The coronavirus pandemic spread through the world fast and furious, and globally governments needed to take drastic action with their citizens. This resulted in many businesses being shut-down immediately, and for some, this meant needing to find other ways of not only earning an income, but maintaining their business profile online.
Those businesses that were already active online were the fastest to adapt. Such industries that were straddling the lines, like with the real estate industry, had to quickly pivot and put all their focus into digital ways of performing their duties. Creating virtual show-days with interested buyers, or relying more on video walk-throughs and photos taken prior to lockdown.
Tourism sectors, including museums and art galleries that were immediately shut down physically, found digital ways to bring themselves to the public. Museums, art galleries and even some tourism offices created virtual tours, where the public could feel immersed in that experience, even from their own homes. People were now able to visit places virtually (like the Louvre or the Smithsonian) that they perhaps would never afford to experience in real life.
Other industries that didn’t really have any digital footprint had to quickly adapt and gain one - where this was possible. Of course with industries such as restaurants, this was not possible in the early stages of lockdown, but in the later phases, once food delivery was allowed - those that didn’t have a digital menu, or belonged to one of the food ordering app services - needed to quickly create that presence and offering, or face closure.
One thing that this pandemic has taught us, is that a digital presence is no longer a ‘nice-to-have’, but has become a ‘have-to-have’. It has also taught us that there are many ways in which you can make that digital presence work for you - but most importantly, it has taught us that speed to market and cost effective ways of building that presence is of utmost importance too.
