Times have changed. I’m not going to talk about how this pandemic has changed our shopping habits – how we have been ‘forced’ to shop online – as shops are closed… but I did want to talk about how companies have adapted. Quickly. And some who have not.
The latest phrase I saw was… In-Store or To Your Door! – which I thought was great. Simple. Catchy and more importantly a very simple approach to how you can get your goods.
But as a company, how quick can you move?
Very quick. All depends on you. Are you ready to change? Are you ready to adapt?
Heinz to Home. Heinz being able to deliver to your home what you want from their product range. Yes there’s limits and restrictions but the key thing is – you can still get your baked beans…. essentials are important, right?
There’s a few companies who have upped their online presence and upped their game to sell online. But then there’s a few who haven’t.
Take Primark for example. £650m a month to zero. Their business model is all in-store. Nothing online. They don’t offer you an opportunity to purchase anything online.
Now – this was tweeted earlier in the week.
Primark has it’s own website. They have all the clothes listed with information etc… How hard is it to built a payment mechanism so people can add garments to a ‘trolley’, ‘checkout’ and then ‘pay’…?
Ok… Primark don’t want to do that. What’s stopping me?
Well, Bal… you don’t have the Primark website!
No. But www. primarkonline.store is available to buy. I can ‘ask’ to copy the images. And if I could get an agreement to buy bulk clothes from Primark, in a matter of no time…. I could be selling Primark clothes online!
Yes… question could be, do people want to buy clothes online if they’re not going out… everything is on lockdown. Maybe… it could be people need more homewear… lounge wear… nightwear… etc…
The point is…. make your business model reflect the conditions. Put in place what you can, to ensure it’ll be in store…. or ensure, you can get it to their door!
I’m not offering any services to set organisations and/or businesses up to function online… but am offering a service where I can advise you, point you in the right direction to set it up yourself (because I’ll be honest – it’s really easy!) and I can guide you.. on how to adapt. The key thing is – where’s your customer… and how can you get your product to them.
Goes back to the basics of Lean Thinking (if you don’t know about Lean Thinking – you should go google it and research it!) – it’s all about the timeline from when a customer orders to the moment they receive the goods and you get the money.
That should be the shortest amount of time possible.
