The effects of COVID-19 on e-commerce: A success story
We believe that we can now say that the global COVID-19 pandemic is likely to be one of the defining events of 2020 and that there will be implications that will affect all of us, both personally and professionally.
The situation is changing rapidly around the world. The COVID-19 pandemic is being called a “black swan” by many marketing experts. The black swan theory, is a metaphor that describes an event which comes as a surprise and deviates beyond what is normally expected; a situation that is extremely difficult to predict.
As COVID-19 is spreading around the world, companies are starting to be more careful about the health of their employees and the rest of the people they are in constant contact with. Focusing on our sector, since the registration of the first case in Albania, TOK / Digital Agency but also many agencies, decided to work from home. Thanks to the internet and the fact that most of our work is mostly digital, it has been easy to make such a decision which helps in reducing the spread of the virus.
For some of us working from home is not something new, as we may have had previous experiences like freelancer or outsourcing, but many companies need to get used to this new reality. However, this new way of working does not prevent us from being available, creative and doing a productive and efficient work from home.
New reality, new way of buying
People are gradually getting used to this new reality, and online shopping is one of them. People’s access to e-commerce in Albania changed almost overnight. Quarantine and insecurity changed their behavior in so-called shopping as well as the products they buy, when and how they buy these products.
When cities are quarantined, non-essential businesses are ordered to close and customers are forced to avoid public spaces, buying essentials has become the new rate of shopping. In this new reality, brands are forced to reconsider the way they do business as well as focus on finding new opportunities.
The spread of COVID-19 has made that not only in Albania but in a good part of the countries, the shopping centers are empty. Consequently stores are trying to fill this gap through online sales. The time to adapt to this new situation can be short but the opportunity is quite large, and this is shown by our experience with the SPAR supermarket in Albania.
e-commerce in Albania
For various reasons, buying food online was something that was not possible in Albania, or better to say until SPAR addressed TOK / Digital Agency. During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, supermarkets attempted to offer online shopping services but not in the full sense of e-commerce. You can place orders via phone and communication networks like Instagram, Whatsapp and Viber, but this was not very practical for both shoppers and supermarkets.
When it comes to emergencies but also marketing in 2020, the use of traditional methods no longer works. In a digital environment where everything is constantly changing, businesses turn to marketing agencies to help them build and grow their brands. Such was the case with SPAR.
TOK / Digital Agency turns SPAR into one of the first supermarkets in the country where you can buy online
SPAR turned to TOK / Digital Agency to develop its e-commerce marketing strategy, thanks to the experience and access we have to the best and newest techniques, tools and resources in this unexplored technology in the Albanian market .
In a record time of seven days we managed to make SPAR, one of the first supermarkets in Albania that implements e-commerce in the market, giving it an advantage over the competition in their field.
Our team of experts at TOK / Digital Agency, composed of the best designers, developers and strategists, provided special solutions for the SPAR supermarket chain in the field of e-commerce. Thanks to our experience in this field, our client managed in record time, to have a fully functional online sales site, with high performance and user friendly. This site was designed with the main goal: an improved and simpler experience for the user, taking care of their health but also of the SPAR staff during the COVID-19 pandemic and of course, the generation of online revenue of our client.
We helped our client not only to better manage their digital strategy and grow his business through internet marketing, but also to contribute to avoiding the spread of the pandemic and to help Albanian citizens in these difficult times.
We hope that during this difficult period we are facing, this success story will raise awareness of other brands to implement e-commerce. Exploring new platforms and digital marketing will make these businesses not only innovative in the Albanian market but will also give them superiority over the competition.
Also, not to be forgotten is the great help that this will give to the citizens during these difficult days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stay safe and use e-commerce.
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