Impact of Covid-19 on Businesses

The current pandemic is forcing all types of businesses to adapt to changes. The temporary closure of restaurants and retail stores provides a real challenge for business owners. This past couple of months have been tough, and there are many tough days ahead. Businesses and individuals are afraid to see the decline in the economy, the collapse of the health system, and a tremendous loss. The world has shut down temporarily. Businesses are scared of an uncertain future. Employees cannot work in the office, the business has to be run online, profits are decreasing, and governments are trying to help, but funds are limited. Everything is unpredictable right now. As more cities around the world are going under lockdowns, businesses like clothing brands were ordered to close, whereas essentials become a new normal. Supermarkets and food retailers were considered an essential business. At the same time, the closure of non-essential businesses disrupted the supply chain. Due to this crisis, many brands are suffering. Many employees are finding it hard to deal with these current circumstances. According to sources, unemployment can rise to 2 million. Futures seems uncertain as no one can see an immediate end to the lockdown. The sufferings due to pandemic are still unknown. But there is a chance to survive if businesses can adapt to changes. Retailers will have to work hard to meet customer requirements to win and remain relevant.  Businesses will have to focus on becoming employee-centric as well as customer-centric. (Bartik, 2020)

  The coronavirus pandemic presents a never-before-seen crisis for retailers all over the world. During this crisis, companies learned to communicate with their customers in new ways, and they optimized their e-commerce channels to serve them better. This also led to many traditional retailers to shift towards online business to run their platform. As the coronavirus pandemic spread, sales shifted heavily towards consumable products. According to a study, 30% of the retail stores have shifted their staff to service customers online, 62% of employees are sitting at home and using technology to take care of their customers, and 6% of the employees were laid off permanently from the store. A study also informs us that 23% of retail companies are renegotiating store leases, 18% are closing their store locations, and 2% are breaking store leases. With restaurants across the world closing, more meals will be eaten at home, this spiked up the demand for supermarket goods and other consumable products. Most supermarkets hired thousands of temporary staff and implemented social distancing measures. During this time, supermarkets experienced unpredictable demand for products like paper goods, surface cleaners, and grocery staples. We, humans, tend to respond to crises in different ways. When we face any uncertainty or risky situation over which we have no control, we tend to try whatever we can to feel like we are in some control. This is what happened during the COVID-19 pandemic. People stocked up medical supplies, hand sanitizer, masks, household essentials, toilet paper, and the bread that soon stores were struggling to keep up with demand. Due to which Many supermarkets adopted new strategies to keep up with the ongoing demand. If we take an example of Walmart, the company’s US e-commerce sales increased by over 74% during the pandemic. To meet the demand, they quickly converted 2,500 stores into fulfillment centers. The company is using its parking lots as a drive-thru testing for coronavirus. The company also took steps like combining their online apps and launching new delivery options. According to the CEO of Walmart, Doug McMillon said that since mid-March, the company had seen four times newer customers, trying delivery or pickup of their online orders. Walmart’s store pickup and delivery spiked in March and remained elevated till April with sales growth of nearly 300% at peak. Walmart is offering multiple channels to their customers to order goods. To keep up with the demand, the store hired more personal shoppers, expanded pick-up slots, and launched Express Delivery, which allows delivery from their store to the doorsteps of their customers in under two hours. This service offers delivery options for more than 160,000 items of consumables and offers pick-up and delivery with “no-contact” customer service. Walmart also expanded 3000 stores in the nation. To reduce the friction in online sales, the company brought Walmart Grocery and Walmart App into one app. This way, the company serviced customers from fulfillment centers, from stores, or from picking up in stores. Using one single app, people were able to choose to do grocery pickup from the store or order from walmart.com. Supermarkets also faced a demand for entertainment items as people were staying home and had a lot of free time in spare. Due to the growing demand, Walmart started to in-stock entrainment items, education-related items, video games, board games, and the demand for Adult bicycles increased so much that it started selling out. Demand for Walmart’s home offerings at stores and online also increased.  Later, sales increases in categories like apparel, televisions, and toys. The spike in demand for items like hand sanitizers, disinfecting wipes, sprays, toilet paper, staple food, and even demand for laptops, home decoration items, and apparel increased so much that all of this was sold out in some of Walmart’s stores and online. For staple items, Walmart is offering next day delivery service to its customer. Walmart has been adding more slots to serve its customers with its online pickup option. The tech team of Walmart is working remotely while the vast majority of its workers are working in the stores to stock up shelves or pack products. The pandemic has caused some additional expenses for companies worldwide, like sanitation and cleaning in the stores. Walmart is trying to make sure that their team from supply chain to stores is working hard to provide people with essentials. For future operations, they have partnered with local regulatory/health authorities to discuss the specific requirements for their store safety. Apart from this, signboards are being placed on how to stop the spread of COVID-19 and promote everyday protective measures. Staff is making sure that every corner of the store is properly cleaned, stocked, sanitized, and disinfected, including high-touch areas like doorknobs, windows, display counters, checkout counters, etc. Managers are training their staff on how to properly clean, including washing hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, and ensuring the safe and correct application of disinfectants. They are also stocking cleaning and disinfecting supplies to accommodate ongoing cleaning and disinfection. Paper towels, hand sanitizers (minimum 60% alcohol and trash cans are placed in every corner of the store. They are also following a protocol to check employee health. For future operations, they will take measures like tape on floors, partitions, etc. to minimize face-to-face contact. Restrictions are being placed on the number of employees sharing spaces, including checkout counter, break rooms, and offices, to maintain at least a 6-foot distance. I believe that more and more retailers are shifting towards e-commerce business as this quicker and quicker e-commerce delivery is not going away anytime soon. (Baker, 2020)

