The COVID-19 pandemic has put unique pressure on the Canadian manufacturing industry. Competitive advantage has never been more important. And at a time when your customers are turning to online business, e-commerce and digital payment are key differentiators.
As a proudly Canadian digital commerce provider serving Canada’s SMB manufacturers with more than 20 years of expertise in B2B digital commerce, we wanted to understand better the impact of the crisis and how businesses have coped.
To this end, we surveyed our customers. We asked them detailed questions on how the pandemic has affected their sales, operations, marketing, and infrastructure.
The responses we gathered came from numerous industries and businesses of every size, B2B and B2C, from North America.
And if we learned one thing, having a recovery plan is critical in the face of COVID-19.
The Canadian manufacturing industry wasn’t ready for the pandemic. Supply chain problems, particularly for businesses that rely on overseas trade, resulted in losses of up to 86% when COVID-19 hit.
As our economy recovers, businesses are already preparing for another possible emergency. For example, many companies running Microsoft Dynamics invest in ERP-integrated digital payment solutions to enable early invoice payment. Among other things, this helps suppliers operating in heavily affected regions to maintain their operations.
Part of a solid recovery plan for Canadian SMB manufacturers involves retooling your operations to optimize and accelerate production efficiency, getting your products to your customers more quickly. This is one more reason to support the Made in Canada strategy, boosting the sales of Canadian-made goods.
But above all, this much is clear:
The success of SMB manufacturers is key to Canada’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. E-commerce and digital payment provide a future-proof solution for businesses like yours, but you need a good place to start.
To learn how e-commerce can make a difference to the operations and growth of your business, join Rob Cook, Senior Business Development, k-eCommerce, at the Best Manufacturing Apps Virtual Conference on September 24.
