2020 brought a lot of changes all around the world, and the most significant one is the Coronavirus. This pandemic caused a worldwide quarantine that crucially changed our behaviour and lifestyles. Together with the mental aspect, this pandemic caused some economic changes. As an inventory management software, we are concerned about our users, so we decided to gather the best tips on how to help your store during the quarantine.
How to help your store during the quarantine?
The essential thing during this period is to communicate with your customers and engage with them more. It is the key to mitigating as much damage as possible. Another idea is to guarantee that your store works perfectly, and when your customer gets there, they have the best possible experience. To achieve these two goals, we have seven tips that will help you.
1. Educate your customers
Whether your company sells products or provides services online and offline, this tip works for your business. While everyone spends most of their time at home, it is a great way to show them something valuable. We are speaking about useful video content. For instance, if you are working in the beauty industry, why not show your customers some tutorials of beauty procedures that they could do at home? Or if you are selling clothing, give tips about how people can DIY their old shirt to give it a new colour or silhouette. This kind of video is not very hard to make, but it might become priceless to your customers because they will see that you care about them. Furthermore, by creating and spreading useful content you might get new followers and customers!
2. Contests
You need to engage more with your customers during the quarantine because that’s the most straightforward way to help your store. One great way to do it is by creating contests with prizes. Contests will help you communicate with customers and reach a larger audience. However, to make them more efficient, you need to award prizes. It doesn’t matter if you are selling services or products because the award might be a coupon that they could use after the quarantine. Be creative and create exciting online contests!
3. Better shopping conditions
Basically, selling online is your only option to sell, so try to make it as attractive as possible. Create unique “quarantine” shipping discounts that would help your customer decide whether to buy from your store or not. You can even offer free shipping during these conditions. If discounting your shipping fees or offering free shipping is impossible, then pay extra attention to your customer service. Take care of each of your clients and ask if they are satisfied with their order. This simple message will show a lot from your side. Also, if you have enough time to ask your customer whether they are happy, there are chances that they will have time to leave a review on your store.
4. Share customer stories
As mentioned before, everyone currently spends more time at home, and that means that they need to be entertained there. What about telling funny and positive customer stories? This tip is also relevant for any business because it creates a more personal connection between you and your customer. Nothing works better than the real human touch. So, if you have any memories of customers or their comments, do not hesitate to share them online. It could even be stories from co-workers or something from the inside of your company. People love to hear stories, and especially when they are supposed to be at home without any outdoor activity. It is a great way to speak about the brand and the customers who trust you.
5. Ask for customer opinions
Create online voting, polls or a Q&A system to learn more about your customers. You can use this tactic to get their opinion on your store or to know what they think about your future plans. For example, you can leak a few of your new products to see what people think about them. You can also ask what they would like to purchase from you. Because of the quarantine and more free time, people are now more than ever willing to answer questionnaires. All you need to do is create some!
6. Participate in virus prevention
By saying participate, we not only mean that you should become a socially responsible business, which we know you already are. You should also be telling your customers what precautions you take to meet the situation seriously. This will also help you show them how safe it is to buy from you because you evaluate all the risks and you care about this pandemic. That means showing your customers that you use sanitizers, clean your environment and your employees work safely.
7. Be efficient
Despite all the marketing and appearances, your business needs to work efficiently from the inside. Whether times are good or bad, your execution needs to be flawless in order to not disappoint any customers. It is easier to achieve this when you optimise your business with a software solution. For instance, Multiorders is ready to help you with inventory, shipping and order management. It allows you to connect all your different stores into a consolidated system and manage everything with a few mouse clicks. We have a system in place that helps you print labels, ship with the best shipping rates and it even adds tracking numbers for you. These are just a few of the many features that Multiorders has to offer. Imagine what you could offer to your customers with that kind of business efficiency. Stop imagining and try it for free!
