This is the first of a series of episodes that addresses how the eCommerce industry should respond to the Coronavirus global epidemic. We can say that the world literally stopped when we were all hit by this menacing virus. Not only has it taken away thousands of lives all over the world, but the lockdowns worldwide have also disrupted our normal daily lives, shut down businesses, and crashed numerous markets across the globe.

Indeed, the Coronavirus put everything to a halt and even the eCommerce space is heavily impacted by this outbreak. If you’re an online retailer who’s also currently struggling with the effects of this pandemic and you are stumped at how you can manage your staff and business operations amidst this crisis, then we present to you our panel of experts here to help you navigate and reinvent your business to survive the biggest challenge the world is facing today.

So, in today’s episode, Kunle interviews three experts that are serving the eCommerce industry in varying degrees from AI/Machine Learning to warehouse, distribution, and manufacturing. Join us as we discuss the strategies on how you can effectively communicate with your staff, partners, and customers, manage expenses and payroll and set up remote work arrangements to keep your business operational.

Covered Topics:

• How to effectively communicate with employees, vendors, and customers
• Warehousing and Fulfillment
• Remote working

Podcast Show Notes:

• 02:00 – Easily Grow Your Business With A Powerful Marketing Automation Platform! Check out Klaviyo
• 08:37 – Introducing Our Expert Panel
• 10:34 – What businesses should do in the wake of Coronavirus
  • Preparing a Contingency Plan
  • Practicing Disinfection Measures
  • Remote Work Setups
• 14:47 – Major Issues for the “Next Shift”
  • Global Impact Consequences
• 16:05 – What can we expect in the future?
  • Shipping concerns
  • Drop in consumer demand
• 19:17 – How are things on Amazon right now?
  • Priority over essential items
  • Gauge and forecast your demand depending on the type of item you are offering. Is it relevant? Is it critical?
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• 24:51 – Operating businesses during the COVID-19 crisis
  • Cash Preservation – defer payments
  • Limit your spending.
  • Reinvent your business.
• 27:28 – Managing expenses and payroll
  • Hoping for the best but planning for the worst.
  • Layoffs and Paid Leaves
  • Finding alternative sources of supply
• 30:21 – The empathetic side of the situation
  • Radical Transparency
  • Open and clear communication channels.
  • Offer help when you can.
• 34:41 – Remote working Strategies
  • Make use of tools and technologies – , Trello, Asana, Zoom.
  • Arrange work from home setups.
  • Minimize the actual physical attendance required.
  • Keep the engine going as far as to keep those reserves so you can keep your staff for as long as you can.
  • Creating a workflow–scheduling periodic conference calls.
• 41:00 – Complying with government restrictions
• 44:08 – Join the 2xEcommerce Facebook Group

Topic Takeaways:

• You should have a contingency plan in place. Always plan for the worst-case scenario.
• Preserve your cash and try to defer payments as much as you can.
• The one big effect that you will see specifically through Amazon is you will see less and less availability of non-critical stuff as Amazon focuses on critical stuff.
• Devise a remote work strategy or setup so you can still keep up with your operations and retain your staff.

Tweetable Quotes:

You need to evaluate your entire business process and try to identify the weakest points of those, and optimize for those as soon as possible.

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