Did your business transition online?

If there is anything 2020 has taught entrepreneurs, is the need to adopt an online strategy for their businesses given the outbreak of the COVID19 which has not only affected small businesses to extremes like closure due to the ripple and crippling effects COVID19. This was attributed to the numerous lockdowns initiated by the governments to control the spread of the deadly disease. This led the World Health Organisation to declare the break out of the virus a pandemic.

These lockdowns have not only affected business at a local level but also at an international level affecting supply chains of businesses.
At a regional level for instance East African, trade is interconnected and therefore what affects Kenya definitely affects Uganda and Tanzania since we mainly rely on Kenya and Tanzania for export and import routes. Due to the lockdown, this supply chain was affected.

In Uganda many businesses were affected by this pandemic, to further explain this, Corti Paul Lakuma and Nathan Sunday in their article for Africa in Focus paint a gloomy picture of the performance of the Small Medium Enterprises (SME’s) in the long run, this, however, is a general forecast for the performance of these SME’s in the COVID 19 Pandemic, most of this poor performance of SME’s is mainly attributed to the COVID 19 lockdowns and the access to supply chains and lack of an adequate online strategy.

It is important to note that it is not all doom and gloom for the SME’s as there is quite a number of businesses making tons of money during this period,this is attributed to having an online strategy which can range from a contactless transaction environment like apps, e-commerce websites and other communication channels to clients which enables customers access their services or goods regardless of the location. Some of these businesses include restaurant chains like Café Javas, KFC, banks, courier operators among others.

Why consider an online strategy?
Doing business in the 21st Century has changed drastically over the years and it is imperative for businesses to adopt not only to survive the COVID 19 and post-pandemic period but to generally improve the overall performance of the business in terms of increased market, short return period, delivery times, access to supply chains as highlighted and explained below.

An online strategy sets the direction for your company/business in terms of marketing goals, the convenience of your customers accessing your service and also sets strategies for your customer experience through email, texts and calls. All this can be accessed from a well-designed website and mobile application.
Having a well-defined online strategy for your business/ company also helps keep the competitors in your field of operation, consequently, if you do not have an online strategy with no clearly defined strategies, then your competitors will eat your “Online Lunch”.

To reach out to your market in Uganda, it is estimated that there over eighteen million internet subscribers and users, this is a big pool from which you can access your customers through websites, advertising and mobile applications. It is also important to note that most of these internet subscribers and users access the internet through smartphones.

Increases your visibility in terms of potential customers getting a glimpse of what you offer. It can be challenging to do this through offline tactics because you don’t have much control over who sees your marketing materials. With an online strategy, you expose your business to hundreds of people because at any given time.

Ability to service a high level of customers and provide them with a quality experience. You can handle millions of customers at one time when they’re on your website. Your website can take on multiple transactions, which allows you to obtain more conversions for your business. It’s a great opportunity to grow your business, this can be done together with a mobile app.

These kinds of benefits can be brought to light by working with an experienced team like Kola-Studios to offer the right online strategy in terms of working systems and mobile application development.

Get in touch today via email at theguys@kolastudios.com.