Ripping Out the Roots

When you look at the news, local and otherwise, there seems to be countless sources of collateral damage associated with the unexpected appearance of COVID-19 in the first quarter of 2020 – the shutdown of production in China, the ripples through the global supply chain, the virtual zeroing out of the travel, and events vertical and the carnage on Wall Street. More locally you see the shutting down of normal purchasing from every business except the grocery stores. Big box stores, to mom and pop stores alike are feeling the effects of the quarantine requirements.

For those who relied heavily or solely on their storefront presence are now asking the question about how long they can hold out without any income and asking the even better question, on how can I keep my business afloat now that my front door is closed? A rush to having an effective online presence i.e. a website that accurately represents the products and services the company provides, the outreach activities on Reputation Management and Social platforms to bring in the eyes and interest from the web, along with all the technical requirements of shopping carts, SSL Certificates, Payment Gateways, etc., can seem quite overwhelming.

In the global world of ecommerce digital trends that had already started to emerge in the market – recognizable branding online, purposeful marketing activities that bring viewers into a company touchpoint, centered around decentralized work, remote communications and pushing global remittances, for example – are now mission-critical in the age of COVID-19. What might have been considered optional six months ago for a business owner might make the difference between which companies are here three months from now and which are not.

It is the ones who react quickly to adopt new processes and practices that will be able to survive and retake market share. The weak ones that move slowly will probably suffer tremendously before they are forced to shutter their doors.

It is our goal at FigPay to help their future and current clientele land among the former rather than the latter as the world recovers – and to be ready to implement what we’ve learned at the height of the Pandemic, as the rest of the business world struggles to get through the darkness before the proverbial dawn.

The Reality for Most

A survey of 500 merchants about their inventory level and sales expectation. More than half of respondents indicated that their total inventory in possession (FBA, in transit or received) will last less than two months, while close to 25 percent of those surveyed had inventory for less than a month. When asked how the virus will impact sales, the average estimate is about a 20-30 percent sales drop for Q1. Bear in mind that this was back when the virus was mostly limited to China, before it became a global threat. The key to keeping things moving is providing merchants with undergirding support – from quickly adoptable website features to access numbers for acquisition – which will give them the stability they need to not only weather the storm but also to combine digital tools with the rarefied situation to reap the rewards of boldness.

The Solution Needed

With the proper planning and execution a company can successfully leverage digital platforms and solutions to kick-start a market that is stalling in certain places. We at FigPay have brought to the market FigPay360, the complete ecommerce suite, that provides those looking to get to the next level of their online presence and revenues in a succinct way.

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 in 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.

These changes we see are the green shoots of new growth here and there, and that is definitely going to be a major enabler and accelerator for those winners will be who know how to tap into this and figure it out. They can then carry the solutions, experiences and habits they are building with their consumers into the future – when digital is no longer just a means of hiding out from a virus, but a means of tapping into a wider range of commerce modes, with a bigger range of partners all over the globe.