When the coronavirus pandemic hit the world and rapidly started spreading, the first call to action to keep people safe was to restrict their movements. That followed governments announcing the closure of businesses to leave for those providing essential services. Moreover, even those that were left were advised to have as few people as possible on-premises. It became difficult to operate and some had to cut down their operations, lowering their profits further. Even as the economy started to open up, many of these businesses are still struggling to adapt to the changes and to comply with the required guidelines meant to keep people safe.
However, amidst all the chaos that has been going on in the business world, some businesses have surprisingly benefited from the pandemic. Here is a list of some of such businesses.
#1 Remote working tools
The need to send people home forced businesses to rethink new ways of working for them to maintain a level of productivity. This called for a huge population turning to work from home. Businesses needed to ensure that their workers never felt the isolation of working alone, hence, the need to maintain virtual connection among the teams.
With everything happening virtually, the need to have the software and remote working tools became inevitable. This has seen tools such as Zoom and Skype record exponential numbers of new subscriptions. The working from home trend seems to persist even post COVID. The growth for these businesses can only continue rising.
#2 Business process outsourcing services
One thing about online shopping is that it eliminates geographical boundaries for consumers. Online retail stores have had to deal with an exponential increase of consumers from all over the globe. This also meant dealing with people from different time zones. Moreover, with increased customers’ calls all around the clock, businesses had to rethink their call center operations.
For starters, most companies lacked the capacity to handle the surging numbers of calls from their customers. Having to send part of their personnel home only worsened the situation. In addition, those who had the capacity had to restructure the call center to factor in customers requiring after-hours support.
For such businesses, employing business process outsourcing services remained the most viable option to fill the gap.
If your business is currently in such a tussle, entrusting BPO solutions from 247 Call Center will improve your customers’ experience all around the clock.
#3 E-commerce stores
Following CDC’s guidelines, most governments put in place measures to keep people at their homes. Talk of lockdowns and curfews. People had to shift their shopping for what they needed to the only practical route-online shopping. This meant a huge boost for the online retail shops, which led to many businesses opening eCommerce stores.
Those who relied on websites only were quick to optimize it for mobile in a bid to reach more consumers.
#4 Delivery services
Tied to the growing trend in online shopping, people had no other means to get their shopping home than to hire professional delivery services. In addition, as restaurants were restricted to serve customers on-premises, those that wanted to survive had no choice but to offer delivery services to their customers. That meant contracting professional delivery services if they were to give their customers an excellent service.
#5 E-learning
Most people have had a lot of time on their hands during the pandemic. With so much sensitization on finding something productive to do at home in order to curb feelings of stress and anxiety, most people turned to E-learning.
People have been searching for all types of lessons especially on finances and personal development. It is no wonder many people are turning to create online courses to satisfy the growing number of people looking to learn. Since the virus broke out, they even created some great online courses which you can learn from and raise awareness towards the Covid-19.
In addition, the closure of learning institutions meant for them to shift their classes to the online platform. This has also contributed to the growth of E-learning.
#6 Entertainment
Social distancing meant restriction to entertainment joints such as movie theaters and sports venues. People had to look to the internet to find entertainment at this time that they need it the most. Live streaming app Netflix, YouTube, and social video app TikTok are some of the platforms that have seen a surge in numbers of people frequenting the spaces.
Conclusion
The list of businesses that have benefited from the pandemic is endless. Talk of the pharmaceuticals, cleaning supplies providers, liquor stores, and electronic money transfers among others that didn’t make it to the list.
That being said, the pandemic literally overturned the lives of many people. It is highly probable that they will never go back to where they were before COVID-19. This only means that these businesses can only continue benefiting from the pandemic.