Almost half of small and medium-sized business owners (48%) have experienced a severe decline in demand or have stopped operations altogether in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, while 56% have pivoted to a new business model to survive.
These statistics are from a survey of more than 1,200 business owners about how the pandemic is affecting entrepreneurial behavior and performance. The survey was conducted in April by global creative platform 99designs in partnership with research firm Corus. Other findings:
Web work
66% of businesses that were not online before the outbreak are in the process of creating a website.
More than a quarter of businesses (27%) are looking at refreshing their existing website as a result of COVID-19.
B2C having a tougher time of it
A higher proportion of B2C companies can’t operate at all — 22% compared to 14% of B2B brands
Adding ecommerce
36% of companies had initiated ecommerce capabilities to an existing website before the outbreak.
25% added ecommerce capabilities to their website in response to COVID-19
21% of SMBs are considering adding ecommerce as a result of the pandemic.
17% report delaying plans to add ecommerce as a result of the outbreak.
Pivoting in the pandemic
Over half of entrepreneurs (56%) have pivoted their existing business model as a direct result of COVID-19.
What will get them through
Flexibility was cited by 36% of respondents as the characteristic that is most important for getting them through the downturn, while
28% said creativity and 25% said resilience.
A similar amount (54%) of those surveyed are also planning on starting a new business or side hustle during the COVID-19 outbreak, mostly because:
they need the income………….. 64%
they have more time……………. 41%
they always wanted to…………. 37%
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