s what we’re aiming to do.
Perhaps a better option would be to look forward and not back, and seize the opportunity we all currently have to add greater depth to our businesses/work so that we’re not quite as reliant on traditional channels.
There’s no question that businesses that have embraced digital are the ones that are currently thriving, and the ones that haven’t have been caught on the back foot somewhat.
Get in touch today to find out how we can help you in pushing forward your digital offering.