We are living in the times of COVID. Lots of retailers these days are asking themselves a question - how can they run their business, which relies so heavily on social interactions, when people are scared to venture out of their homes. For all those, here are five things they can adopt to not only survive but evolve their businesses into something more resilient and shock proof.
Let's now delve into the above a bit more.
Focus on products or services you offer
Unfortunately, this is not the time to experiment, you either offer it or you don’t. Don’t get into the trap of trying to offer a little bit of everything to everyone. It never happens, and most often it ends up as excess inventory of slow moving items, which not only leads to wastage but also loss in revenue as a result of not being able to carry more of what you sell.
Shop local and redefine your relationships with your suppliers
Just like your customers are people who stay within a short radius of your business, buy from suppliers who are local to your city. It offers a great deal of flexibility which is very crucial during these trying times. Their businesses are equally impacted and it’s time to share the burden. You can negotiate better credit terms, margins and a more flexible returns and refund policy. Do this more and redefine your relationships with your suppliers.
Go the extra mile for your customers
Consider yourselves lucky if you are still in business with stores open. There are lakhs of businesses around the world, which are not. If you were not yet a believer of the old adage “customer is king”, it's time to become a convert. If you didn’t offer delivery, start doing that; had a minimum order size for offering delivery, get rid of that; and had been charging for delivery, start offering that for free. It's time to take a hit on the margins for long term survival. This doesn’t mean you take every word of ours blindly, and put yourself and your business in red. You know your business the best. All we are recommending is to find opportunities where taking a hit on margins will ensure customer loyalty and go a long way in ensuring business survival.
Use this time to adopt technology and bring efficiency
Just like lakhs of other small businesses, yours is also people centric and you never felt the need to use technology. However, now you feel that you should have got on to the online bandwagon much earlier. But it’s not too late. Getting online is simple and yet powerful. But don’t just get online, leverage technology to manage store operations like getting a cash register, deploying an inventory management system and accepting digital payments to expand customer base. Technology will help you transition from running your business to managing your business, opening opportunities for growth and expansion.
Reach out and connect with prospective customers in your area
This goes to the previous point of leveraging technology to grow your businesses. Let's be honest, every retail business needs to find new customers all the time. All your prospective customers are online and it's important you find them where they spend their time the most. Use social media and whatsapp to connect with them, offer promotions when they shop in your store and build loyalty with an honest loyalty redemption system.
We at Bech are focused on becoming the most trusted partners of small retail. To the lakhs of retailers, with their livelihoods online, we want to offer hope and a fighting chance. Bech app is our attempt in creating a simple yet powerful app which helps you navigate through these challenging times. We offer all the features you need to transform your retail business and make it shock proof and ready for the future.
