Entrepreneurs in each and every industry, with the emergence of new portals like pnpcoda, are struggling right now, largely because consumer trends have changed far too quickly for them to keep up with the times. The era of social distancing has ensured that face-to-face business is at an all time low, and it appears as if the coronavirus is going to be negatively impacting our economy and public safety for months to come. This has spurred many companies to permanently shut their doors, but others are realizing that they can stay afloat by tapping into the power of the internet. Now more than ever, a robust web presence is sorely needed to ensure profitability, and that begins by making your website as accessible as possible.
Here’s a review of why web accessibility is vital in the age of COVID-19, and how your company can increase the resilience of its web presence across the board.
Customers are flocking to eCommerce operations
In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, customers flocked to eCommerce operations, even those looking for the best prosthodontists, so that they could get the goods they need and want without having to risk interpersonal contact with other shoppers. While customers remain online right now, they’ve adjusted how they go about managing their online shopping habits, and have focused on certain industries and sectors over others. Whereas early online shopping was focused on stockpiling goods, recent online shopping trends show that customers are now pivoting to entertainment goods when purchasing products online.
If your company hasn’t already launched an eCommerce operation to appeal to consumers frightened by the coronavirus, you’re likely missing out on revenue while letting your competitors gain a leg up on your brand. Many entrepreneurs want to pivot to digital mediums but lack the confidence needed to do so successfully. Others simply have no technical expertise whatsoever, and feel as if pivoting to digital mediums will hurt their brand or lead to commercial confusion which spells out the end of their company. While it’s true that pivoting to the digital world is never easy, it’s essential right now, so don’t think you can tuck your head into the sand and wait for months on end until the public health pandemic subsides.
Start with social media pages, which are easier to manage than entire websites and will allow you to reach out directly to customers as they browse their newsfeeds and message friends. You’ll need to showcase your company’s response to COVID-19 to reassure customers that you’re taking this crisis seriously, as nobody wants to give their money to a company that isn’t taking public health seriously. Besides highlighting how you’re protecting workers and sanitizing your operations, you can also use social media pages to link back to your company website. This website is where most of your efforts and money will be focused in the near-future.
Making your website clean and accessible
What does it mean for a website to be clean and accessible, anyway? For the most part, it means investing in an attractive web design that will make it as easy as possible for customers to find the information that you’re looking for. If you review some of the reasons that customers leave websites, you’ll discover that most consumers will close your webpage if it doesn’t provide them with actionable information in approximately fifteen to thirty seconds. This means that you have a very narrow window of time to appeal to them and get your message across.
You can’t gamble when it comes to the cleanliness and accessibility of your website; your business isn’t like online slots, where customers will come back again and again. If you don’t make an excellent first impression, they’ll permanently shun your brand and solicit alternative options which are easier to navigate. The ins and outs of a clean website can be harder for some to understand than others, but even the most technologically illiterate entrepreneurs should understand that you’ll want an attractive color scheme. You should also avoid intimidating walls of texts that aren’t broken up into paragraphs. If this seems too difficult for you to manage by yourself, consider hiring an expert web designer to reshape your web presence and make it easier for customers to find what they’re looking for.
Web accessibility is so vital because more consumers are doing their shopping online right now than ever before. Even more important, however, is the fact that consumers are likely to remain on these digital mediums even after this pandemic expires. While some people are eager to return to in-person shopping, others will remain permanently fixated on eCommerce because it allows them to buy things with just a few clicks of a button. Fail to have a website that allows them to do just that, and you’ll lose their precious dollars to competitors who have a superior web presence.