The outbreak of COVID-19 has massively interrupted the global supply chain, causing millions of people to lose their jobs. Though many people switched to work remotely during the pandemic, the rest has been still struggling to find jobs.
According to PNAS research, from March to April 2020, around 43% of companies had temporarily closed their business. Nearly all of these closures were due to COVID-19.
Plus, NBER pointed out that small business owners were hit especially hard. While African-American enterprises experienced a 41% drop in trade and Latin business owners saw a 32% decline, Asian-owned businesses saw a 26% decrease.
So what are the reasons behind the business revenue drops during COVID-19?
Let’s spell out each reason, as well as bringing forward possible solutions together.
How COVID-19 Affects Business Revenue
Mandatory Lockdown and Social‐Distancing Restrictions
COVID-19 has led to a massive shutdown of brick-and-mortar companies due to mandatory lockdown and social distancing restrictions for months.
Sale losses are largest in the 2 industries – hospitality and travel, due to travel cancellations, restaurant, and bar closures.
(Image source: Statista)
Besides, a million employees of manufacturing and construction niches have been under layoff decisions.
Also, the education industry could not escape from the impact of the pandemic. Teachers have to run online virtue classrooms, while centers and schools still have to pay for rental space, materials, and equipment.
Consumer Spend Drop
Because of how infectious COVID-19 is, buyers have raised the concern of safety when getting things they order online. Plus, in this tough economic time, people are very selective in shopping since the income is insufficient.
(Image source: Statista)
What’s more, the pandemic has caused uncertainty in online behaviors. As now all shoppings are done online, consumers are more cautious than before about revealing their personal data.
Demand for Entertainment and a Sharp Rise to Content Piracy
Never before have we seen the demand for entertainment as high as now. Because of social distancing, people are more homebound and less search for external entertainment options.
That results in a huge increase in digital streaming services. Besides streaming giants like Netflix, Disney, etc, non-traditional streaming services like movie studios are releasing media streaming as well.
However, this huge demand also causes rampant content piracy, as unwanted users illegally share/resell link content, private live streams with lower prices, or even for free.
MUSO, the global authority on digital piracy, showed that film and TV piracy surged by over 33% during the COVID-19 lockdown.
(Image source: MUSO)
What’s more, according to BusinessToday.In, original content creators losing a great amount of money as digital piracy rises during the COVID-19 pandemic. Common ways for stealing video content include sharing accounts, sharing file links via social media, and buying illegal streaming boxes.
Solutions to Make Your Business Thrive in the Pandemic Times
#1. Conversion from Traditional to eCommerce Businesses
Convert brick-and-mortar shopping into the eCommerce business. That way, you’re able to increase online sales, run, and manage your business even there is a nationwide lockdown.
Plus, building a business online doesn’t cost you much, especially if you opt for WordPress.
#2. New Revenue Stream Adoption
If you’re in the manufacturing industry, think about adopting new revenue streams such as making use of production lines to make hand sanitizer or masks. These are all in high demand.
By doing so, not only you can save your employees but also making revenue out of the harsh time.
#3. Digital Streaming
Along with changing traditional shopping to online, you can also update technology to do digital streaming. In other words, you can sell products on your live stream and let people select or place orders in real-time.
Lots of e-retailers have applied this method and seen their online sales soar like an eagle. Besides a social online channel, they also create a private live stream one for premium goods or loyal members only. Special deals or discounts are offered frequently to encourage people to buy more.
#4. Online Content Protection
As mentioned above, a spike in online training trends and entertainment services also has given rise to content piracy. That’s why to protect your online business, you must keep an eye on your intellectual works, including training material and media files.
The easiest way out is to put your trust in content protection tools. A versatile file protection plugin like PDA Gold and its extensions can help you take that weight off your mind in a flash. In particular, they can:
- Protect unlimited media files including videos, images, or any of your private documents
- Block search indexing so that your private online courses and training material can appear on search engines
- Grant access and create limitless private download links to your paid members only. Keep track of these links based on clicks and given time, that way, users can download but not reshare them
- Watermark your PDF training materials
- Protect your videos by letting paid users view them but can not download
Get Through This Pandemic and “Make Your Company Great Again”
COVID-19 has been affecting every field of the global economy and still showing no sign of coming to an end.
We’ve seen a significant drop in business revenue worldwide. And maybe yours as well.
Instead of waiting until the virus is completely swept out, why don’t you set the light at the end of the COVID pandemic tunnel yourself?
We have pointed out several reasons causing business revenue drop during COVID-19 and showcased many ways to revive your business.
Plus, if you’re content creators, the only way to maintain your business during this hard time is to secure your content asset from piracy. And a tool like PDA Gold will be your great assistant!
