Pandemic Resource Roundup for E-Commerce, Luxury Retail, Beauty, Food & Wine and More

As we approach the one year anniversary of COVID-related shutdowns to the economy, we wanted to take a step back and examine all of the myriad ways businesses have had to adapt, and in some cases, realize innovations that are more than likely here to stay.

Below, find key resources on:

Fine-tuning your remote office operation
Reexamining the role of location and your workers
How to make a position fully remote and hire for it successfully
How various industries — from beauty to food to alcohol to retail — are innovating to keep pace with the times
How to use free resources to develop your marketable skills as an employee

Fine-tuning your approach to remote work

The pandemic has caused a number of companies to evaluate the role of remote positions and consider the upside of a full distributed workforce.

All remote workforces are not created equally, however. Consider the example of WordPress, for example. Founder Matt Mullenweg has thoughts on how to fine-tune your operation so that remote employees are outperforming the job they would have done otherwise.

One of the things that many companies found after abruptly going remote is that online meetings could be a tremendous time-waster. Here’s how to build better online meetings and interviews.

The Importance of Location

Should your office move elsewhere? That’s what Goldman Sachs is considering.

Remote Positions: Interviewing, Making an Offer and Hiring

We have created a multi-part series to the key components of remote hiring including how to:

Impact on Business Functions

As anyone in business knows, with change (and even with crisis) comes opportunity. Over the past year we’ve seen a number of businesses realize new innovations in:

Delivery, including same-day delivery
Legacy companies (especially in luxury) needing to up their e-commerce game quickly
Consumer products companies shifting their approach to work-from-home individuals

Here is more on the biggest trends inspired by COVID.

Sales and marketing have taken a big shift in the post-pandemic era. Sales professionals, long accustomed to sales calls in person, have needed to adapt to survive and thrive.

Industry-specific trends

Beauty brands are adapting to new consumer beahviors and a greater emphasis on corporate responsibility.
High end luxury will need digitally savvy hires who can attract younger consumers through innovative means, including resale markets.
Certain types of skill sets are going to be increasingly in demand for digital and e-commerce, including social commerce experts and folks well versed in distributed management.
Sporting goods is a retail sector that is enjoying strong growth in the post-COVID era.
The beverage industry is adapting to new ways that consumers want to try and buy alcoholic spirits, wines and beer, including new forays into the direct-to-consumer and delivery-on-demand models. In New York City, wine and spirits professionals grapple with unique challenges.
Amazon’s incredible strength during the post-pandemic era has made an impact on all other retail businesses.

Skill development

It’s worth taking time to develop skills that could be useful in the post pandemic era. We have tips on shoring up your skills in the following areas:

E-commerce: as more and more businesses move online, companies demand executives with a sophisticated understanding of the e-commerce landscape.
Management: Executives who can manage high potential teams and exhibit leadership qualities in highly volatile times will be very important as the conditions in our society and economy change.
Marketing and Sales Development: these two disciplines are always in high demand, but even more so today as priorities shift and economic conditions change rapidly.
Customer Service: Improving the customer experience, from targeting products to enhancing delivery options has never been more important.
Entrepreneurship: The skills to build new opportunity or exploit business areas that can grow is also an important skill moving into the post-pandemic period.