Conscious Consumerism And The Role Of Small Businesses In Consumer Market Post Covid-19
Apr 01, 2021 | Konark Ogra
Consumers are showing a critical change in buying behavior; For example, Gen Z (the future buyers) are focusing not just on the product but on the values around the products. The
The success of depop, a rapidly growing in the second-hand b2c fashion market is just a simple proof-of-concept of more sustainable living.
As small businesses, we should really focus on providing a user interface (UI) and User experience (UX) that is fast-moving with the speed of changing the taste of the consumer. In accordance to Mckinsey, a survey of US consumers found that 64 percent of respondents have felt depressed, anxious, or both over the past several weeks and almost 39 percent stated that they would be unable to pay their bills after one month of unemployment. This COVID-19 Pandemic has resulted in an astronomical shift in the consumer mindset towards to live, breathe, and eat sustainably.
As sustainability has become a core mission for most businesses, this is the opportunity for most businesses to reinvent the disrupt the existing business models and look for better connections, more ethical supply chains, and stronger relationships with consumers. Consumers are ever so increasingly looking to help, buy, and support SMEs. As the tides have turned and there is growing support for small business the onus is on small business to be able to cater and compete efficiently with big-box players like Amazon, John Lewis and Walmart.
As conclusions, things that small businesses can do right now.
1. Talk to other small businesses and look for collaborations. The best friend for a small business is another small business.
2. Recreate the wheel of consumer experience, HubSpot’s inbound strategies are free and work well for SMEs, mostly centered around the client.
3. Handcrafted personas for your client, no two clients are the same, Definitely not for small business.
4. Adapt technology to grow; some of the free resources are Calendly: A free online appointment schedule software for meeting organizer; HubSpot for attracting clients and a great CRM tool; WordPress to start blogging and attracting an audience.
PS: Rural Handmade essentially is “Alibaba for handmade “a B2B platform connects over 15,000 maker communities to create sustainable handmade products for the most vibrant SME brands across the world.