Small businesses see changes during pandemic

FORUM FILE PHOTO
Lily White Executive Director Greater Maryville Chamber of Commerce

MARYVILLE, Mo. — Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, small businesses have taken the brunt of the economic fallout, faced with mitigation strategies that have reduced foot traffic and forced many to adapt their strategies in myriad ways.

In Maryville, like in most places across the country, customer-facing changes have included an acceleration of online services for locally owned small businesses, especially for retailers and restaurants. Home or curbside delivery is now commonplace in both sectors, a change that was probably coming at some point, but was kicked into high gear by the global pandemic.

Lily White, executive director of the Greater Maryville Chamber of Commerce, told The Forum that although the changes have been helpful in keeping businesses afloat, they’re “still seeing a loss.

“There’s been some success, for sure, but it’s hard to quantify,” she said.

But many of the changes, like curbside or home delivery, are likely here to stay.

“A lot of our retail have started to do in-town delivery that’s free, and they’re competing a little more with Amazon in that way,” White said. “… I know people that haven’t set foot in a grocery store because they’ve started ordering their groceries online, or just parking and getting it dropped off in their trunk. I think those things will stick around.”

A greater shift online could also change how small businesses attract new customers with a smaller emphasis on bringing in foot traffic.

“I don’t think we’ll ever see it go all the way back to in-store majority,” White said. “And we’re seeing that some businesses that are opening now are opening just online before they’re opening with the brick-and-mortar. So that’s been interesting.”

Though some small businesses, including locally, are finding new ways to thrive online, White cautioned that trusting marketing solely to a social media platform might not be a wise plan long term. Businesses that subsist on social media marketing are at the mercy of a platform’s algorithm to stay visible to the right potential customers — or to stay on the platform at all, something that White said has raised concerns in some chamber circles.

“You know, everyone was going to social media, and we saw Facebook kick how many people off a couple weeks ago?” she said. “And Twitter shut down accounts, and Parler got shut down as a social media site … you know, don’t just rely on social media. That’s a big push that people have been going towards, is just social media and no other kind of website or marketing.

“And you don’t own your social media account, that is an account that someone else can turn off. You need to have a website and have a place for people to land that can’t just be shut off without any notification. I think that’s an important lesson that we learned in 2020.”

However, the climate for starting a business in Maryville right now doesn’t necessarily make it impossible to have success. White said the same basic principles apply now as during less extraordinary times: entrepreneurs should be prepared, know their limits, know their market, have a good plan and be willing to learn as they go.

That includes adjusting to mitigation measures in place to help stop the spread of COVID-19, including a mask mandate. White said those restrictions affect every individual business differently.

“I think everything affects business, you know?” she said. “Weather affects your business. Chiefs Super Bowl affects your business — if you’re a restaurant or a bar, you might be really busy this coming Sunday. If you’re a store that’s selling jeans, I’m probably not thinking about jeans on Sunday, you know what I mean?”

White said that every aspect of the pandemic — from imposed restrictions, to shifting customer habits to supplies and any other of countless other factors — affects businesses in different ways and to different degrees depending on the individual business. That includes how a mask mandate may affect revenues. Some people may be more comfortable in a place that requires masks, while others may not.

“That’s kind of dependent on your clientele, or dependent on that individual customer,” White said. “It’s hard to say, you know, ‘the mask mandate is absolutely doing this thing to business.’ And that’s going to be different for every single business. So, it’s kind of figuring out what works best.”

Each small business in Maryville has adjusted to the pandemic in different ways, White said, whether that’s through adjusting services, adding online elements, changing hours, intensifying cleaning practices or any number of other ways they’ve been able to keep serving customers.

And customers have largely responded positively.

“Our economy in Maryville, like our sales tax, has been steady, if not up,” White said. “And we haven’t seen a huge spike in layoffs. So we obviously have a community that’s supportive of our businesses, even if our small businesses are struggling.”