3 Business Trends In Kenya During The Covid-19 Pandemic
When COVID-19 struck Kenya, most people were stranded and didn’t know what to do. However, as is Kenyan culture we have found ways to survive through this period.
Some businesses may have shut down and some people may have lost their jobs, but we are finding ways to adapt and move on.
As a result of our tenacity, the business landscape has shifted. We have, more businesses going online and a few more trends developing.
In this article, we will highlight 3 trends that have taken over the business industry.
1)Diversification
When the pandemic struck most businesses had to shut down due to government restrictions. However, slowly they started to open up as the regulations were adjusted to ensure the economy survives.
As a result of this, some businesses have opted to start diversifying their products and services within their niche. Some small businesses that used to sell household necessities, such as gas or water, are now selling milk and have added mobile banking services like Mpesa, Airtel Money, and KCB mtaani, to their list of services offered.
By doing this, they ensure that they can increase their income and make profits.
Some businesses have also decided to diversify their assets and investments to be secure. On a global scale, we have seen companies buying Bitcoin. This move is one that we did not expect to happen since most financial experts don’t think of Bitcoin as an investment (read more on that here). However, diversifying investment is a wise way to ensure the growth and security of the business in the long term.
2) Home deliveries
Home deliveries used to be something that Jumia and Uber eats were mostly known for. These days businesses have decided to join this trend as well. With the pandemic still going on, most people will opt for home delivery instead of going to town to pick up a product.
Small businesses are now adopting this and include free home deliveries as part of the package when providing their goods. This has helped some enterprises to survive and even to grow. Everybody loves the convenience and what better way to give your client this, than a home delivery?
This trend also applies to service industries. Some services such as make-up, massage, and a few others are also jumping onto this trend.
3) The enormous online migration
Who knew so many businesses could operate entirely online without needing an office space? Covid-19 has taught many business owners this lesson as most of them have moved everything online.
This doesn’t mean that they are all thriving! Some businesses have lost a huge customer base because they were only found in their physical location and never had an online presence. This in turn has made it feel like they are starting fresh and some are struggling to get that online visibility.
However, some businesses, are doing very well. They have built and established themselves online and are making money.
The good thing with being online is access to the whole world! The potential is incredible. The tricky part is getting the engagement necessary to build yourself online. Most businesses tend to make some mistakes when starting up online. Click here to read about some of the mistakes online startups make.
However, with this online migration of businesses, new opportunities have been created for employment, and slowly by slowly, businesses are being revived by being online.
We have even seen careers become a remote thing and employees are still performing very well.
Conclusion
These three trends have been very dominant in the business world in the past year. It seems that they may even be here to stay and we may see them evolving even further. All the experts have been saying singing one song since last year, and that song is titled, “It seems this is the new normal and there’s no going back to how things used to be!”
I suppose we should all be expecting an evolution in the economy and how businesses will be operating even after the pandemic (or as people now call it, “the pandemonium/panorama” )is over. What do you think about these trends? Which business trends have you noticed during this period?
