Business not as usual!
This virus has plagued our lives for the better half of 2020 now.
Ever since we first came across this strange Corona virus term, none of us had imagined just how much of an impact it would have on us.
I remember at the beginning, we were just debating whether this virus really came from eating bats.
Netizens everywhere were quick to lay the blame on China and the Chinese.
People condemned them as a ruthless cruel and uncivilised nation.
Yet despite the seemingly bad press, China rose to the occasion and came out stronger showing the world their resolve and determination to solve this crisis.
So much so, that the Nikkei Asian Review had plenty of good words to say about them.
The “Made in China” Catastrophe
Alas, the damage was done.
As the virus quickly envelope the world, the big nations discovered to their horror how dependent we are on China.
For a long time now, we had always thought that if the Chinese stopped buying, businesses would suffer. Economy would crash.
After all, they are the biggest spenders right?
Who would have thought that the reverse was equally bad.
Because suddenly, as China went into lockdown, they closed their factories with them and along went the supplies.
Supply chains were disrupted and companies didn’t have products to sell. Shelves were left bare. CNBC even labelled it as a havoc situation.
Then our fears came true.
The economies around the world started falling apart. One by one.
The Finger Pointing Begins
The first to go were the businesses that weren’t ready.
To be fair, there were ample warning but most chose to ignore it.
While South East Asia went into full lock down mode, the Western countries continued partying.
Before you know it. Italy, Spain, Uk, and now even the US are in a frenzy.
As the death count rose, everyone started blaming China for this “Chinese” virus.
Pretty soon, the only news around the world is Covid-19 or Corona virus. That’s all we’re concerned about.
Websites started popping up to keep track of the latest Covid figures.
Even our Ministry of Health (MOH) dedicated a page to post latest updates on the situation in Singapore.
Go Online or Go Burst
For years, web designers and internet marketers have preached the importance of having a website.
I even recounted my experience shopping for a cabinet online and how different things are back in late 2018.
Little did I foresee that a pandemic would force businesses to adapt rapidly.
When the government imposed the lock down, sorry, Circuit Breaker in March…
Reality struck.
Small businesses that never had an online option were left stranded. No doubt the government released measures to help, but many of them were “too little, too late”.
Even now, almost 4 months later, we’re still hearing of companies winding up and retrenchment news ablaze in the air.
In fact, just yesterday, the Straits Times reported that Resort World Sentosa was conducting a retrenchment exercise.
Opportunities for the Fast Movers
However, like all crisis, there are those who moved quickly and capitalised on the situation.
Well, obviously there are those who took advantage and stocked up on masks and hand sanitisers.
I have my own comments about this group.
But there are others who saw the warning sign and reacted quickly.
They knew that our lives were about to change. Forever.
That the old way of shopping, interacting, communicating would be forced to evolve.
And pretty soon, those of us who had never heard of the term webinar before, are now familiar with Zoom.
Those of us who would walk miles to order dinner, suddenly have a grabfood account. Or deliveroo or foodpanda.
Out of the blues, it became an introvert’s world leaving many extraverts struggling to stay sane being cooped up in their homes.
Naturally the businesses adapted as well.
And we started seeing all kinds of “new age” online salesman.
The most prominent of which has got to be our local actor, Wang Lei and his fish selling FB live channel. Mothership did an interview with him and did an interesting write-up on his unexpected journey online.
Supporting Local Businesses
One of the things about digitalisation is that our options increases.
And the drawback is there is lesser reasons to buy locally.
Especially when there are cheaper variations from countries with cheaper manpower and resources.
It was heartwarming to me then that a trend to #supportlocalsg started appearing to encourage others to help our fellow Singaporeans.
And for the first time, I started seeing many “new” old businesses entering the digital arena.
Perhaps one of the most interesting one to me was how a local durian seller partnered with digital specialists to start an online stall. (Yes, stall not store)
From a young age, I’ve always heard stories that you need to choose durians yourself.
You got knock the durian, or smell it, or inspect the stem, and all sort of other weird rituals.
And to go online means, buyers are not going to have that option.
Would they still buy durians then?
Apparently, doing a keyword research revealed to me that there was a growing trend for durian delivery services in Singapore, a whopping 3,600 average searches a month. Naturally, this same vendor starting providing delivery services as well, which you can see on the home page.
That means I could start ordering all my usual favourites like the popular Mao Shan Wang, or Red Prawn, or even the lesser known varieties like Black Gold or Black Pearl.
And since I’ve never had the skills to pick durians to begin with, it doesn’t bother me that much.
But it got thinking…
Was this a one-off trend or is this situation here to stay?
Delivery the New Buzzword
I think you can guess as well the result of my quick keyword search and analysis.
I tried looking a few other keywords, and almost anything with the words “delivery” showed the same trend and pattern.
People are requesting for more delivery services.
My naive idea was that people would order takeaways or prepacked food because of the situation.
But apparently as everyone is trapped at home, many more are starting to cook as well.
Maybe it’s because we have more time now since there is much travelling to do.
But every search terms like seafood delivery were on the rise.
Don’t we usually want our seafood fresh?
Yet, the online buyers were speaking and doing the searches.
We’ve now entered phase 2 and technically are allowed to go back into public areas.
But it has left its mark.
Most of us prefer the online world now as it is safer and most websites have proven to be trustworthy.
Will we revert once this whole pandemic is over?
I guess only time will tell. (On the plus side, I’ll have something to talk about then)
For now, stay safe everyone.
Image Credit: Background vector created by starline – www.freepik.com
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