A sudden shift in consumer behaviour, a massive influx of new online users and an in-depth redefinition of the way companies operate – this is the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on business in Poland. Companies have had to understand the new reality and run hundreds of tests and pilot programmes of new solutions to understand and respond to new consumer needs.
The experiences have translated into extremely valuable knowledge that began not only a technological transformation but also has changed the way we think about consumers and business – both today and in the future.
The overriding goal of this report is to show how companies have adapted to the changing circumstances. To create a list of best market practices, we searched for proven strategies in a number of industries. We wanted the report to become an inspiration and a handbook of sorts describing the key changes for companies operating in turbulent times of transformation.
The pandemic and accelerated digitization have completely transformed the image of the consumer and of commerce. Recent months have seen thousands of tests and innovations made by companies fighting for customers. Market leaders have redefined both their commercial activities and key processes, and , as a result, gained valuable knowledge on how to plan business anew. We are approaching a new era of e-commerce, where completely different values count. To maintain or gain a competitive advantage, companies will have to show great flexibility and redefine old habits. The most important tasks will include building excellent experiences and establishing a close relationship with the customer. Data, of course, will be the basis of all work, the ability to analyse it and to draw the right conclusions. Appropriate actions at the level of organizational culture and the simplification of decision-making processes will also become key success factors.
The first lockdown in March 2020 during the pandemic was certainly a milestone and one of the key instigators of consumer change in the 21st century. The significant acceleration of customer digitization, the breaking of former consumer habits and fears have resulted in significant changes in the way companies communicate with customers, in sales channels and pre- and post-sales services.
Customers are in the course of the great testing of the online channel. Their shopping experiences in 2020 and 2021 will help assess to what extent they will return to their former habits once the pandemic is over and to what extent they will decide to remain in the remote channel.
Recent years have seen a revolution in customer loyalization. Programmes based on discount systems and the never-ending accumulation of points are giving way to programmes based primarily on personalization, convenience and building engagement.
Pandemic times have brought about a revolutionary change also in this area. Programmes previously tasked with loyalization began to serve as excellent contact channels and customer engagement and activation hubs.
Engagement is, above all, contact with a relevant and valuable message. Activation means personalized recommendations targeting needs, including those that are just emerging.
The first lockdown presented a number of operational challenges for companies. Flexibility was undoubtedly a key factor in improving crisis management. Companies which had a well-developed culture of testing and prototyping were able to respond quickly to changing business conditions.
In addition, remote working started on a large scale, which forced people to work in smaller teams facing a huge number of new challenges. For firms managed in a cascading or siloed way, the experience of recent months was a kind of a lesson in agile, direct collaboration and the deformalization of decision-making processes. Undoubtedly, the COVID-19 pandemic proved to be a catalyst not only for changes in customer behaviour but also exposed organizational weaknesses, forcing a series of changes necessary for rapid adaptation.
Over the past year we have become accustomed to questioning the status quo. Many industries have had to rebuild their strategies and adapt them to the new conditions. The obvious had become the not-so-obvious, the predictable has changed at the very least to difficult to predict. The entire market has entered a fast-track agile learning phase of testing and rapid evaluation. We are learning to live with uncertainty, which has changed from a novelty to a constant: uncertainty of employment, uncertainty of the market, uncertainty of supply, uncertainty of assumptions, and an uncertain tomorrow. We are witnessing accelerated decisions on strategic investments in technologies, on adopting the D2C model, on testing new business models. Contrary to appearances, challenges motivate us to search for new solutions, and this contributes to development.
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