 When the government released an order for the individual to stay-at-home, most retail stores were also ordered to close down. Businesses that carried health, food, and home improvement products remained opened as they were declared “essential” stores. Retailers like ‘non-essential’ businesses were most affected due to the lockdown, which disturbed the logistics and supply chain sector.  Retail stores like fashion brands and other stores faced huge losses during the pandemic. Many outlets switched to online businesses to fulfill the demands of customers, but they also faced online traffic. For example, a clothing retail store Next had to close its online store due to a huge amount of web traffic. This shows that the demand for ‘non-essential’ goods is still there.  Both customers and brands need to adapt to business online.  The impact of Covid-19 on countries like Pakistan as a whole and especially the textile sector and the retail market, was massive. The impact caused losses, the government-imposed ban on export, small businesses completely closed down, and many people lost their jobs. As the coronavirus pandemic takes hold in Pakistan, many businesses are going in retreat. The only businesses that have a chance at making it through this pandemic are the ones that will keep calm. If we take an example of Pakistan’s clothing brand So Kamal, they have been taking some major steps to work in this pandemic. So Kamal’s most important approach to run a business in this pandemic is to develop and strengthen its online sales platform. While physical stores are great to present products for customers, online sales give an edge to the company of reaching customers who want to shop from the comfort of their home. According to the CEO of So Kamal, she plans to make her brand the leader in online service as she believes that e-commerce business is now even more necessary. According to many retailers around the world, life won’t be the same, even after lockdown. People will be careful and maintain distances. So, the best way to run a business is through an online platform. So Kamal is working on developing a very strong e-commerce team to run their business. They aim to make more and more customers use their online service by offering them perks and making their platform as user friendly as possible. They are also investing in training their employees on how to communicate online with customers. In the future, they will be adopting trends like experiential retail, fashion collections, trend-predicting 3D printed garments, growing awareness towards social and environmental issues and AI, robots. During this difficult time, all the departments at So Kamal are continuously working to improve its efficiency and reduce overhead costs. They are focusing on enhancing online sales, which will lead to the acquisition of new customers and retain old customers. Their main goal is to focus on the implementation of a more automated retail system. Apart from this, as the government of Pakistan has allowed retails to operate daily by following SOPs, companies are making sure that their customers are safe and protected from viruses. They monitor every customer that they have their mask on, allowing few customers to enter their stores to avoid unnecessary contact and maintain 3 feet distance while waiting in the queue. They have placed hand sanitizers in every corner of the stores and monitors every individual’s temperature through thermometers. They have partnered with local regulatory/health authorities to discuss the specific requirements for their store safety. Apart from this, signboards are being placed on how to stop the spread of COVID-19 and promote everyday protective measures. Staff is making sure that every corner is properly cleaned, stocked, sanitized, and disinfected, including high-touch areas like doorknobs, windows, display counters, checkout counters, etc. Managers are training their staff on how to properly clean that includes washing hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds and ensuring the safe and correct application of disinfectants. They are also stocking cleaning and disinfecting supplies to accommodate ongoing cleaning and disinfection. Paper towels, hand sanitizers (minimum 60% alcohol and trash cans are placed in every corner of the store. They are also following a protocol to check employee health. For future operations, they take measures like tape on tape on floors, partitions, etc. to minimize face-to-face contact. Restrictions are being placed on the number of employees sharing spaces, including check out counter, break rooms, and offices to maintain at least a 6-foot distance. However, So Kamal is still trying to develop new ways to serve its customers without compromising on their employees’ safety and well-being. Retail businesses are being hit particularly bad across the country, so, in a situation like this, the first and most priority should be to take care of one’s workforce, particularly those daily laborers that are getting most affected.  Because once this pandemic is through, businesses will still need people around to help them get back on their feet, and a devastating workforce will not be able to do the needful. (Naqvi, 2020)

