6 Proven Ways To Navigate Online Business Uncertainty

Current events have sent businesses into a downward spiral. Aside from the fear of getting infected with COVID, business owners also need to figure out how to remain profitable throughout the periodic upheavals in the political, economic, technological, and environmental landscape.

In 2021, the most sustainable response to the pandemic was going online and boosting technologically-enabled businesses, so it’s expected that every business owner adapts to the “new normal” business landscape and be online literate.

Going online can also save a business a considerable amount of money because of low costs and improved target market customization.

However, the digital world also comes with its downsides. For one, not everyone can manage to thrive in the already saturated online market.

Digital marketing and economics behave and function differently from the real world, so business owners shifting to e-commerce need to adjust their approach and evaluate critical business decisions.

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How do you develop good foresight in the online market and prepare for unexpected events?

Follow along as we discuss how to navigate through unexpected changes that may threaten the stability and certainty of your business.

1. Predictable Outcomes

The best way to address uncertainty is by listing out best and worst-case scenarios. Key variables that affect a business’s performance will determine the outcome of any significant decision with a decent level of accuracy.

Creating an effective strategy with predictable results will help your business grow despite conflict and challenges brought on by the pandemic.

Be sure to know what works best for you, what gets the most engagement, and what’s almost always an assured win. This way, you can have the security of having a tried-and-tested methodology to bring structure and clarity to ambiguity.

2. Alternate Outcomes

After envisioning the predictable outcome, give a little more depth to your simulation by crafting a range of alternative results. What could go wrong in this specific situation, and how would it affect your sales?

Exhaust everything that can cause uncertainties and rank them according to their probabilities. Filter out some threatening variables by addressing them early on before they affect the whole performance.

For example, if there are significant changes to legislation, it’s best to address them early on and ensure legal compliance by changing your plans accordingly.

You’re not exactly predicting the actual outcome, but it establishes probabilities to evaluate risks and payoffs and develop several backup strategies that address alternate outcomes.

This strategy, however, is only helpful if business owners are up to date on online market trends and plan their strategies according to observations about the market behavior.

You can’t develop alternate outcomes if you’re unaware of situations that may have happened to other businesses and caused considerable damage you may want to avoid.

3. Technological Investments

The best thing about having an online business is that it’s a data-driven model. Digital algorithms help you target your target market with a higher level of accuracy and collect customer data.

Online business uncertainties almost always double when you’re not equipped with the right technology to boost and secure your software-based enterprises.

The key in ensuring future survival and developing resilience is to invest in critical technological aspects: online security, data analytics, and native multi-cloud solutions.

The challenge here is to have dependable external or internal IT services and trusted service providers. Implementing digital solutions cuts a big chunk off the list of possible online business uncertainties.

4. Focus On the Highest Payoffs

During the debriefing session, don’t limit yourself to only discussing things that went wrong. It’s also important to celebrate wins and acknowledge the things that worked out well.

This is essential to the first step because you’ll now have substantial data to determine which factors give the highest payoffs.

The data will factor significantly into future strategy planning and determine the assessment of risks and strategies. Once you know what your customers respond positively to and what boosts your online presence and sales, focus on making it better.

Businesses can take the extra step to develop it as part of their brand image. Examples include dropshipping your products using e-commerce platforms, providing big discounts, community involvement, social responsibility, and witty and relatable social media marketing.

5. Assess and Optimize

Once you’ve evaluated possible risks and envisioned all possible scenarios, you’ll now have to implement the plan and see where it goes. During this part, you’ll test how flexible your strategies are in accommodating unforeseen events.

There will always be mistakes, which means that you will have examples you can refer to when mapping out strategies in the future. Ask yourself this: what lessons can I learn from these mistakes?

Once the action eases up, make time for a debriefing session and assess the operation’s performance. Pinpoint things you could have done better and establish ways to improve and how to avoid them from happening again.

Discuss whether the output has yielded results that justify the input. This is a crucial step out of all strategy-building operations.

6. Quick Response and Media Training

These days, a business can quickly go down in flames once people decide to boycott it for reasons they find justifiable. Public response is a significant business uncertainty, especially on social media, where screenshots and videos spread like wildfire.

Some popular examples include evidence on the unjust treatment of employees and having tone-deaf digital marketing campaigns offensive to some groups.

If this happens to a particular business or organization, people expect an immediate response in no less than 24 hours. Companies need to respond in real-time and be quick in their social media response.

This makes quick response and media training two crucial factors in maintaining public favor and keeping your customers.

It’s imperative to immediately respond to the issue with a well-crafted statement using the appropriate language to acknowledge public opinion, address any misconceptions, and state what steps are being taken to resolve the matter at hand.

Conclusion

The online business world may seem daunting because social media and e-commerce have caused drastic changes in consumer behavior.

However, the benefits will play to your advantage more than its potential drawbacks because you’re making more accurate strategic planning.

Overall, it’s essential to retain the values of planning, flexible implementation, post-implementation assessments, and repeating the cycle using added data when navigating online businesses.

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