Make your product knock on the door of every home It is going to be an obligatory task in a consumer scenario that must learn to live with the coronavirus.
Confinement has not only served to experiment with teleworking or to keep the kilos at bay with Patry Jordan's workouts. We have also learned that on that same screen we can solve more consumer needs with a click.
The purchase online has gone from 450.000 homes to about 1,1 million, according to Nielsen.
“So far during the health crisis, the channel online It has already accumulated growth of 86,6%,” explains the consulting firm specialized in measuring consumption data. For example, in the week of April 20 to 26, 2020, 149% more sales were made on the Internet than a year before.
But the main novelty is that even deconfined we will spend more time at home.
The room will be the scene of cultural leisure consumption, but also social entertainment with gatherings of friends and family. Likewise, the bedroom will be the tester for fashion trends, and the study will have better computer equipment.
And in this one cocooning (of English cocoon, butterfly cocoon, as a simile of the need to stay at home while social distancing must be maintained), the consumer will always be connected. And it is to those screens where smaller businesses must reach.
The luck for them is that they have several factors in their favor to compete in this new shopping center.
Neighborhood shopping is digitized
Nielsen describes the post-lockdown buyer as “fragile and vulnerable, who will look for guarantees and refuge in what is close and in proximity.”
Neighbors have rediscovered the importance of having nearby purchasing solutions, and now know that they cannot survive without the support of their orders. And the great news is that we don't just talk about food or hairdressing.
This opportunity cannot be wasted by small businesses, hotels and service companies in the neighborhood. For this to be the case, they have to advance in the digitalization of their communication with the customer and home delivery.
Strategies to promote local sales
In these weeks, the consumer establishes new consumption routines, selecting those who will be their new suppliers, many of them close to their home.
Now is the time to offer you solutions and services that allow you to knock on your door, sell you online and without the intervention of expensive intermediaries.
Sell online of trust
If you can call the grocer or pizza maker by name, the consumer is willing to pick up the phone. But the merchant must encourage him to do so, and provide that younger neighbor with access via instant messaging (WhatsApp or Telegram), email, social networks or web forms.
They are channels with almost zero cost, easy management and within the reach of any businessman who bothers to activate them. Without forgetting to add that they are suitable for almost any business model, if not all.
Due to their originality, we remember the example of those neighborhood stationery stores and photocopy shops that have solved the problem that some families had to print the homework of their children confined at home. It probably won't have been a big deal, but it all adds up in such a complex time.
Promotions and discounts
The fact that the buyer is concerned about health is not going to numb his bargain-hunting soul. The sensitivity to the price factor is 67%, according to Nielsen, and “the return to normality will intensify their concern about spending control.”
Hence the importance of, once and for all, the small merchant and businessman learning to play with the perception of price. And the lesson of the verb 'play' is not arbitrary.
Promotions and discounts must be part of the weekly management of the business, and their communication must now be more digital than ever, since many of your customers will not set foot in your premises; will access your products online.
For this reason, the restaurant's Facebook page can publish a good offer, so that the family that used to gather around paella every Sunday can now do it peacefully at home.
Home delivery
It is the service that customers, young and old, will value most.
Six out of ten Chinese consumers, the first to join what we have dubbed the new normal, ask home delivery and sale online in your home purchases. Nielsen's data may not differ much from what is going to happen here.
Digital payment
Another change of this crisis has been the normalization of digital payment for small amounts among both older and any other consumer. Digital payment is an essential service to reach the customer's home.
Nearby advertising
Either with classic media, such as mailboxes or billboards, or taking advantage of the geographic segmentation offered by advertising media. online And on social networks, you should invest in publicizing your offer and your promotions.
Shopping from home
All experts rule out that the rigidity in purchasing imposed by confinement is not going to become the norm. The consumer will continue going to the store, what happens is that he will also ask the store to visit his home.
Nielsen predicts an increase in purchase intention online en new categories like health and wellness and personal care, which will scale until they reach 30% of online buyers.
It is a journey very similar to that of beverages and packaged food, with growth of five to six points. Lastly, there will also be a greater demand for fresh local produce.
Outside the radar of the consulting firm's study, focused on mass consumption, there are other product categories that have also been covered digitally for the first time in these weeks. IT and accessories, pharmacy and herbalism or appliances are some examples of this.
But social distancing, which will be imperative in the coming months, will add other products and services. Now all that remains is to know if yours identifies an opportunity in this strategy.
Source: companies.blogthinkbig.com
