Create a free Manufacturing.net account to continue

7 Ways to Stay Relevant During Chaos: Steps 3-5

Even in e-commerce, it always comes back to personal touches.

Ecommerce Online Shopping Concept 000065535089 Large

In light of the ongoing global pandemic, everyone from small shops to multinational conglomerates is reevaluating their customer experiences and digital technologies. This has forced many manufacturers and distributors to be creative with workarounds to make their business run in the face of major supply chain disruptions. 

With this in mind, we previously discussed launching an FAQ microsite and ensuring your products are "everywhere." Today, we’re back with three additional tactics to help serve your customers and preserve your business as we continue to confront an unprecedented global pandemic.

3. Stand Up an MVP eCommerce Site

With cloud-based solutions, an MVP (minimum viable product) eCommerce website can be launched quickly to establish minimum capabilities to support  eCommerce. This not only gives customers direct access to your products, but also helps to support revenue levels. 

This should be your core products, your top products - the mission critical products that are highly relevant in the current market. These should also be products that are relatively easy to fulfill on the back end, as logistics are more complex during this time and you don’t want undue strain on your supply chain,.

Your sales team might be scaling back on their aggressive operations, but that doesn’t mean buyers aren’t still buying. Make sure you have a way for customers to transact directly with you.

4. Load Up on Self-Service Features

Chances are, more than a few of your customers have been directed to work from home, and may be forced to for the near future. Between childcare, trying to work and just trying to make their lives run, extra time in the day is scarce for most people right now. 

The last thing anyone wants to do is spend time reaching out to customer service reps to figure out their order status. Make sure your customers have the ability to self-service every element of their order from placing the order to tracking to delivery. Intuitive, easy-to-use features keep your customers coming back to your site for more, even after the pandemic is in the rearview mirror.

5. Ensure Sales has a WFH Mobile Solution

Most sales people are people people by nature. They do their best work in-person, or close to it. But what happens when you can’t shake hands? In the face of this pandemic, you must have a plan to weather the storm and a plan for when the storm passes. Businesses, and sales teams in particular, need to find a way to keep their heads down and keep moving.

Having to work from home is hardly unique in the current situation, and if you’re lucky enough to be able to keep your business running remotely, make sure you’re arming your sales team with the right tools for success. This includes basic necessities like CRM capability, high-quality video conferencing, answers to FAQs, and more.

Talk to your team and find out what’s working and what’s not - think through where budgets can be reallocated to get your sales team exactly what they need to do their best work.

More in E-Commerce