The Role of Service Marketplaces in the Post Covid-19 World

There is no doubt that the global health crisis, triggered by the Covid-19 epidemic, will have caused an unprecedented change in the world as we knew it at the beginning of 2020.

The time has finally arrived to begin rebuilding and structuring the world in the wake of this pandemic, and it is important to take into account the new challenges and hopes this has presented everyone, citizens and businesses alike.

This period of reflection and change constitutes a decisive and timely opportunity for marketplaces who now need to adapt to a post covid-19 era, in which the broad digitalisation of services and product offerings is becoming urgent.

The Covid crisis has made the world more aware than ever of its dependence on a globalised market

The sudden halt Covid-19 has caused in the economy and in our social lives has allowed us to realize the degree of interdependence of the nations of the world caused by globalization. More than ever before, it has highlighted the consequences of our lifestyles and consumption patterns, which has fostered this untenable international networking.

A desire and need to consume differently

Old questions that have been rekindled by the crisis reemerge: is our current consumption pattern reasonable? Would it be preferable to consume differently? Fewer products, better quality, and more locally sourced?

These are some of the questions that are prompting many citizens to want to strengthen their community spirit, to give priority to the services and products offered in their neighborhood, to the local craftsman, or to the young person willing to give their time and energy to the service of the community. Finally, a new way of consuming in which the creation of marketplaces presents itself as a relevant alternative.

The marketplace: meeting the emerging needs of consumers in the post covid-19 era

Where the consumer wants to have more control over the service he is about to order is: information about his supplier, customer feedback, etc., the marketplaces offer the possibility of making as much information available to their customers and prospects.

The Vinted second-hand clothing online sales site, with 8 million French users, provides a great example of the appetite of today's consumers to master all the ins and outs of their purchases. Vinted offers seller identification, geolocation, customer reviews, and access to similar offers from the competition.

While Vinted's success illustrates a real need to move towards a more sustainable economy, other service platforms are responding to the deep desire to make a real transition into the future as well. The WeFarmUp platform is a marketplace for the rental of agricultural equipment, and today it is the world leader in Co-farming. It also offers farmers from the same region the opportunity to share their ideas, work, and investments, thus becoming part of the collaborative economy. Finally, building a marketplace proves to be profitable for all the stakeholders that it consists of.

Thus, in the post covid-19 era, the creation of marketplaces offers individuals the means to consume more in line with their needs and principles, as well as the opportunity to adapt to new market dynamics.

The Covid crisis makes companies aware of the new challenges of the future: digitalisation of services and adaptation of the labor market

In an article published on June 5th, the New York Times congratulated President Emmanuel Macron on his management of the epidemic crisis, while the French expressed a more divided, and even bitter feeling. The past few weeks have given rise to information overload, leaving companies and citizens confused, with no clear course of action. Where the State has not known, or was not able to do so, companies have been a useful and strong partner in responding to the population's new needs.

In a world subject to health, economic and monetary crises, the adaptability of services will be essential. The post covid-19 era will be characterised by the indispensable flexibility of market offerings, largely facilitated by the digitalisation of the services offered.

Creation of marketplaces: the alternative to a growing need to digitise service offerings

The creation of marketplaces is much more than an opportunity, it is an indispensable alternative. The online platform Doctolib has been able to adjust its services in order to adapt to both government restrictions and the growing need for medical consultations. While Doctolib was originally a site for making appointments online between patients and healthcare professionals, the platform has evolved to an entirely digital offering, tele-consultation, which has accounted for more than 2.5 million patients during the epidemic.

The marketplace as a tool for balancing the labor market

Finally, if a key conclusion were to be drawn from this health crisis, it would be the inevitable transformation of today's world of work. This has been perfectly integrated by Jack Dorsey, Twitter CEO, who declared on May 12th, that he wants to give his employees the possibility to telework, or work from home, in a sustainable and constant way.

A survey conducted by Odoxa-Adviso Partners has estimated the number of employees teleworking in France during this period of crisis at 5.1 million people. This new working practice, which is largely being democratised, is not the only illustration of the changes underway.

Indeed, the crisis has generated a significant increase in the available workforce, both paid and voluntary. The online platform jeveuxaider, created and disseminated by the government, has been an example of a marketplace that has made it possible to respond in part to the aid needs expressed by a significant number of organizations. Building more service marketplaces would make it possible to further balance the supply and demand for jobs that have been disrupted by the epidemic: personal assistance, food distribution, and occasional need for freelance workers. Needs that remain and are increasing in this new post-covid era19.

The creation of a marketplace finally makes it possible to integrate a wide range of future challenges: the necessary digitalisation of service offers, taking into account the new needs of job providers and job seekers, the desire to rethink our consumption patterns, and how to restructure tomorrow's world of work.

Sponsored article. Contributors are experts: they are not part of the appvizer editorial team. Views are their own.