Hello Molly head of digital Guangyong Chuang discusses how the eTailer adapted its eCommerce strategy to the COVID-19 environment.
At Hello Molly, our eCommerce strategy often starts from insights into customer behaviour.
When COVID-19 hit, there was a large change in customer behaviour.
More people were online than ever before, but mainly on socials instead of actually shopping.
Being outside and socialising, which was once the dominant part of any average person’s week, suddenly flipped upside down with the majority of time being spent at home.
Without socialising, our occasion wear heavy brand just seemed unnecessary in the state of the world.
Talk about product market fit.
While performance metrics and optimisation would normally be of high focus, we had to come to accept that results were not going to be the same for a while.
It followed quite naturally from this that we needed to reorient our business.
We pushed along in three key areas:
• Invested into content and community – Because engagement was at an all-time high, we hoped to solidify ours in the hopes that they will come back to us in the future.
We gave to those adversely affected, did styling lessons, had a painting class, and put out several competitions.
We even hosted local DJs, bands, and fitness workouts on our platforms.
This was a long term play, and could not be the only thing we did to ensure long term survival.
• Create new products to be more compatible with the current world state – We diversified product by creating clothing that could be worn through self-quarantine or work from home.
This would ultimately help us survive in the short term.
• Shift perception and create a demand for existing products – Our business really excelled on helping people look their best in front of their social circles at parties or events.
However, people can also look great on the internet via social posts and content creation.
TikTok dances is a great example of this.