One thing's is for sure, the market will NO LONGER BE THE SAME.
With that being said, what can we do about it?
we have to understand where the trend will be going.
Understanding the trend of where consumer demands will go is always the essential key for every business to work.
So with the Movement Control Order in place, and everybody is going online to make purchases and orders, does it translate that the market is going TOTAL DIGITIZATION?
If the market is moving towards TOTAL DIGITIZATION, tell me, why are most of the people who stay at home during this period are complaining?
Or is this a temporary spike of online purchasing, because they have to?
Yes, you can say that it triggers them to try to purchase online, but will it be the long lasting future?
Will people stop going to a cafe with their friends and family to enjoy a great cup of coffee and appreciate the presence of their loved ones?
Will people stop going to a retail showroom to check out of that piece of furniture that they are choosing to fit into their house and feel the material and texture of the leather sofa physically? Yes, before vaccine and cure are developed, the market will not be the same as we know, but we also have to know where exactly is the market moving towards, and how we should cope with that.
what should we, as a business really look into, after this pandemic lesson?
Yes, even the news said that the researchers foresee a large amount of companies shutting down due to this pandemic, but why? Why does companies shut down due to this pandemic? Did the virus infected THE COMPANY?
Not exactly.
The pandemic affected the SALES of the company, which means, with the COST of a company being the SAME, the profitability is reduced or even making the company suffer losses.
If you can get more sales, that's great. If you cant, try to cut down costs.
International companies are trying to cut down costs through a method called Asset-Light Business Model. It is a model that focus on investing relatively fewer capital assets, because they do not yield profit in the short-term, and invest more on your operations (e.g. employment for professionals, marketing expenses, etc) that actually brings you money to let your company run, every month.
If you can save up the investment on your capital assets (e.g. land, building, etc) you will have better cash flow to operate your business. Take a look at this example, previously you have to purchase your own CD to listen to your favorite musician play, but now, with On-Demand Music Streaming Applications, you only have to pay once, and you get to enjoy a whole lot more musician's music!
Sharing of assets
Take a look at a co-working space, you only pay for the space that you use (and sometimes get to enjoy more!) and you get to network with like-minded people in a well design and planned working environment.
Through this, you save up the cost of the purchase of office furniture, the cost of renovating and the installation of the necessity that makes an office works (e.g. Air-conditioner, power points, partition room, etc) and therefore you get to have better cash flow to run your business and do more marketing, things that actually brings in sales for your company!
Imagine if you can work in a co-working space just like this, and only costs a portion of your current overheads, without having the hassle of paying electricity bill, water bills and all the miscellaneous bills that takes away your time to innovate.
It is now the time to innovate new ideas to offer to the market, and it is the time that business owners and entrepreneurs knows how to fully utilize the new ideas of the market to make their business grow faster.