With many of us still under the stay-at-home recommendation and most likely working from there, we can say that April 2020 was challenging.
For some, it was a really exciting month which had us create new ways to connect, communicate, and work with each other.
The inevitable change in consumer behavior
People being stuck at home during the pandemic has people spending much of their time online. The situation at hand has changed the way the average consumer thinks and it has shifted us to find ways to shop and order things we need online.
Understandably because people stay at home brick and mortar businesses suffer losses if they are unable to provide their services through online means.
Besides shopping and ordering food, social media sites have also noted an increase in user interaction as well as overall user base growth as people look to connect and stay social while practicing social distancing.
Several online services have become integral to peoples daily routine
By now I imagine that your home has become your office, but also it is the school for your kids. As they too use online means to watch classes online and interact with the different school assignments through Google Classroom.
Office meetings are happening on Zoom, Google Hangouts and Microsoft Teams meaning these services too have record growth in April 2020.
At the end of the day, we wish to entertain ourselves, and while we cannot go to a theater, a streaming service like Netflix and YouTube, and looking to connect on social media outlets like Facebook.
It is important to note that the streaming services did focus on providing us with access through mobile devices, though now we are spending our days at home, with computers close at hand.
People seem to be remembering how unpleasant it can be to squint at those little phone screens, and now they want a premium theater feeling at home.
A lot of home internet connection bandwidth will now be utilized for streaming videos of high-quality, and up to 4k resolution. The home internet connection now needs to provide enough bandwidth for several such devices.
Consequent increase in domain registration and new website boom
All of these circumstances have led to significant growth in domain registration and new websites sprouting like mushrooms after the rain.
We might say that those who were fortunate enough to have an online shop, retail or food ordering service before all this happened are now reaping the rewards with their business booming.
Namely, large platforms such as Wix reported above-average first-quarter earnings, but the interesting part is that it is largely due to the April boom. This domain registration and new website influx are influenced by people’s need to stay and work from home.
Their numbers show over 60% increase in user base, over 200% increase in paying subscribers, and online store subscriptions growth of 580%, all compared to the same period last year.
This shows just how many more businesses have taken this situation seriously and are now taking their future into their own hands.
Conclusion
In these unusual circumstances, we have turned to remote working and learning, virtual happy hours with friends and family, online shopping, and digital fitness apps.
Considering various studies on the internet say that it can take anywhere from three weeks to two months to form a new habit, we can be sure some of these new habits are here to stay.
Businesses who wish to stay afloat or possibly catch some profit of this online wave need to get their online presence up and running promptly with a domain registration and a website.