The coronavirus (COVID19) has had many repercussions in the way business is done. Some companies have benefited from the outbreak; others have succumbed to the crisis. In just one weekend, many brands wiped out not only store inventories but those of local distributors. It’s a new reality for everyone. How supermarkets adapt to digital changes to face the pandemic?
The cry of the pandemic revealed that we did not have strong ties in the supply chains, and weeks after the euphoria of exhausting inventories we found ourselves in short supply and not for lack of product, but for lack of logistics entities that help in the supply chain.
Supermarkets, convenience stores, and small wineries have had to take leaps and bounds to make digital changes, from reactivating the use of social networks to tell your community the hours of operation, to being able to offer e-commerce services in order to sell online.
The new reality due to digital changes generates new jobs in an accelerated way, such as the famous “shoppers” who now buy on behalf of the customer, either to leave the grocery order ready to be picked up or to send it to the buyer’s home.
This new way of grocery shopping has the advantage of saving time and avoid public exposure, but it has some downsides, such as not being able to pick exactly what you wanted in your shopping cart.
From now on, the space on the shelves stopped being physical and became digital, now the brands and the SKUs fight on the screen of a cell phone of a person in his house ordering the products for his family during the whole week waiting for someone to choose them well.
How is the digital changes battle fought at the brand level? It is simple: creativity, marketing, and constant brand presence inside and outside these platforms.
Brands in this era have to fight within digital supermarkets, so the content they can offer on social networks and in related communities is vital.
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They have to create alliances with influencers and thought leaders who give them an authority on the industry they represent. They need to invest in linked products within the platform that the consumer uses within the supermarket when making their purchase.
For instance: when people choose meat for roasting, tortillas or some type of seasoning should appear as suggestions for companions.
The bottom line is that traditional grocery shopping has changed. These weeks of social isolation will generate new consumer behaviors and new ways of seeing e-commerce as we knew it, as well as brands in the way they market their products or services. Digital changes have the floor.