Will Businesses Be Forced To Shut Down In Times Of Covid-19 Pandemic?

Business
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#1

There isn’t a doubt that the Covid-19 virus has brought recession over the globe.

In 2020, businesses have suffered and are forced to maintain health protocols for the safety of their team members, people are unemployed, and the poverty rate is increasing.

Helping to overcome the Covid-19 virus, hundreds of organizations are playing a role in the distribution of the vaccine, adapting their operations to meet demands for volume, speed, and better technology.

Suppliers, manufacturers, and regulators are collaborating to ramp up the production of vaccines. Massive volumes handled, distributed, stored through cold chains, and every step in the process must adhere to safety regulations.

However, at a certain end, there is vaccine skepticism to be overcome. This challenge will contribute to the delay in the deployment of the vaccine.

With this delay, many businesses if in a lockdown state, will be forced to shut down before the recovery stage has begun.

We hope you’re taking additional precautionary steps to help your business thrive even during these challenging times for many people.

Here’s a great platform providing great business advice and insights. Read more here. Good luck!

#2

The effects of global pandemic, Covid-19, on every sector of social and personal lives are evident today. But an intriguing question here is how will it continue to affect us all in the future generally and businesses specifically. ‘Will businesses be forced to shut down forever?’ is a question which needs much primary research to be answered. Let’s briefly see what the recent researches suggest and draw deductions thereof.
When we examine the effect of the pandemic on businesses we need to divide them into two types based on their ability to resist unfavorable circumstances i.e. the large businesses which can consume the effect of such blows and the small businesses which are not so good at dealing with unfavorable circumstances because of scarcity of back-up. As for the large businesses such as corporations and partnerships, their closure owing to covid-19 is lesser than Small and Medium Businesses (SMEs). This is because they have a diversified portfolio and also it is easier for them to pass on the losses to shareholders. In addition they have enough resources as reserved to cope with unfavorable circumstances. Furthermore they can employ resources to shift to e-commerce. SMEs do not enjoy such dampening factors against unfavorable circumstances.
So the question here is whether SMEs, which are not online, will be able to regain the customers it had before the pandemic? The answer will be a clear no. Recent researcher suggest that more people are opting to online shopping than physical. A report of UNCTAD shows continuous increase in online shoppers since pandemic. The result will be loss of a good chunk of customers who used to buy offline from SMEs. This will intensify the already
raging fierce competition among SMEs to gain customers and so those who fail will be forced to shut down forever. A survey by the Fortune seconds the data above stating an astounding figure of 100,000 establishments which were forced into oblivion after temporary shutdown owing to Covid.
But if you are an owner of an SME you need not lose heart as many SMEs will emerge as victors in the competition. Though going online will definitely help you gain sales but if you don’t have the resources to do so develop a strategy which will help you regain the market-share from the remaining chunk of offline shoppers. Your strategy should be centered on providing better services to customer than your competitors who are selling offline. You may even compete with those who have gone online with better services to regain the customers from them.
In short the circumstances after Covid are unfavorable for SMEs due to decreased number of offline shoppers but a good strategy to gain customers will help your business emerge to pre-covid state in a few months. The important thing you need to answer is whether you have resources to go online and want to compete there or don’t have enough resources to go online and want to compete offline sellers. Whichever category you are in, you are safe if you have a good strategy to gain market-share.