Shop owners around the world are trying to respond best and most effectively to the panic that dominates the world at this time. The COVID-19 pandemic brings a number of challenges to retailers of all sizes that they have not faced yet.

Therefore, changes need to be done. They share information about how a shop and its employees work in this situation. More than ever, they inform customers about the goods they have in stock. In this article, we’ll tell you a few tips on how to manage your product inventory the best so that buyers will have what they need during a pandemic.

Help customers get the products they need

No one wants to spend time in front of the store and threaten themselves and others unnecessarily. Therefore, it is a good idea to offer people the opportunity to pick up products at a store or order them online. So they get what they need and don’t have to spend time in the store.

Find out how demand is changing in your top seller’s report, and you can quickly add exactly the products which are wanted the most in Merchant Center.

Active communication about changes in the company

Any change in your business should be known to your customer. Have you changed your opening hours? So, simply change your business profile on Google and update your ads. By this way, your customers will know whether you have open, closed, or have different opening hours than before.

You might also want to consider setting up an automated email response and adding a banner to answer your most frequently asked questions.  The buyer will be able to get the information he needs in a short time.

Current situation and demand by category

Tools like Google Trends and Google Alerts will help you better understand your customer’s minds. They also give you an overview of current local conditions. By using auction statistics for your Google Ads campaigns, you can see if your position has changed in relation to your competition.

Provide customers the latest product information

Increase the number of uploaded feeds and turn on auto-update to ensure that your product data is always accurate and up-to-date. Customers need to know what is the current price of the product and whether the product is available.

You can make quick updates, such as product availability or closing stores in local inventory feeds. You may not know the time when suppliers will deliver your supplies, or you may not know what your current inventory is. In this case, you will mark the products sold online as “sold out”, “limited stock” or choose the maximum number of pieces that can be sold per order.

You’ll also need to have your shipping settings and estimated delivery time updated to reflect your current options.