EFFECTS OF MARKETING STRATEGIES OF ONLINE SELLER AMIDST PANDEMIC TO

THEIR BUSINESS

Since COVID-19, people are afraid to leave their homes because they fear coronavirus
(Chaudhary, 2020). They even avoid going out to buy necessities. Given the lockdown, some
people resort to panic buying to avoid the fear of COVID-19. Fear of being infected by the Covid
19 can cause many people or customers to shift their purchasing habits from offline to online
stores. As a result, online selling has grown in popularity because many people prefer to buy
online rather than offline in the face of the pandemic. With digitalization on the rise, online
shopping is quickly gaining popularity among society members for good reasons. According to
Silpa, Rajasree, and Balasubramanian (2016), online shopping is “one of the fastest-growing
phenomenons” and is defined as “a form of electronic commerce which allows consumers to
buy products and services over the internet”. The earlier is true, especially during the pandemic
when citizen movements were restricted so they had to find another way to purchase what
they needed. Hence, the convenience of purchasing goods online is often one of the main
reasons consumers choose to shop online (Setiawan et al., 2020; Kailash, 2020; Tham, Dastane,
Johari, & Ismail, 2019). Besides, easy access to product information (Wang et al. in Kailash,
2020; Kushwah & Singh, 2019) and reviews from other customers (Keeney in Kailash, 2020) also
encourage consumers to purchase online. This is because more information gives consumers
more product assurance. A wider range of products and services offered at attractive or
discounted prices (Agyapong, 2018) is another factor consumers shop online as it provides
them with greater benefits (Lim & Dubinsky, 2004). To sum up, consumers choose to shop
online for the convenience, easy access to information, wider range of products and services,
and lower prices.
Online businesses develop innovative strategies to influence their buyers' purchasing
decisions. According to Itliong (2020), adopting digital strategies such as social media and e-
commerce assistance struggled to survive business owners during the pandemic. As a result of
the pandemic, cities around the Philippines faced similar challenges, compelling all non-
essential establishments to close. It allows business owners to use social media and e-
commerce platforms to promote their items. In addition, due to the lengthy lockdown imposed
by Covid 19, many businesses have been forced to close. However, Torres (2021) mentioned
that the pandemic presented several opportunities for business owners who adapted online
selling to make their items more accessible and devised strategies to gain popularity and attract
new clients through online selling operations. The pandemic brought agony to the world; thus,
it brought opportunities and opened a way for online sellers to develop new strategies and
update their strategies to account for pandemics. Shopping online promotes convenience,
safety, and ease of use; business owners who become online sellers take advantage of these
benefits to continue their services and keep their businesses afloat.
 Planning in an unexpected organizational downtime as a coordination tactic helps
improve small businesses' survival during the crisis. ( Diers & Donohue, 2013). Another Strategy
is the managing of the situation through innovation. Innovation in crisis management is linked
to alter or build procedures, goods, or services that increase crisis chance of company
sustainability (Bessant, Rush & Trifilova, 2015). Earlier researchers included innovation as a
tactic to survive a crisis. This can involve discounting prices, growing social media activity, or
community outreach programs.
Kotler and Levy (1969) defined marketing as the function of an organization that is
capable of maintaining constant contact with its customers, anticipating their needs, and
developing products to meet those needs while also developing a system of communication to
express the organization's objectives. Kotler and Keller (2013) describe marketing as the
process of profitably addressing demands. As a result of this definition, marketing is defined as
the process of identifying and meeting human and social needs. The term "online marketing"
refers to the practice of utilizing the internet to accomplish marketing objectives. The phrase e-
marketing is frequently used interchangeably with internet marketing, but it also includes
mobile marketing. Digital marketing is a marketing strategy that uses the internet (Sing et al.,
2020). The adoption of a digital marketing strategy by companies is a way to build mutual
relationships with customers. Through website marketing, search engine marketing, online
advertising, social media marketing, e-mail marketing, and video marketing, interactions occur
between companies and customers. Customers get information about the company's products,
submit complaints to the company, convey suggestions to the company; vice versa, the
company can get to know customers better and may keep its customers loyal. Customer
Relationship Management, abbreviated as CRM, is a customer relationship management
strategy with companies that aims to manage good relationships with consumers or customers,
collect all customer data, then record salesperson activities, especially in dealing with potential
customers or those who have become regular customers (Tun-Chih et al., 2015; Santouridis &
Veraki, 2017). Presenting CRM in the company is not only to build good relationships with
customers but also to increase sustainable sales and earn a profit (AlQershi et al., 2020;
AlQershi et al., 2018; Al-Nashmi & AlKholidy, 2016). If formulated in more detail, the existence
of CRM helps a lot in providing various information needed regarding customers, customer This
is the basis for companies to build a good CRM system. Thus, it can be said that the adoption of
digital marketing can make the company's CRM system even better.