Coffee Talk: How this crisis is shaping the future of business beyond 2021
As consumers, we’ve shifted from the coping phase into the rebuilding phase of the COVID-19 crisis. Business through and beyond 2021 will require flexibility and strategies to pivot to keep up with these consumer phases for survival.
What was once an unthinkable reality has become more normal than shocking. Local retailers and restaurants closed overnight, store shelves emptied, new words like “social distancing” and “essential workers” entering our vocabulary, and crazy demand for products we never could have predicted (looking at you, toilet paper).
Through this transition, it has become clear that some of the consumer behaviors we saw as an immediate response to the pandemic will gladly be left behind. (Again, looking at you toilet paper hoarders). Others are likely to persist long after it ends.
Survival has become the main priority for most business owners in 2020 and 2021. Getting through this crisis by any means necessary. I can empathize with this approach as I employed it myself.
As the situation has prolonged, however, some patterns have emerged. Is there a way to thrive in this crisis instead of simply looking to survive? Through this article, I’m going to explore four of those shifts. With each shift, I’ll give ideas for how businesses can come up with strategies to pivot. These strategies to pivot will help your business to keep up (or get ahead) to compete in a new reality.
Shift 1: Community-First
One of the most impactful shifts we’ve seen for business in 2020 and into 2021 likely to persist is the shift in community awareness.
On one hand, around the globe, we’ve been more likely to build local relationships and offer a hand to strangers in our community who need it. This is a return in some ways to an ancient human instinct to protect our local community (stronger together mentality).
On the other hand, we have also realized how fragile our global supply chains are. We have seen the potential drawbacks of globalization — many of us now realizing the vulnerabilities outsourcing creates. Supply chains have been stretched to the brink and when push comes to shove, countries look to protect their own first. Dependency on those outside our community begins to feel risky.
(Note: I’m not anti-globalization, for the record.)
These two forces when pushed together as they have been, create an opportunity for local businesses and manufacturing.
Questions for Thought: Can you tap into the “locality” of your business and build relationships? Even if your business is online, can you make it feel relationship and community-based? What would your most loyal customers say about you — how can you tap into that perception to create a community narrative?
Shift 2: Focus on Health
If there’s one thing this pandemic has taught us, it’s that many of us will go to great lengths (and costs) to protect our health.
This trend was growing for many years before this, but I like to think the pandemic created a catalyst that pushed this trend more mainstream.
Our entire lives have changed to revolve around health: staying virus-free has created an awareness of what “pre-existing” conditions are. Many Americans, for example, were shocked to find themselves in that category.
There’s also a sense of resentment for the virus and its effects on daily life. When people feel that they are not in control of their lives, they begin to look to things they can control for comfort. This is where a healthy home, lifestyle, or work-life balance can come to the rescue.
Questions for Thought: Can your business contribute to a literal or sensation of a healthy lifestyle? How can you pivot to contribute to an individual’s or community’s well-being? Is there something about your business that can cultivate a feeling of autonomy?
Shift 3: Conscious Consumerism
The third trend we’ve seen is a dramatic shift to conscious consumerism. A heightened awareness of the things we buy and limiting purchases to more essential items. (Note: this is both through personal choice and through force as our “non-essential” stores closed).
There have been pushes of this nature in recent memory (pre-pandemic) through minimalism and the eco-first movements. But none have had as dramatic of an impact as the pending collapse of the infrastructure that makes our economy run.
When people fear they will be laid off or that the food supply will dry up, non-essentials for immediate survival take a back seat. Or do they?
For a portion of consumers — yes, there has been a dramatic decrease in their desire to make frivolous purchases. But for many others, there has simply been a shift in what they purchase, not how much.
Experts have questioned the survival of capitalism, but I don’t see it that way. To me, it looks like people are largely still happy to make non-essential purchases as long as they can be justified.
For example, home decor and furnishings have been boosted by the pandemic. Chances are that the home furnishings already in most people’s homes were largely adequate for life in lockdown (and thus arguably non-essential). A truly essential purchase, I’d argue, means a purchase of something that cannot be done without. But that’s not what we’ve seen (any table/countertop surface can function as a desk, for example).
How can we use this information?
This is evidence that if there’s a justifiable reason to purchase something (like home decor — we’re stuck and looking at our homes a lot now), it’s worthwhile to purchase.
It’s the unarguably non-justifiable purchases, things like luxury brand name apparel, lavish 5-star vacations, or expensive frivolous jewelry that have and will continue to suffer if they can’t come up with a way to justify themselves to consumers.
The concluding thought here is that people will increasingly now look for meaning beyond the simple act of consumption to justify a purchase. It doesn’t always need to be an air-tight justification or the answer to a direct need. But it does have to have some level of meaning that feels like enough to the consumer.
Questions for Thought: How can you create a deeper meaning for your product or service? What problem does your business solve? How can you make the value you add even clearer or more directly relatable to consumers? Can you come up with strategies to pivot your business model and add a new value proposition?
Shift 4: Work-from-Home
The fourth trend we’ll discuss in this article is the shift to work-from-home. While the literal option to work from home is only available to a portion of consumers, the concept of staying home where we can has become universal.
There is similarly a degree of reluctance to resume normal activities. Many consumers report growing comfort with online purchases and growing discomfort around being out in public. While this is not likely a permanent change, it’s one that will need to be considered to get through the crisis.
This shift will have an impact on all brick-and-mortar establishments. There will be less, “I’ll stop on my way home” or “I’ll grab it on my way to work” type-purchases. This will undoubtedly have an impact on the businesses that rely on these moments of prior commuter convenience.
These businesses will need to create a bit more of an attraction to survive (establishments like coffee shops, for example). The fewer opportunities you have to be convenient, the greater your need to be worthwhile to compensate for it.
Questions for Thought: Can you ease discomfort with the experience in the interim? If people have to go out of their way to purchase from you, how can you make it worth it? Is there an easy way to add value through an in-person experience? Can you come up with strategies to pivot your business model and add back some convenience where it has been lost? Better yet, can you add that convenience without added cost to your consumer?
Concluding Thoughts: Business Through and Beyond 2021
As we begin to accept the loss of normalcy, we can adapt and change for the better. It’s those of us clinging to what was, counting down the days to an undetermined future reality, who will lose in this season. Can you come up with strategies to pivot your business in 2021 to adapt to this new reality and thrive both through and beyond this pandemic?
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