It’s been almost six months since the UK’s first COVID-19 lockdown, and in such a short time, it feels like our old way of life has been completely left in the dust.

Just a few months ago:

Zoom was just a word for going really fast

Social distancing was what you did with your old school friends

And

Boy, we really took those Sunday roasts with all the family for granted, didn't we?

We had no idea what was about to hit us. Life has changed so much in such a short time, yet the COVID-19 crisis has not only transformed our day-to-day existence, but has propelled unprecedented changes across industry and technology.

The Sunday Times has labelled it “The great coronavirus acceleration” as companies and industries have thrown years of processes and ideology in the bin and made big changes in response to the ‘new normal’.

Shopping is naturally an area where our habits have changed. As a nation, we were all partial to the occasional online supermarket delivery, but during the lockdown, supermarkets have seen demand for online grocery shopping soar. Tesco reported 1 million additional online orders, whilst Waitrose saw a 10% increase in online shopping. It's also interesting to note, that in September 2020, 100% online supermarket Ocado officially overtook Tesco as the most valuable UK retailer.

Local businesses also hopped on the online bandwagon, changing business models overnight to ensure they could reach customers by creating home delivery options.

Research, production, and healthcare have been put under unprecedented strain, and their reaction has been nothing short of heroic. 

We all sit in hope for a viable vaccine for this terrible pandemic  – developing a vaccine is something that normally takes years and years of development and testing, yet this has been propelled into what could be less than two years. In March, UK manufacturer Ineos built a hand sanitizer factory in less than a month, and across the world, major medical facilities were built within weeks.

Things have changed at the office too.

Working from home is now commonplace, and in a survey carried out by the Institute of Directors, 74% of companies said that remote working will continue to be part of their normal practice when life returns to ‘normal’ after COVID-19. According to the ONS, in 2019, only 30% of employees ever worked from home. 

The times they really are A-changin' and it will be interesting to see if businesses and industry become more agile when things go back to 'normal'.

Need Help Getting Your Business Online?

Right now, things are not normal, but it looks as though the COVID-19 crisis will change everyday habits, perhaps for good.

Here at Shropshire based website developers Six Ticks, we have already been inspired by so many of our clients who have adapted their services overnight in response to unprecedented challenges.

Making adaptations to normal ways of working and taking your business online so that your customers can reach you is more important than ever. And Six Ticks Elements is here to make things easy. We offer a range of quick, easy, and quality services to help your business to shine online. Our services include starter website development, adding additional pages to existing websites, or new features such as online payment systems or reservations.

We also develop custom CRM systems, so you can ditch all those spreadsheets, improve efficiency, and transform your internal processes and how you interact with your customers.

Whatever your digital needs during these uncertain times, Six Ticks Elements is here for you. Get in touch with our friendly team to chat about your project.