Which Industries Will Boom in Australia Post-Covid

There was never a year like 2020, with phrases like the ‘new normal’ entering our vocabulary thanks to the Covid-19 virus.

With a vaccine already being administered in some parts of the world, we have gone from asking about the ‘new normal’ to asking about the ‘next normal’.

And in our context, we are even asking about the new business world.

Of course, everything will be answered in time, but predictions have been made and there is some positive data to give us an idea of what is next for both franchising and business in general...

New Ways: New Opportunities

Covid brought with it new ways of working and new ways of living. Of course, with a vaccine, it is unlikely that we’ll be abandoning all of these processes.

In fact, some of them were well on their way to becoming part of our daily lives long before the pandemic even happened.

Take online shopping for instance; the hustle and bustle of the high street was already waning before this year, with those supplying courier services seeing a huge jump in demand in recent years.

Covid has added fuel to their fire, with couriers experiencing a boom in their service during the last few months.

Market Industry research group,IBIS World, supports this, stating: “The boom in online shopping has supported the expansion of the Courier Pick-up and Delivery Services industry over the last five years”.

They also wrote that these services are continuing to feel the benefit of a society that is moving more and more online, adding: “As the COVID-19 pandemic persists and social distancing measures increase, demand for grocery delivery services is anticipated to increase industry revenue by 7.6% over 2019-20, to total $5.5 billion.”

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Backing The Future

Of course, not all online products require a courier to deliver them.

A return to large groups of people working, socialising and being educated together doesn’t seem as far away as it once did, but the pandemic also helped us realise that these activities can be done remotely.

It would be foolish to think that when a vaccine is administered that everything that has changed during 2020 will go back to how it was.

If anything Covid made society consider how fragile some of the existing systems were.

For instance, as of March 13, the OECD estimated that over 421 million children were affected due to school closures announced or implemented in 39 countries. This is not including the localised closures that were announced in 22 other countries at the time.

Just like courier services, online education was already on the rise pre-covid; the pandemic just pushed it further.

New technology will help bolster that change too, with the World Economic Forum predicting the following: “With 5G technology becoming more prevalent in countries such as China, US and Japan, we will see learners and solution providers truly embracing the ‘learning anywhere, anytime’ concept of digital education in a range of formats.”

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The progression of the technology will add to plenty of other facets of the industry too.

For example, mobile technology is projected to reach $65 billion by 2023, according to ACS’ Australia Digital Pulse 2019 report.

Home Life/ Work Life

According toThe Guardian’s Life after lockdown survey, over 80 percent of Australians believe that employees should be allowed work from home after Covid. That will of course have knock on effect with industries such as the aforementioned benefiting.

An obvious caveat to more employees working from home will be more employers doing the same, as keeping the capital cost of an office will be foolish for many.

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Thus, we can probably expect more industries to operate from the home and ones that already do to double down.

Life After Lockdown

A report published by KPMG Australia discussed what other elements of business may change going forward. The predictions in the report entitled, Our New Reality, supports much of what we already discussed.

For instance KPMG discussed remote services becoming part of everyday life, stating that “face-to-face industries are being catalysed into remote delivery – telehealth, remote schooling, fitness and higher education.”

They also predicted that there will be a “large-scale acceleration of digital transformation across industries will happen simultaneously” and “home delivery demand will drive significant infrastructure investments”.

In terms of online education being one of the industries of the future, their report stated that “new models of education delivery may remain out of necessity”, before adding that "primary, secondary and tertiary education have all been thrust to a digital delivery mode… [An] ability to deliver rich remote learning experiences will prove pivotal for universities.”

Your Success Is Their Success

One key element of the franchise model is that franchisors have a vested interest in the success of the franchisees they work with. That’s why the best franchise models usually have some sort of training and it is also why franchisors regularly help their franchisees during times of difficulty.

For instance, according to a survey done by The Franchising Council of Australia, about 95 percent of respondents could cite a time during Covid where they were helped out by their franchisor.

An ability to adapt has also been key to franchisees this year, with The Australian Institute of Company Directors giving an example of this. They released quotes showing one franchise shifting focus when it “saw a massive decline in demand for its handyman services [so it] it switched to installing perspex shields in shops"

It may be tempting to look only towards new industries in this new time, but that ignores human will and innovation which keeps traditional industries prospering.

Of course, this has been a year of change. However, it is one that has made it that one fact has always been clear: in business an ability to adapt and be resilient is essential. There will be new industries born out of the needs of those living during 2020 and beyond.

Existing industries will also find ways to continue prosper. In fact, most already have. The future is bright and we can’t wait to see what it brings.

Check out our A-Z of franchises and apply your innovation to a changing world of business!