How Businesses Have Pivoted During The Covid-19 Pandemic

This pandemic has turned the world upside down. Businesses across every niche have been affected and forced to change the way they do business.

Many businesses have suffered negative impacts from this challenging time, while others have found new ways to thrive. One of the few (if not the only) positives to arise from this trying time is a display of resilience in business owners.

I interviewed 7 US based businesses from different industries, who have all found new and creative ways to survive this pandemic. This pandemic has affected all these businesses differently. Each one of these businesses has had to struggle with the new reality that even when this pandemic is over, business may never return to “normal”.

Retail Appliance Store: Atlantic Appliance

The first business I interviewed is a retail appliance store located in Yorktown Heights, New York, called I spoke to Joey Vukaj, the owner of Atlantic Appliance about how his business has changed and what he has done to adapt and survive.

How the pandemic has changed his business:

At the beginning of the pandemic, Atlantic Appliance had to make modifications to the store to keep the employees and customers safe. Joey had plexiglass windows installed at the parts, service, and checkout counter. He also began disinfecting the store nightly.
Even after making those changes, walk-in traffic all but disappeared. On an average Saturday before this pandemic, a walk-in customer might expect to wait 30 minutes to an hour to speak to one of the five salesmen, but this is no longer the case.

Atlantic Appliance’s sales have not vanished, the sales process has just changed. The majority of the sales now happen over the phone or on their website. Joey does mention that in the past week, walk-in traffic is starting to come back, which is a great sign.

How his business has adapted to survive the pandemic:
As mentioned above, Atlantic Appliance has shifted their sales to the phone and the internet. Atlantic Appliance was met with a major challenge early on in the pandemic. They lost one of their delivery trucking companies. The trucker’s father had emphysema and did not want to risk going into people’s homes, potentially catching the virus and bringing it home to his family.
Joey and his wife had to take over that trucker’s route, some days delivering as many as 32 appliances, such as stackable washers and refrigerators. They have been doing deliveries every day since that trucking company quit.

The first delivery the husband and wife team made after losing the trucking company was to Ladder 10 in NYC. The delivery was part of a promotion by General Electric to provide new appliances to firehouses during the pandemic. Ladder 10 is across the street from the World Trade Center. Joey lost his brother in-law during the 9/11 terrorist attack, and was honored to be able to do that for the firehouse.

Joey stated that, while these days are certainly hard for him and his business, the harder job belongs to the doctors and nurses. “Those people who risk their lives, we take for granted a lot of time. Whatever they get paid, they don’t get paid enough”.

Retail and Wholesale Skincare: Les Crème

The next interview I conducted was with Les Crème. Les Crème is a skincare company based in San Diego, CA. Les Crème manufactures their own line of skincare products, such as soaps, lotions, and candles, as well as private labeling of many other skincare lines. I spoke to Daniel Summers, one of the owners of Les Crème, about how his business has changed.

How the pandemic has changed his business:
Before this pandemic struck this nation, Les Crème primarily had a business-to-business (B2B) sales model. The majority of their products were created for other companies under that company’s brand, which is a practice called ‘private labeling’. Dan estimates that about 75% of their business was private labeling products for other companies, such as small retailers, specialty pharmacies, and small boutique stores, and only 25% of their business was selling their own brand.

Dan had two pop-up retail locations for his products in San Diego, which were forced to shut down at the beginning of March. Those locations were permanently shut down and will not be reopening even when this pandemic ends.
Dan saw his business begin to change in mid-February of this year. The business would normally receive 3–5 private label orders per day, but that number dropped to 3–5 orders per month. This took a serious toll on his business, reducing their monthly revenue to around 25% of the previous month.

The ability to source packaging and raw materials also began to drastically change. Dan stated that materials that would normally take 3–4 days to receive now were backordered for weeks, and sometimes even months.

How his business has adapted to survive the pandemic:

Dan saw this drop in private labeling contracts as an opportunity to grow his own brand. He began to focus more on the business-to-consumer (B2C) side of his business. In the past, Les Crème would send 1 email a week to their customers, now he sends 2–3 per week. He also started a drop shipping program, making it easy for other online retailers to sell his product. These changes in focus have had an immensely positive impact on his business. While he still has not achieved the same level of sales as before the pandemic, he is selling a significant amount more of his own product line.

Les Crème also added a new product to their product line, hand sanitizer. Dan saw the immediate need in the market for this product, and jumped on this opportunity. Since its launch, this product has been wildly successful and likely will be in the foreseeable future.

Retail Rug Store: Rustigian Rugs

My next interview was with Rosalind Rustigian of Rustigian Rugs. The business was started by Roz’s father during the Great Depression in the 1930s. Rustigian Rugs is a retail store that sells 2 types of products, as well as offering a rug cleaning service. The first is handmade rugs predominantly made in the Near and Far East. They also sell wall-to-wall carpet, which is primarily sourced from the southern US, with some carpeting coming from Europe, Great Britain and India.

