In this 45-minute webinar, digital marketplace experts discussed how marketplaces have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and what the future may hold in our changed world.
The global Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has created an incredibly difficult business climate and it is expected that no sector will be immune to a recession.
But in the lockdown – with bricks-and-mortar businesses shutting their doors and people told to isolate at home – we’ve already seen a huge shift to ecommerce in many sectors and some online businesses are even thriving.
Digital marketplaces have historically disrupted old industries by delivering seamless interaction between buyers and sellers. But it’s a bit of a mixed bag for marketplaces right now – with some significant successes and some worrying lows.
During this insightful webinar, held on 22 April 2020, host Mark Walker, Editorial Director at The Fintech Times, was joined by:
• Adam Bialy, Chief Product Officer at OpenPayd, the API-based banking-as-a-service provider
• David Keene, Chief Marketing Officer at Funding Options, the business finance marketplace
• Stephen Dukes, Chief Operating Officer at Confused.com, the digital marketplace for insurance
The panel revealed their perceptions of what it means to be a marketplace, how physical and digital marketplaces have been affected by the coronavirus, and what they must do to adapt during these exceptional times.
The highs…
“Food delivery marketplaces are skyrocketing right now as people want food delivered to their doorstep.”
“Educational learning marketplaces and digital services in the video games sector are being completely overloaded with demand right now.”
“There has been a huge spike in people looking to do comparison and looking to shop around.”
And the lows…
“The travel industry has completely shut down and marketplaces that operate in that space are seeing no traffic whatsoever. You could say they are facing an existential crisis moment right now.”
“On the retail side, we are seeing less, less, less traffic.”
“Insurers have experienced some real challenges over the last few week and many of the big providers have been struggling to answer their phones and relocate the thousands of people working in call centre to efficiently work remotely.”
The future
It was clear during this fascinating webinar, that the panel shared a common consensus. That the landscape across all industries and different marketplaces has to evolve after the Covid-19 crisis with a focus on community and a new impetus for nailing digital processes.
“The dynamics are going to shift towards some of the marketplaces that actually helped during the crisis, who provided value and actually delivered.”
“Most big insurers will be looking at digitisation transformation programmes again and realising that perhaps this experience has highlighted that there is still a lot of work to do there.”
“Consumers need a champion, someone working on their behalf and sitting between them and hundreds of financial services providers to ensure they get not just the right choice, but also the right choice at the best price and the best value for them.”
“There can be no more excuses, you need to be nimble, you need to be agile. You need to be able to pivot quickly. You need to be able to adjust the way you work. You can’t expect to be working the way you did for the last 20 years right and just continuing business as usual. That’s not going to happen.”
“As well as providing access to the right things, the right services and the right physical goods, marketplaces also provide a community and the ability to grow and learn.”
Watch the video for more fascinating insights on how marketplaces
are responding to the Covid-19 pandemic.
