4 business models that set trends

Lately everything that happens seems to have, in one way or another, some relation to the coronavirus. We are aware of the importance it has played in the economy and, specifically, the impact of COVID on eCommerce.

In the months leading up to it, we have seen companies that seemed solid fall, while other niches have proved to be very profitable in the midst of lockdown. Some have been forced to reinvent their business model to avoid being left out.

In this article we are going to analyze the business models that set the pace of evolution in their sectors and from which we can draw some interesting conclusions for the times we live in.

Why choose 4 when there are so many more on the market? Honestly, because we believe that these examples are truly representative. They are a sample that covers different sectors with the prospect of continuing to grow. And, best of all, they can be extrapolated to many types of online stores by making the appropriate adjustments for each case.

Let's go with those examples in which, as you can imagine, the use of external experiences in the home environment is very important. 

Months of lockdown and many others limiting outings may have led to a loss of physical fitness. To all this we must add the fear of contagion in closed places, so an alternative was necessary.

Under this premise, there is no better home gym than the one proposed by Volava Fitness. Forget about lifting weights with milk cartons and YouTube tutorials: with Volava you can access professional equipment and, even better, a complete training plan with all the resources you need.

Bike, boxing, treadmill... you buy the equipment (cash or financed) and subscribe to the content. The combination of training, materials, routines and sensors means you can monitor your progress as if you had a trainer at home.

If Volava is the home gym, Wetaca is a mix between the restaurant at home and the traditional home cooking that you usually take with you when you go to visit your parents (although more sophisticated).

Going out for lunch or dinner is one of the activities that have fallen due to the restrictions imposed by the government: capacity limits, strict schedules, curfews... Add to that teleworking, because being at home does not mean that we can stop working to prepare our meals.

This combination makes it possible for a company like Wetaca to grow so much. We can enjoy a varied, healthy and very tasty menu for the whole week for a reasonable price. They change their menu every Thursday and offer their customers more than 20 different dishes that you can keep for up to 7 days in the fridge.

If your problem is not so much cooking as getting to the supermarket, the alternative is the Gorillas business model, which represents a growing trend: Quick Commerce in convenience products.

The German company's promise of immediacy is astonishing: they claim to be able to deliver your fresh produce, beverages, hygiene and cleaning products to your home in just 10 minutes. Obviously, this limits their reaching area, but not necessarily their profitability.

eCommerce is experiencing an interesting shift towards the local. It is as if somehow local retail is finding a niche on the Internet that, until recently, seemed more obsessed with internationalization.

Another of the sectors hardest hit by the paradigm shift in commerce is fashion. You won't find such clear cases of business model reinvention as laagam.

Embracing new channels to play in your favor and an on-demand sales model is the combination that has made this Spanish brand an example of growth in a very unfavorable scenario.

Take a look at their work on Twitch because their use of streaming in their eCommerce is worthy of study. And, if you dig a little deeper into their website, you will see that you can sell fashion without being subjected to collections. It is no exaggeration to say that they have reinvented the classic business model and that we will see more and more brands joining this trend.