History has witnessed more billionaires and millionaires are made after a recession and economic crash than any other time. So what are the businesses that will thrive after coronavirus pandemic? This year, the global economy will likely suffer the worst financial crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is estimated that global trade will contract by between 13% and 32% this year. No one knows when the coronavirus pandemic will end and how economic activities will return to normal. But even as uncertainty abounds, life-changing opportunities are on their way.
While it’s more important to focus on getting out of the health risks posed by the outbreak, businesses are popping their eyes on what lies ahead after this pandemic because this will shape businesses for decades to come.
Here are 7 businesses that will thrive after coronavirus pandemic
7 businesses
E-commerce
The COVID-19 crisis is pushing us to quickly adopt digital technologies, remote working, and e-commerce. Alibaba, a Chinese online market place founded in 1999 got its major boost at the time people in China had to stay at home due to the SARS Coronavirus outbreak in 2002. The quarantine came just as Alibaba was preparing to launch Taobao, an online market place for consumers that Jack Ma, the company founder, hoped would compete with eBay in China. Chinese consumers who were stuck at home started turning to the Internet to order items. Alibaba benefited from the internet becoming increasingly necessary for doing business during the SARS outbreak as businesses and consumers were driven online to buy and sell goods. Due to self-isolation, people who normally visit physical stores are increasingly shopping online. The uplift in e-commerce may well become permanent if people remain wary of mingling in real life and increasingly replace shop visits with online purchases. After this pandemic and beyond, e-commerce will likely gain more acceptance among the skeptics. We’ll see faster progress towards online retail. Companies and organizations will realize they have less need for expensive real estate.
The Gig Economy
As many companies will not want to have a huge number of full-time employees (and fixed costs) after this crisis, this will accelerate the gig economy, freelance works, and associated startups. Businesses and individuals should start preparing themselves to function in a gig economy. For more than four months, COVID-19 has inevitably changed the way businesses will compete over the next decade. Businesses that choose to capitalize on these online changes will succeed and the ones that will not get disrupted.
Digital Marketing
Digital marketing has experienced a boom over the past decade and the industry is likely to drive even more after COVID-19. Many industries have experienced a significant decline in digital marketing usage since the lockdown with travel, transportation, and hospitality being the most hit. Most businesses are currently shutdown with no cashflow and companies are eating deep into their cash reserve. When this pandemic is over and businesses resume, most businesses will need to get their cash flow back on track. Businesses will be open to innovative and affordable ways to reach customers, and digital marketing will be there to the rescue.
Stock Market Investing
Famous investment wisdom credited to the world’s richest investor, Warren Buffet, is, “Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.” Typically, market crashes when people, out of fear losing their money, start selling off their assets and cutting back on their spending. The stock price goes ridiculously down. This is usually the best time for smart investing. You can buy stocks at cheap prices and right through the market recovery but there are no guarantees that every stock will recover after a recession. Some companies may go bankrupt. Be sure to thoroughly research the stocks to invest in and seek expert advice.
Online Education
The coronavirus outbreak has caused schools; primary, secondary, and tertiary institutions to close down and no one knows how long students will have to stay at home. This unwelcomed crisis has forced a crash course for online learning plans and technology for students and educators. The world is witnessing a mandatory giant online education experiment. The aftermath could accelerate changes in the education industry that were already at play. For over a decade, there have been predictions of online education going mainstream to rival traditional education. This change is sent to be gradual over the years but this virus outbreak may just give online education the moment it’s been waiting for. As digital learning becomes mainstream in a hurry, it’s going to upend current education practices, models, and processes going forward. Traditional education will not away but online education will definitely mean greater adoption. Online training and businesses will thrive post-COVID-19 and businesses that position in this space will benefit immensely.
Online Collaboration Tools
Institutions are still guessing how the COVID-19 pandemic will alter the future of teaching and learning. The COVID-19 pandemic is pushing schools, universities, and learning and development professionals to shift rapidly from in-person to online learning. The global lockdown has focused people in large numbers to embrace the digital form of connection and online collaboration tools have seen huge growth over the last few months. As companies rapidly — and in some cases also permanently — move towards remote working, the market for digital collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts, and Zoom is likely to grow quickly. To add to that, we’re already seeing growing demand for digital media and entertainment including social media, gaming, news, video streaming, and books as people seek to relieve boredom and fill the time previously taken up by traveling and socializing face-to-face.
Agriculture
One of the biggest challenges with the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown is a threat to food security. While the lockdown may appear to be the solution to mitigate the spread of the virus, a major consequence is a shortage of food and a hike in price. COVID-19 is disrupting agricultural activities around the world from farm and harvesting to processing and supply. The culture of restaurants, eateries, and hotels is creating lo demand for agric produce. Agric businesses are looking at digital technologies to sell their products. Although digital technology is not a new concept, the necessity will get even skeptics to embrace it. At the end of this pandemic or lockdown, we may face the risk of the low food supply. This will create more opportunities in the agric sector to produce food to feed the surviving population.
Conclusion: It’s not the first time, throughout history, pandemics with economic shutdown have changed the trajectory of governments, economies, and businesses. In the 1300s, the Black Death broke the long-ingrained feudal system in Europe and replaced it with the more modern employment contract. Similarly, the SARS pandemic of 2002-2004 led the meteoric growth of small companies like Alibaba that helped establish it as an e-commerce face of Asia. This growth was fueled by underlying anxiety similar to what we experience today with COVID-19.
Many small and medium-sized companies are already seeing early signs for their businesses that will thrive after coronavirus pandemic. For example, a shift in consumers’ and businesses’ behavior, remote working is being encouraged, supply chains are getting disrupted globally, retail stores are running out, and more.
Our Magazines →