How the pandemic has changed her business:
When I first asked this question to Roz, the response I got back was well-spoken and positive. “Our business is genetically geared to survive these little twists and turns”. Before this pandemic, Rustigian Rugs had started to transition to the online sales world about 4–5 years ago.

While not shifting to a full e-commerce sales model, the business started posting all their inventory online. This was done so the many designers they work with could easily access their merchandise.
One of the challenges faced by Rustigian Rugs when listing their merchandise online was photography of their products. It is hard to convey some of the visuals of textiles. For example, it is difficult to convey such aspects as thickness and texture through a photo.

How her business has adapted to survive the pandemic:
Seeing how difficult it may be to truly sell her products online, Roz took a different approach to adapt her business to the pandemic. A large majority of product sales within the business came from the service side of the business. Customers would have their rugs cleaned, and when they were ready to buy a new rug, Rustigian Rugs was the obvious choice. The pandemic presented a challenge: “How do you limit interaction when picking up and delivering rugs?” Roseland started offering a service where customers would have 0 interaction with the pickup and delivery crews. The customer would leave the rug on the porch, it would be picked up, cleaned, and dropped back off to the customer’s porch. This service has been a welcome addition to their customers during this pandemic.

In a recent social media post, they illustrated the level of service they offer to their customers. The post showed a rug they had just sold and asked, “What makes this rug so special?” The answer was that they delivered it with the customer’s butcher order from down the street. They are focusing on providing the best possible customer service to retain their existing client base.

E-Commerce: Buy At A Discount
The next interview I had was with Chris Harris, a partner at Buy At A Discount. Buy At A Discount is a unique, service-based business. The company offers Amazon customers high-value Amazon coupons free of charge. It also offer Amazon sellers the opportunity to get their coupons in front of millions of Amazon buyers.

How the pandemic has changed his business:
Chris stated that, since Amazon sales have increased exponentially due to the stay at home orders, they first thought it would have a positive impact on the business. “While Amazon’s sales increased, we began to see regulations imposed on Amazon sellers that would heavily impact our business and the businesses of the sellers who list their coupons with us.

Amazon began implementing inventory limits on products they deemed ‘non-essential’. At one point, Amazon was only allowing 50 products to be sent to their fulfillment centers at a time.” This greatly impacted many Amazon sellers’ ability to fulfill orders.

With fewer products available, they were less inclined to offer any sort of discount coupons on their products.

How has your business adapted to survive this pandemic?
“While many of our loyal customers have stayed with us though this pandemic, we have lost some. It’s understandable, due to the limits on the products they were able to send into Amazon’s fulfillment warehouses. We began to seek out sellers who sold essential products.

Sellers who sold medical products, toilet paper, and anything deemed essential were seeing huge boosts in their sales. We found that these sellers were excited to find a platform to boost their sales even further.

While we have been actively seeking sellers that sell essential products, we will continue to work with sellers from every niche. We hope that Amazon will allow all their sellers to resume sending larger amounts of inventory to their warehouses in the near future.”

Adult Entertainment: Sin Sugar
My next interview was with Alix Lynx, the owner of Sin Sugar. Sin Sugar is a business in the adult industry. Alix Lynx is a model, producer, and digital media entrepreneur in this industry. This industry came into the public eye at the beginning of this pandemic with Pornhub’s “Stay Home” campaign, which gave users access to premium content on their site if they agreed to stay home.

How the pandemic has changed her business:
The largest change for anyone in this industry (as well as the mainstream film industry) was the closure of all production studios. All adult production has ceased until further notice, everything has gone from in-person to strictly digital. Before this pandemic, approximately 40% of her revenue was from paid professional shoots with production companies. This forced Alix to quickly pivot and provide content for her fans completely on her own.

A lot of the people she knows are still doing well, relying on online fan clubs or recycling scenes in creative ways. “It’s forcing people to pivot and evolve. I don’t necessarily think this is a bad thing”. Alix has been focusing on building and scaling her fan clubs on sites such as Onlyfans.

How her business has adapted to survive the pandemic:
As mentioned above, Alix has been focusing on creating her own content and building her online presence. She believes this pandemic has given performers in her industry a new perspective on how they can make money. It has shown them they can make equal or even more money online with certain platforms, rather than being contracted by production companies.

Even after this pandemic, things in this industry will likely never be the same. She stated “The power is in the performers’ hands now”. Many people in the industry will be utilizing online platforms like Onlyfans to make money, and have realized they do not need to solely rely on production companies for their income.

Many of these production companies may find it difficult to begin shooting due to the nature of the business, even after this pandemic is over. To resume shooting for these large companies, they would need COVID-19 testing for all performers and staff on the set.

