Small businesses adapting to new normal
Amid COVID-19, owners and employees said flexibility and adaptation are helping their small businesses survive.
Biblioasis employee Meghan Desjardins behind the counter. (Photo by Tyler Clapp)
A Statistics Canada data chart reveals roughly 52 per cent of all small businesses in Ontario alone have added new ways to interact and sell to customers in the new normal.
Such adaptations are part of Meghan Desjardins’ workplace. She is an employee of Biblioasis, a local bookshop on Wyandotte Street East. She said using technology to sell their books during a pandemic is crucial.
“Because we started offering online orders, technology has been huge for us,” said Desjardins. “Especially when everyone was working from home, a hugely popular option for people was buying online with delivery available.”
Online retail is experiencing massive growth during these times. Nationally, these platforms made a record $3.9 billion in May 2020 alone. Physical retail sales dropped to $34 billion in April 2020.
Aside from moving to technology, entrepreneurs have devised other strategies to adapt to COVID-19.
Ryan Larocque, co-owner of Anchor Coffee House, said reducing business size is helping it survive.
“We were able to strengthen our overhead a little bit by minimizing our staff and our operation, limiting our venue,” said Larocque. “We went down to one location to adapt to the needs that were unfolding at the time.”
Reductions are not limited to small businesses. For example, Air Canada has laid off around 53 per cent of its workforce to conserve cash and meet changing demands.
Noah Campbell, tech community program manager at WEtech Alliance, said the pandemic is pushing small businesses into going digital.
“They’ve always needed to have this digital expertise, this digital backing to help them with their business,” said Campbell. “COVID forced them to actually get into it whether they like it or not.”
With online retail company Shopify reporting a 62 per cent increase in new online stores on their platform from March to April 2020, it seems going online is helping the bottom line for businesses during COVID-19.
Get Social!
