7 industries that started to skyrocket during the pandemic

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The life hacker spoke with business representatives and found out what to expect after the restrictions were lifted.

1. Grocery retail

Whatever happens, people will be hungry. In a stressful situation, we buy even more food. The process of absorbing food itself is soothing, and the stocks on the shelves soothe anxiety: what if, but in the house there is buckwheat and potatoes.

Grocery retail is actively recruiting sellers. But couriers, of course, are especially popular. The demand for representatives of this profession has grown by at least 300%. This is, albeit temporary, but quick money. For some couriers, the salary is comparable to the income of an IT specialist - up to 150 thousand rubles.

Arseny Fedotkin Managing Partner, Selecty Recruiting Agency

What will happen next

Obviously, they will not stop buying food, but the volume of sales will depend on the financial condition of the population. During this time, most likely, many will overcome their fears about delivery and will start using it more often when the restrictions are lifted. First of all, we are talking about express services, when they are ready to bring you a loaf or ice cream in 15 minutes. Although the segment of grocery purchases for a week with delivery may grow in comparison with the pre-quarantine period.

2. Courier services

Grocery stores were allowed not to close, other shopping facilities were less fortunate. They, like catering establishments, are rescued by courier services, which take over the delivery. If you leave the house (exclusively on business, of course), you can see how many people on the street in branded clothing. All of them are carrying something to someone. So the increase in revenue and staff of courier services is a natural consequence of quarantine measures.

What will happen next

This demand is temporary. After all restrictions have been lifted, people will want to go to shopping centers and dine in cafes again. Of course, the habit of ordering with delivery will remain, but it is not yet clear to what extent.

Then there is an unobvious, but the right way: logistics companies should look towards marketplaces. Moreover, this must be done now, otherwise you may be late. This story was once held by DHL in Germany. A marketplace for companies with developed logistics is an opportunity to go online and a new business model in which you can sell a product without purchasing it.

Andrey Pavlenko CEO of the Scallium platform

3. Online education

Online education is a trend in recent years. It is convenient when you do not need to go to an English tutor across the whole city or you can get a profession sitting on your own couch. There are many courses on the web on any topic - from drawing to physics. The pandemic has added to the number of online learners those who decide to learn something out of boredom or risk losing their profession in a crisis.

We have always grown steadily, but already in the first two weeks of quarantine, the number of registrations on our portal increased by almost 650%. We associate this with the fact that people have had time for self-education. An equally important reason for the growth is that people were afraid of the crisis and stopped postponing getting a new profession until better times.

Alexander Nikitin CEO of educational portal GeekBrains

What will happen next

Most likely, after the restrictions are lifted, everyone will feel like a little schoolchildren on the threshold of summer holidays. You will want to run out of four walls into the wild, burn your diary and never return to school. But after some time, you will again want (or have to) learn something new. And returning to online courses will be much easier than starting from scratch.

We are in a unique situation that is driving demand for online services strongly. This is by no means a natural market development for the industry, and it is unlikely that demand for them will not subside after the quarantine is lifted. But there is no doubt that current events will give a powerful impetus to the development of online education.

Nikolay Spiridonov CEO of the Tetrika online school

4. IT-sphere

This industry did not complain of stagnation before the advent of the coronavirus, but the pandemic gave it new growth points. One of them is business tools. Due to restrictive measures, conservative spheres, which were slow and reluctant to go online, were forced to accelerate. Someone met a pandemic with outdated barely working sites, someone had an online channel that was not debugged at all. All this required immediate intervention. This is where IT services came in handy.

The pandemic has significantly accelerated the digitalization of business: retail, delivery and other services that need to reach out to self-contained customers required new tools. Retailers need online stores; large business, public sector, corporations with their own educational projects - applications for distance learning; for housing companies - applications for communication with residents.

Igor Khokhryakov HRD at 65apps

Not only business has moved online, but all spheres of life in general. There is even a request for parties in the video chat format, let alone traditional forms of entertainment.

One industry that is steadily gaining momentum is video game development. Due to the forced isolation, people began to spend more time on the Internet: more often watching movies, chatting in instant messengers and playing. As a result, sales of games in March grew by 63%, and the gaming audience of Steam reached a record 22.6 million people at the same time.

Sergey Zanin IT entrepreneur, co-founder of Alawar

What will happen next

IT has great chances to maintain strong growth. First, the restrictions will be lifted gradually and, possibly, will be introduced more than once. Second, the pandemic has shown that the old approach is no longer effective. Those companies that invested in technology development and followed trends were on the top. Third, customers are getting used to the ability to interact online and it would be illogical to take it away from them.

We believe that once the quarantine restrictions are lifted, the number of requests for development will grow even faster. The world is already changing, old approaches do not work, businesses need to master new channels of communication with their consumers.

Igor Khokhryakov

5. Products for fitness at home

The pandemic has dispersed to the apartments and lovers of the simulator, and runners, and people exercising on horizontal bars. All of them had to solve the issue of training at home. Therefore, the demand for compact exercise machines, elastic bands and resistance bands, weights and dumbbells has grown.

Interest in online training has increased. If for fitness centers this is an attempt to pump up the brand and retain at least some income, then for those who initially made a bet on this it is an excellent opportunity for growth.

What will happen next

At first glance, the increase in demand is seasonal. However, less obvious factors may be involved. Even when clubs and studios open, they will most likely be forced to follow WHO recommendations, which include a ban on group programs, thorough disinfection, and so on.

These measures will lead to a significant increase in the cost of services and, as a result, to an increase in the cost of subscriptions. The crisis will also affect purchasing power: the physically active audience will choose more flexible and less expensive training formats. Quarantine will definitely strengthen the online presence of fitness companies: people will realize that home workouts save a lot of budget and the most important resource - time.

Anastasia Chirchenko professional trainer, founder of the RAKAMAKAFIT fitness brand

6. Legal services

The demand for legal aid does not arise from a good life. Unfortunately, the pandemic creates all the conditions to throw problems for people. We have to resolve issues related to business closure, layoffs, job loss, use of credit and other banking products.

If we take dry statistics, then the number of calls from customers has doubled. There are so many of them that we are recruiting new employees. Income for April rose. Many potential clients are now taking a wait and see attitude in the hope of rectifying the situation, but it will only get worse. So we are not afraid of reducing the flow of requests.

Artur Yusupov General Director of AYUR Belaya Polosa LLC

What will happen next

There is every reason to believe that legal services will continue to be in demand. And it's not just the problems that arise. In a pandemic, laws change very quickly, so it is often impossible to understand without a specialist.

7. Intimate goods

On the one hand, the self-isolation regime closed access to new acquaintances and non-binding sex, and even single people want to get relief in a stressful situation. On the other hand, the couples were trapped together.

For us business owners, this was expected. People became hostages of self-isolation or quarantine, that long-awaited free time appeared. And he began to be occupied with the study of new facets. The demand for toys has grown not only in the middle price segment, but also for premium ones.

Vera Kuznetsova commercial director of the adult goods store "69 pleasures"

What will happen next

Toys are not a one-time purchase, so the growth caused by the pandemic is likely to stop. But now, in general, they began to talk more about intimate goods, so that more free access to information about them can support the trend.