Small Business Survival Toolkit Part-2: post-Covid consumer perspective

In this second part of our series, we look at the post-Covid consumer perspective. If consumer pockets are affected it affects all forms of business in South Africa, and the consumer market gives us a good reflection in terms of the pulse of society and its effect on small businesses.

Compiled by Tarren Bolton

Kantar, one of the world’s largest insights businesses, tracked consumer perceptions across 50 markets post-Covid lockdown. The aim was to examine what business owners needed to do differently, and how they could adapt and reinvent themselves to be more relevant. How do small businesses listen to consumer trends, adapt, and make them work for their businesses? Karin Du Chenne, Chief Growth Officer for Kantar – Africa Middle East, shares some ideas from a consumer perspective.

Macroeconomic perspective

According to Kantar’s survey conducted three weeks into the first lockdown, 85% of all businesses interviewed said that their revenues had already been impacted. Of those, 97% said they’d had to cut back on their staff. Almost immediately, the question on all business owners’ lips was, “How do we rise up and still find the energy to continue to put energy into our business – to make the vision a reality and to reinvent ourselves as we go forward?”

Businesses had to take a good hard look at consumer trends – what consumers mean for their business, and this had to be done holistically. Questions evolved into, “What does it mean for our organisation and the way we run things?” Depending on the size of the business, owners had to look at their channels and whether there were other ways that they could be reaching their customers due to barriers in terms of delivering service and products to consumers. They had to look at new categories and dynamics for their business and try to anticipate scenarios and work through the highs, the lows and adapt their offer according to that.

“Businesses had to take a good hard look at consumer trends – what consumers mean for their business, and this had to be done holistically.

Five key trends in consumer behaviour post-Covid

1. An era of shared humanity: The pandemic made us as a society realise that we don’t live in isolation. We don’t live on an island, and we do need to consider others around us and the impact of a shared experience. “We saw far more community connectedness and a spirit of, “I actually need to look after us and it’s my responsibility to think about my actions.” It became important for business owners to reflect on what they could do differently – to demonstrate that they are a part of a community, that they care about the community, and care about their staff,” says Karin. Suddenly what happened was businesses came up with ideas for new partnerships and new collective actions, what the study revealed was new collaborations that would never have taken place before the pandemic. The Covid era embraced the Ubuntu spirit and taught us that small business had to find ways to connect with people and allow ideas to be shared. It evolved into a mindset that says, “anything is possible”.

“We need to be more resourceful we need to make magic from nothing. And I think that that’s a small business thing, and in particular, where can we be really clever and stretch ourselves to do more with less,” says Karin.

• Being more purposeful: Kantar calls it ‘purpose post-pandemic’. Those businesses that are doing more than just profit are thinking about what is it that their business brings to the customer. “You are more successful when you can take yourself up from just being functional to having more of an impact on society. This pays off on the bottom line – these businesses are generally able to click more customers, charge more for their products and services, because the value of their brand goes up when they have a purposeful impact on the community.
• All-round value: Post-pandemic, 8 out of 10 homes have had some kind of impact on household income. The whole concept of value has been redefined. People are saying “I’m paying more attention to prices and I’m more likely to notice things on sale. But what they mean as well is they want to see what you can offer, and can you offer more value for the same price? So as a small business, think about what you can do to bring more benefit at the same price to retain a customer – with a focus on the benefits that you bring – that little bit extra.
• Strong signals of safety: Consumers want to know that you are doing your best to keep them safe and to keep the world safe. Right. If we look at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, products and services that serve those basic physiological and safety needs have gone up incrementally in value.
• Digital acceleration: Every business has had the opportunity to digitise, enabling businesses to push the boundaries of things they had never tried before. Post-Covid we’ve seen a huge increase in digital and a huge opportunity for many smaller businesses. Consumers have opened their minds to different ways of shopping, and entrepreneurs who think out the box and do things differently, push innovation and bring value. “So, let’s be grateful for the wonder that is the world of technology and the things that enable us to continue living under these very trying times,” says Karin.

Milton Friedman, American economist and statistician, said many years ago, ‘Only a crisis, actual or perceived, produces real change.” Change is accelerated by ideas – pivoting or shifting into something fundamentally different. The post-Covid environment enables us to reset, rewire, and reimagine what the future might look like.