From the bubonic plague of the 14th century to the Spanish flu outbreak of 1918, pandemics have had significant, long-lasting impacts on how people typically navigate the world, and the world of business. COVID-19 is no exception. It has attacked global societies at their core, causing economic and social disruption that is difficult to measure. And although pandemics strain health systems first, they also put stress on many other parts of society. School closures, devastated industries and millions of jobs lost only scratch the surface of the pandemic’s many impacts. But no avenues have been hit harder than consumer behavior and business.
A sector closely tied to those areas is retail, which was knocked off its feet at the outset of COVID-19. Between non-essential business closures, stay-at-home orders and loss of jobs, the retail world was deeply affected. Consumers were forced to adapt – literally overnight – and re-prioritize their spending, with small businesses taking the hardest hit. By April of 2020, a whopping 9 out of 10 shoppers shared that their weekly shopping behaviors and experiences had been impacted by COVID-19, and that trend was certainly reflected at the retail level. Fast forward a year, and in spite of recent progress with vaccine distribution, consumers are still experiencing high levels of anxiety, which will continue to shape their purchase behaviors moving forward.
This tendency experienced an impressive shift, however, by late 2020 when businesses – especially retail brands – began to find their feet. Various levels of income support were having a positive impact on consumer spending. Businesses using SAP Commerce Cloud began to experience a resurgence by developing and managing digital commerce platforms. In fact, companies that went digital early had a distinct edge during the pandemic, and for some, this transformation actually accelerated their activities in spite of the challenges presented by COVID-19.
This brings us to the “next normal”, and how a BPO (outsourcing) company can become part of your digital transformation. Many businesses are already embracing the dive to digital, some are in the planning stages while others are part way there. Whatever stage your company might be at, outsourcing both your core and non-core activities to a BPO company is a way to simplify access to your data, move away from expensive legacy on-premises solutions, achieve high-speed recovery, standardize mobility to various infrastructures and platforms, and comply with security and quality standards.
With Anexa as your outsourcing partner, you gain a carefully selected, experienced pool of human resources to support your digital transformation. Our agents are highly trained to assist with both the technological component of your digital development, as well as the customer-centric focus that is so critical in meeting today’s consumer expectations. We believe that if you’re not reaching customers on their preferred channels, you’re not reaching them at all. We’re here to support those processes, and to help you think bigger – think better. More than ever before, consumers expect highly personalized, intelligent engagements and seamless problem solving. With Anexa managing a wide spectrum of your organization’s activities like customer service, tech support, data entry, collections, marketing and promotion campaigns, you can trust that all of your business processes are being managed with the utmost skill and discretion, leaving you to lead the way and supercharge your company’s growth.
Contact us today to find out how Anexa can partner with you.