New Business Opportunities in a post COVID World

By Kerry Johnson
Business Solution & Technology Specialist

The introduction of COVID to our world has seen some enduring change to the way we do business, from videotelephony meetings, working from home and online contactless buying.

In past articles we’ve covered ‘The new business software landscape and integration’ and the evolution of the ‘software eco-system’, now we get to explore some real practical examples that are here to stay as we adapt to the new ways of doing business.

Whether you’re in Retail, Hospitality or Distribution, there’s something for everyone, so there’s no excuse not to try something and adapt!

RETAIL – If you’ve got a retail outlet and you’re feeling constrained by flat retail trade or the impacts that COVID is still having with many workers operating from home and not hitting the streets, then think online.

Online you say, but that’s been around for years?

Yep, it sure has, but there are still many retail businesses that have not yet made the move.

Why you ask?

We’ll, for most of them, it’s just the perceived complexity and unrealistic cost, neither of which are still roadblocks to entering the online world. With advances in integration to retail POS solutions and simple, low-cost ecommerce options, entering the online world is no longer the challenge that it once was, providing your business with new opportunities to generate revenue from the big shift in our COVID world to the ease of online shopping.

Try it, you’ll be pleasantly surprised!

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HOSPITALITY – If hospitality is your thing, then going online is again your opportunity. We’ve seen some rapid growth in the last 12 months from online ordering platforms tailored to the hospitality industry. They were always coming, COVID has just given them a big shove!

These platforms aren’t just your average online ordering process, for they can support deals and promotions, delivery or pickup, options and variations. Many of them also allow you to filter by food requirements, like Gluten-Free, Vegan or Vegetarian so you can really tailor your offering to your market.

And to take it even further, introduce QR codes. They’re those square barcodes you can scan with your phone and open a menu for ordering direct from your device. They’re seeing a rapid take-up in the COVID world as they enable touchless ordering and payment and avoid queues at ordering stations where social distancing rules apply.

Like other forms of online transacting, it’s not hard, you just need to talk to the right people!

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DISTRIBUTION – If you’ve got a distribution / inventory-based business then there is a myriad of solutions available, many of which tick the ‘integrated solution’ box.

With Sales / Inventory at the core, on the one side you’ve typically got integration to your accounting solution, while on the other side you can have a broad range of sales ‘channels’.

In the ‘typical’ distribution process, you receive orders from your customers via email, phone or direct in store, but with a complete, integrated solution you could be receiving orders direct into your inventory solution from a range of sources, including, but not limited to:

B2B Portal – Your Wholesale customers enter their own orders and get their own        custom prices, on account or by payment gateway.

eCommerce – Your Retail customers order and pay direct via a range of popular eCommerce platforms. (e.g. Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce etc.)

Amazon / eBay – These platforms are becoming more popular as another sales channel / opportunity with direct integration possible with the right solution

Point of Sale – Yes, even direct Point of Sale may be a new opportunity if you’ve typically just serviced Wholesale customers.

Like it or not, thinking ‘outside the square’ has become an important thought process for every business operator.

This is an article for Business Blindspots Tasmania. To ensure you receive our regular updates from expert business advisers across a range of areas follow our  LinkedIn group.

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