Assuredly, as world events like 9/11 reshaped the world of the consumer, what is happening now is bound to reshape society in lasting ways. The current pandemic is shining a bright light across countless industries, markets, and businesses unearthing both vulnerabilities and opportunities. One major item that has become more clear to all business owners is that how one does their business ecommerce needs to become an even more sizeable force. You name the market or vertical, and hardly any company hasn’t been adversely affected by the economic shutdown.

In a new report, executive search firm ON Partners is weighing in on what to expect across a variety of industries, including supply chain, ecommerce, private equity, telecom and telemedicine, software and life sciences. Here is what the Hudson, OH-based recruitment firm has to say about how the virus will impact key sectors and the shifting demand for leadership:

Disruption Within the Supply Chain

“They [supply-chain executives] have sharpened their supply-chain risk management processes after each [prior] disruption, but we’ve never seen a disruption like this where world powers are telling their people to stay home and not work, effectively eliminating all contingency solutions,” the search firm said. “Additionally, as they move to mitigate the risks of these new challenges, longer-term questions arise: Should we bring sourcing back onshore? How much inventory do we need to tide over in this crisis? With a global health pandemic and no clear view on when or how it will be resolved, supply chain executives are scrambling for a new normal.”

As a C-level executive or sole business owner, we need to take into consideration that what we were offering to our public may have longer delivery times placed upon them than were before. As we look to be providing that greater customer service, we need to provide the expectation of how long that difference will be from then to now.

Ecommerce Turn

Nervous consumers will continue to turn to online shopping to avoid stores, online and Ecommerce channels will continue to grow and scale and become an even more important business channel across all markets, said the report.

“Companies will increase their percentage of manufacturing and distribution centers here in the U.S. to become less reliant on foreign governments and look to increase ways to sell and distribute online/virtually,” according to partner Marc Gasperino.

This pandemic has shown to nearly everyone looking to do business, how important it is to have a fully functioning online presence. That by doing so, you not only have the right representation about your products and services, but you also have a clear way to sell those to your target audience.

Businesses are scrambling to upload their services and crafts online, and are having a hard time getting their demographic audiences to find or acknowledge them when they are there. It is hard in normal circumstances to create that awareness, just imagine the point where your business lives or dies upon the success or failure of doing so. That is what many businesses are facing right now.

What your company needs, beyond a great and fast performing web designer, are the tools that are necessary for a business to gain that exposure and awareness as quickly as possible without breaking the bank.

Online Success Components

Here’s what businesses need to have for their online presence to realize the success and revenues that are desired

  • Proper Reputation Positioning – The impulse to look up a business has shifted from the now-defunct Yellow pages to bringing up a browser and looking them up on Google. Their Google My Business listings come to be a huge factor in what potential customers find out about the company. Your Reputation Management must be robust to be able to bring in those looking for you in your own “backyard”.
  • Secure Platform to Transact – Data breaches and hacking of the financial data has unfortunately become a common occurrence, the better you equip your site with SSL Certified encryption and PCI measures the better you are able to protect the data, and grow the confidence of your customers to do business with you, and do it more often.
  • Onsite Confidence Builders – When someone receives an unsolicited testimonial or review about a product or service item, they give it more weight than if it was in a commercial or promotion piece. Having verified, real-time customers providing those recommendations again builds on that confidence on doing business with a company online.
  • Sales Assist Strategies – Cart abandonment is the number one concern and the point of the sale process where merchants lose the revenue. There are several strategies that are available to re-engage the customer and rescue the sale. Instead of recommitting them to do business with you, you can remind them what they want to buy from you.
  • Reliable Revenues Procurement – Nothing can be transacted, no product delivered, no service provided unless the money for such has been successfully transferred. When a company has the ability to take multiple forms of payment (credit, debit, etc.) on their website reliably and not having to pay extra for that online convenience is a win-win in anybody’s book. Having the right Merchant Account and Card Processing abilities are a must for any ecommerce efforts to be successful.

This all can be acquired by sourcing several places, or by bringing onboard FigPay360 the complete ecommerce suite. Each component for a company’s online success is found in this one solution built for those who have their business online or are bringing their already existing business to the Internet superhighway. Find out how you can take full advantage of the Complete Suite for your ecommerce needs.

A Critical Time for Leadership

“To navigate the tumultuous business landscape, companies, boards and investors will be seeking leaders with a proven track record of dealing with challenging situations who are capable of sound decision-making,” the ON Partners report said. “Gravitas in chaos – leaders who contribute to the calm, not to the chaos – is essential.”

As you and your company are facing these turbulent times, you need to have that emotional quotient of bringing in the right solutions to the problems now being faced. Utilizing the strategic view that FigPay360 provides will keep your doors open and able to service the markets you have in the past by turning what is presently a weakness for your business into its strength.