From the time COVID-19 has shown its existence, the majorly affected businesses are the food business. You may be in any part of the world, but if your country is corona affected, then your food business may have suffered greatly. Nobody was ready for it in 2020, and as 2021 came, people had new hopes for it, which shattered again in the month of March.
There are many businesses that shut down during the pandemic, and most of them are food and hospitality businesses. Restaurants closed down so did small bakeries. Not even online businesses flourished much because of restrictions imposed, but somehow they survived because of their quirkiness and their shifting to online portals. It may be online cake delivery in Ahmedabad or meals delivery in Bangalore; everything is widely affected.
As the pandemic brought new norms and took away the charm of eating outside, it also brought a positive side that is helping businesses to grow online. It encourages the digital India model and startups or businesses to shift to web portals. Still, you can only survive your food business during this pandemic if you try to follow specific pointers that are well researched and create a positive impact on the company.
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Delivery or Takeaway
When you switch your business model with the upcoming time, then only you can expect your business to shoot up. While many are suffering, the delivery options work right for them. To survive the pandemic and tough competition in it, you need to learn what others are offering that you aren’t and how you can implement it in your business. While lockdown restrictions are strict, takeaway may not be possible for many, but door-to-door delivery is. So, connect delivery partners with you and open the contactless delivery option for all. It would maintain the protocols as well as even people affected with COVID can get food delivered via your platform.
Sell Your Stocks or Food Surplus
You need to understand that most businesses are not able to finish the stock on time and instead donate through sites. What you can do is reduce the price and sell it to your customers and make money instead of wasting it. You can offer ‘Buy one, get one’ like many restaurants do or send additional meals like ‘Buy now, enjoy later.’ This will help you gain more customers, and instead of wasting, you would be able to generate a certain amount through it.
Expand Your Business
We know that when you are already trying to survive, how will you expand yourself? Expanding a business is always tricky, but you can add some things more to your business model. Like few online portals started selling veggies or essentials during the pandemic, and they got stable business then. Even you can add an option of delivering essentials needed to people. Restaurants already have a surplus amount of things, not vegetables but other ingredients stored. You can offer fresh vegetables and milk or cheese products required accordingly, and this will help customers to get both ready-made meals as well as elements from a single source.
Ask Your Customers to Share Incentives Online
Social media is one of the most powerful platforms that can help you to grow. When you offer some new services, your customer’s words make a powerful impact on your business. So, if you start giving out some offers, incentives, vouchers or online delivery, then ask your customers to post it online. Offer giveaways to your online followers and ask them to tag new people or share your story, which will help you to grow your online presence and will convey to others the recent changes you have added to your food business.
Sell Vouchers or Gift Cards
As no one knows when things will be stable again, and now when customers cancel their reservation, they are often not returning to reschedule it again. So, in this case, what you can do is you can ask them to redeem the voucher, and when they are planning again, they can use it. Always remember to put a personal note like thank you or something that shows gratitude. You can also sell gift cards to them that they can use in future or can pass it to their near and dear ones.
All these strategies work online if you shift to an online business model. Many food businesses have shut down, but these are some essential steps that will help you in this pandemic if you want to survive. Try to bring them into your business and see how it works. Stay safe, stay healthy!
