Covid-19 suddenly brought us multiple challenges: health, economic, social and technological.
Overnight, we entered a new reality: living while disinfecting everything, working from home while trying to be our children’s teachers, longing for something as simple as going out and getting together with friends and family; we are already in the new normal.
On the technology side, we faced other complications, from holding video conferences and downloading apps for them, to running into a saturated network and confirming that we were not prepared and, still are not.
Companies that have invested in technological optimization have a big advantage and, even so, they have fallen short, both in responding to online sales given the massive demand and in the logistics of product delivery.
One of the few advantages of the pandemic will be precisely the growth of e-commerce: those who were reluctant to choose a product online or distrusted it because of possible fraud now have overriding health reasons to click and buy.
The study “Impact of Covid-19 on Online Sales in Mexico”, carried out by the Mexican Online Sales Association https://www.amvo.org.mx/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/AMVO_Estudio_impactoCOVID-19_P%C3%BAblica-1.pdf reveals that the impact on business volume will be harder to overcome for micro-enterprises, which will be the most vulnerable to such a massive event, while large and medium-sized companies will manage to grow.
Companies are not prepared for an event like this, compounded by the depreciation of the peso against the dollar.
The same study measured how they are seeking to respond to and overcome the recession; there are three main strategies: work flexibility, implementation of remote project management programs and digitalization of internal services and customer services.
Now more than ever it is necessary to invest in preparing digitalized business processes. The crisis caused by COVID only confirms that technology is an indispensable tool in companies and that it helps to be closer to the customer even in these circumstances.