If companies have learned anything from the pandemic, it is the importance of being agile and resilient. The Covid crisis has changed consumer behaviour globally and permanently, according to Accenture.
Three times more e-commerce
Almost all consumers (95 %) have changed their behaviour since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and are convinced that they will keep at least one of these new habits, a recent survey by Accenture involving 9650 participants across 19 countries, from Brazil to Italy to South Korea, found out.
Online shopping will most certainly be one of them, as the number of consumers who regularly buy something online has more than quadrupled worldwide (+ 343 %). Work and travel may also have reached a point of no return: almost half (46 %) of the respondents think they will no longer go on business trips, or at least half as much. If this vital group of travellers does indeed cease to exist, the travel industry will have to adapt significantly.
Need for a “third space”
The idea that everyone will simply return to commuting to the office seems already out of the question: people expect continued flexibility in where they work. However, this certainly does not mean that we will always work at home from now on: these recent experiences have shown that there are needs for a “third space”. Over three-quarters of the respondents (79 %) say they would like to work somewhere other than at home or in the office at times.
More than half would even be prepared to pay up to a hundred dollars a month out of their own pockets to be able to work from a pub, hotel or store. In other words, co-working spaces and facilities still have a lot of potential for the hospitality and retail industries.
Timely identification of such new potential is crucial in the new way of doing business since the pandemic. “The pandemic has sparked a new wave of innovation. As companies fundamentally rethink ways of doing business that deliver growth, many are using advanced analytical capabilities to spot, respond, and target changing consumption trends”, Accenture’s senior managing director Oliver Wright explains.
Multi-year plans in weeks
British brewer Brewdog, for example, has launched many new initiatives during the crisis. Not only did it start making disinfectant, but it also opened up virtual bars, a Brewdog Drive-Thru and ‘Desk Dog’, co-working spaces located in unused venues such as pubs.
“Many consumer-facing companies have re-platformed their businesses in the cloud, addressed cost pressures, and continued to build resilience and security, putting the infrastructure in place to enable innovation and position them for future success”, Accenture explains.
Covid-19 has led to an accelerated transformation, where steps that would otherwise be multi-year plans were suddenly taken in a matter of weeks. From transforming multiple parts of the business simultaneously to retraining staff, many companies have made a virtue of necessity – and will continue to do so.