  Due to the current pandemic, the government ordered to close down all the restaurant dining rooms to avoid the spread of the virus among customers. This caused a tremendous amount of loss for the fast-food industry. To overcome this loss, restaurants adapted to new strategies to deliver their food to their customers. They shifted their business models to match the current demand for “shelter in place” eating experiences. If we take a look at McDonald’s, they adapted to changes to manage through the crisis. They implement measures all across the globe to keep customers and staff members safe, such as offering contactless Drive-thru and Delivery services, protective equipment for staff, and provided hygiene and cleaning procedures.  They are working closely with their suppliers and monitoring their activities so that they can continue to operate safe restaurants. Also, they are making sure that there are no breaks in supply for any food, packaging, toys or equipment globally.  McDonald’s is attempting to streamline kitchen operations. Their main goal is to increase drive-thru efficiency to prevent the further spread of the virus. They also narrowed down their menus to simplify operations for their staff like In USA McDonald’s all-day breakfast is temporarily being removed from the menu due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They are focusing on serving the most popular deals. McDonald’s supply chain did a great job to secure over 100 million non-medical grade masks for their employees. They are also encouraging their staff to use DIY masks. Under expert health guidance, they have continuously taken many steps to ensure the highest standards of cleanliness and employee hygiene. Apart from this, they are making sure that social distancing guidelines are being followed and also that large groups of customers are not gathered together inside their restaurants. McDonald’s is investing heavily in its app, allowing customers to place their orders before they even set foot in the door with exclusive discounts. In some countries, McDonald’s collaborates with a third delivery party like Food panda, Uber, Kareem, etc. to deliver food to their customers. Apart from this, they are operating drive-thru, delivery, and carryout only of a limited menu. Due to this situation, restaurant giants like McDonald’s are making sure that their food safety practices are being followed regularly.  They have partnered with local regulatory/health authorities to discuss the specific requirements for their food safety.

Apart from this, signboards are being placed on how to stop the spread of COVID-19 and promote everyday protective measures. Staff is making sure that every corner is properly cleaned, stocked, sanitized, and disinfected, including high-touch areas like doorknobs, display cases, equipment handles, checkout counters, etc. Managers in McDonald’s are training staff on how to properly clean that includes washing hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, and ensuring the safe and correct application of disinfectants. They are also stocking cleaning and disinfecting supplies to accommodate ongoing cleaning and disinfection. Paper towels, hand sanitizers (minimum 60% alcohol and trash cans are placed in every corner of the store. They are also following a protocol to check employee health. For future operations, they take measures like tape on floors, partitions, etc. to minimize face-to-face contact. Restrictions are being placed on the number of employees sharing spaces to maintain at least a 6-foot distance. (Donthu, 2020)

 What everyone is witnessing currently is unpredictable. It is global and is affect every brand, business, and individual. In this crisis, we look up to the institute for information, assurance, and direction. Likewise, people are looking up to brands for the same reasons. Its time, brands should work on how to help their consumers during this crisis. Rather than copy what their competitors are doing, brands should identify the unique ways to help and influence their customers during this crisis. As we all know, things are changing fast and drastically; hence, brands should plan on keeping their business running and retaining their current and future customers. In future brands should also anticipate changes in consumer behavior. Their needs, interaction, and expectations might change drastically, which will have a major impact on the brands. Due to this reason, only, brands need to stay invested and focused on building consumer relationships throughout the crisis. They need to stand by their customers, earn their trust, and should be able to add value to their lives. For example, if the brand is going out of stock due to the supply crisis or is currently facing a high demand for certain products, they need to make sure that their consumer is well informed about the current situation. By keeping them updated about the current situation, brands can prevent them from moving to another brand. Brands can go a long way if they show that they are doing their best in this current crisis. Brands should engage their consumer through multichannel communication like social media, website, SMS, email, or apps. This will allow brands and easy access to respond to their concerns, complaints, and query. Brands should make their consumer feel that they are being heard. This way, they can make their consumer stay. During this crisis, brands must explore ways to delight their customers, like talking about positive stories that can easily capture attention. Brands should show that good things are also happening around the world and that they should celebrate those moments. There is a chance to survive if businesses can adapt to changes. Retailers will have to work hard to adapt to changes and to meet customer requirements to win and remain relevant.   (Benzell, 2020)