Without that, you cannot possibly create a safe environment for everyone involved, even after this pandemic. Right now, there are production companies transitioning to more virtual experiences for fans. For example, she has been hired to film a scene on her phone and then sell it to a production company. That may be the path production companies in the adult industry may have to take to survive during and after this pandemic.

Digital Advertising: Jack Preis (Ad Pros)
My next interview was with Jack Preis, the owner of Ad Pros Advertising Agency. Jack’s boutique advertising agency mainly works with clients in the music industry. He was able to provide some unique insight into what is currently happening within that industry. Jack’s business focuses on engaging fans, so that they will take a valuable action for a music artist. That action might be buying a ticket to a show, purchasing merchandise, listening to new music, or another form of engagement with the artist’s brand.

How the pandemic has changed his business:
The pandemic impacted the music industry quickly, when all the venues across the country simultaneously shut down around the end of march.

The first thing Jack explained was that live touring for most artists accounts for a majority of their business’s revenue. When the pandemic began all live music tours were canceled. When this aspect of the business was removed it was a massive hit to most music artist’s bottom line. As a result, his clients have scaled down their marketing activities which affects his business’s revenue as well.

How the business has adapted to survive the pandemic:
Fortunately, Jack has stayed busy with a few major projects. For example, he produced Lost Lands Festival’s “Couch Lands” live rebroadcast which took place on Twitch on April 17th-19th. This was a massive undertaking for him with over 45 hours of content, and it ended up becoming one of the top 3 most viewed livestreams on Twitch that weekend.

He provided a very insightful look into one of the biggest misconceptions that music industry fans have. They believe that, because music artists are staying busy and doing live broadcasts, it means things are going okay. The reality “Online performance is a short term solution to keep fans happy, but music businesses of all sizes will find it harder and harder to keep the lights on if touring remains off the table for too long,” Jack said.

These online shows generate engagement and brand health at best. They bring in nowhere near the income that a live touring act would be able to do. “It’s a short term fix for a long term problem”. There is some revenue opportunity from this through ad revenue and paid subscribers, but it often doesn’t amount to very much.

Another avenue some of his clients have taken is merchandise campaigns. Some clients have seen a significant increase in their merchandise sales during this pandemic. “My theory is that the fans who have been lucky enough to remain employed during this pandemic are both earning their normal paychecks and saving money by not going out to bars, clubs and restaurants,”.
Music will be one of the last industries to resume normal operations, due to the nature of a live show.

These shows pack a lot of people in small venues, which is not possible during (and possibly even after) this pandemic. However, Jack believes that eventually the industry will return to normal. He believes that, when it does return, the fans will be “hungry” to see their favorite artists live, so much so that it may even be hard to get tickets.

Event Production Company: Production Club
My final interview was with Corey Johnson, one of the owners of Production Club. Production Club is an events business based in downtown Los Angeles. They primarily focus on large corporate events for companies such as Amazon and Google. They also produce tour designs and live show productions for artists such as The Chainsmokers, Skrillex, and Zedd.

How the pandemic has changed his business:
For Corey, this pandemic has greatly affected his business. His bread and butter is large scale productions, which currently are completely shut down. This pandemic eliminated the event industry overnight, both corporate events and festivals.

How his business has adapted to survive the pandemic:
Corey saw the shift from live to digital within the music industry, and watched as virtual events went from a side business in the event space to front and center. Production Club has created the most unique and intriguing pivot out of any company I have interviewed. Corey’s company has created a new product that could end up being how festival goers in the future are safely able to attend events.

“We love physical events, so we created a Micrashell concept design.” The Production Club team used some of their designers to create a “pandemic party suit”. The Micrashell is an airtight top suit to create a layer of protection from bacterial and viral infection for partygoers. This shell could hopefully allow people to attend large events safely in the future. Currently, this product is still in beta stages and not yet available to the public.

Corey had some insightful outlooks on how the music industry is currently responding to the pandemic, and what lies ahead. He believes that the monetization model in the industry has certainly changed, but he believes that code has yet to be cracked. He stated that, even when touring does return, it will be with limited capacity. “The live events are the lifeblood of these artists”, and because of that, it is a very challenging environment ahead.

Even once the pandemic ends, online shows will still be a crucial part of the music industry and continue in some shape and form. However, he does not believe they will ever replace live shows entirely, as “human beings have a fundamental need to be in the same location, to connect and be close to each other”. As that is the case, Production Club is not focusing all their effort on virtual events, as Corey believes that live events will resume in the future. These events may be a combination of virtual (physically decentralized) and physical.

Corey foresees that, when the industry reopens, it will not be like flicking a switch. Shows will start small and grow larger. There will need to be new safety procedures to keep the guests and staff safe both when setting up the event and during the event. Within this new environment, Corey believes there will be a lot of space for new innovations to help keep staff and concert goers safe; he stated “It’s time to build new solutions”.

Personally, I look forward to the release of Production Club’s Micrashell and being able to attend live events safely again.