How Coronavirus Has Affected The Marketing Industry

The most breaking news of 2020 is the development of coronavirus. It is also known as COVID-19, which has impacted more than 80 countries worldwide. WHO announced the coronavirus is an epidemic. In this article, I'll share how marketing industry has been affected by the epidemic named coronavirus.

The outpouring of e-commerce

In South Korea, the supermarket chain, Lotte, is taking full advantage and seeing an increase in their online sales and transactions by consumers. Despite reporting an 11% drop in offline sales during the first week of January, their online sales reported a 51.4% surge between 27th January and 3rd February 2020. Such an increase in online sales gives a clear indication of how the buying behavior of consumers is shifting away from physical stores to e-commerce platforms.

Major retailers like Starbucks, Uniqlo, Nike, and Apple have temporarily shuttered their stores in some parts of China, while small and medium-sized retailers are being hit particularly hard as foot traffic dwindles. It may happen in the U.S. in areas that have been particularly negatively affected by the coronavirus. The harmful coronavirus is damaging the logistics businesses as its outbreak creates serious supply chain issues. Therefore companies like Apple and Microsoft warning of supply chain problems and limiting the number of goods that can be purchased by online buyers.

…particularly Online Grocery…

Housebound customers in China are turning to online groceries for their daily food supply. Chinese online retailer JD.com reported that its online grocery sales grew up to 215% year over year to 15,000 tons during a 10-day period between late January and early February. McDonald’s says on its website that they are implemented contactless pickup and delivery of Big Macs, fries and other menu items across China as the outbreak has unfolded. Now,  Customers order remotely – on mobile phones or by computers in-store and employees seal the meals in bags and put them in a special spot for pickup without human contact.

Keep an eye out for trends 

The virus may also accelerate a trend that was happening anyway, coronavirus impacts the trending. Now, Executive meetings and virtual events over hangouts will increase. Understanding and analyzing the current trends of customers' behavior allows for companies to focus on targeted content, increasing the reach to the customers, which in return increases their online sales. With most of the world using Google as the desired search results platform for their query, companies should pay close attention to the specific keywords that are currently “trending” and push the content that utilizes the keywords. The most trending search is all about coronavirus, impacts, causes, treatment, etc. For beginners, outsourcing such practices to digital marketing agencies will help them gain further insights and help leverage expert knowledge.

Data cultivation of new age

With the increase of online shopping, e-commerce companies should make full use of this opportunity of gathering large numbers of customer data, and analyze behavior and preferences, to provide a more personalized experience for online shoppers. All the Companies should leverage upon gathering large data to make better strategic decisions, along with improving the control of operational processes. In return, it would allow e-commerce businesses to provide more personalized customer experience and push out promotional content to customers with better targeting.

Ready to go on digital?

In this current epidemic, the companies should serve as a wake-up call that has not yet invested in digital technologies nor have online platforms for consumers to access. It is crucial for companies to start their journey from offline to online marketing to be better prepared to deal with any scenarios.