7 Fastest-Growing Industries During COVID-19 (And How You Can Benefit)

COVID-19 is now on every continent except for Antarctica, spreading to over 150 countries and rising. Lockdowns, quarantines, and other movement restrictions due to the pandemic have significantly affected the majority of industries .

But amid these difficult economic conditions and social distancing enforcement, there are a handful of lucky industries which are set to over-perform. Below are just 7 of the fastest-growing industries since COVID-19 arrived in the world.

Online education

With schools across the world closing, learning institutions are trying to adapt by accelerating their transformation to remote teaching children to learn from home. EdTech companies have seen an opportunity here and thus many look set to be among the biggest beneficiaries of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Educational apps are now being downloaded more than the popular entertainment, lifestyle, social media apps to become the second-fastest growing apps since early February. Traditional educational institutions in the real world are expected to suffer greatly as online education companies are easily raising new rounds of investment.

Grocery deliveries

COVID-19 is dramatically reshaping how people shop for groceries. While home delivery for groceries has been growing in popularity over the past two decades, grocery shopping in-store has remained as the preferred option for shoppers with over 95% of total expenditure.

As Australians look to avoid supermarket crowds, especially those aged over 55, online grocery deliveries have risen sharply, and the supermarket duopoly looks to remain dominant. Even large warehouse-style retailers Bunnings and Costco are starting to offer online orders and home delivery to stave off the anticipated threat of Amazon.

E-Sports

E-sports and mobile gaming are available for everyone, from amateur competitive participants and professional leagues to casual players. More and more people are participating in esports which is creating a mobile gaming boom which we won’t see reduce any time soon. That’s because a key growth driver in this industry is technological infrastructure, and with a worldwide rollout of 5G, it will encourage even more consumers to get involved. Plus, esports will become an Olympic sport in the next 4 years.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the esports industry was already one of the world’s fastest-growing industries in 2020. Esports as a whole was on track to see a global audience of over 500 million people, pushing estimated annual revenues over $1 billion, and with quarantine orders and social distancing protocols, that growth looks like it may increase exponentially.

Relationship Services

With everyone cooped up at home, couple’s relationships have begun to either bloom or have come to an end. The demand for online couple’s counselling has increased, not to mention, divorce lawyers have been as busy as before, as couples are looking to separate.

If you have previously had experience in relationship consultation or even psychology, consider offering a service to help couples having trouble staying together. From simply listening to their stories and sharing how you personally dealt with a similar situation can go a long way.

Remote work

As we all navigate our way through this global pandemic causing countries to lockdown, the future of how we work is changing. After resisting work from home or WFH scenarios for years, many employers now have no other choice but to adapt as quickly as possible, ensuring their staff has access to software and hardware needed for video conferencing.

There’s always opportunity in every crisis, and some technology providers are seeing major adoption by businesses around the world searching for new workflow applications with the least negative effect on outcomes. Downloads of remote work apps like Zoom, DingTalk, and WeChat Work, have all jumped exponentially as millions resort to working from home and traditional team communication practices have changed.

So even if you aren’t at the heart of these software companies, you can still benefit from the growth in the industry by providing IT support to companies trying to set up remote work and conference calls. Further services that will be in demand is the learning for needed for less tech-savvy employees to be trained on the system. Hence corporate demand for education and employee training and process development will be required to help companies adapt to recent changes.

Home improvements

With so many home improvement television shows being broadcast over the last few years, it should come as no surprise that there’s been an increase in renovation activity as much of the workforce transitioned to working from home. This will have a knock-on effect for building and hardware suppliers, with Bunnings and Costco likely to see a dramatic increase in profits across the board.

Because so many consumers suddenly have an abundance of free time, they have no excuse to not to start working on their to-do lists, from small DIY projects and even full-scale renovations. Some people are looking to upgrade their kitchens to get a higher selling price, while bathroom renovations are also in high demand, as builders are now having discounts to attract those who haven’t lost their job and still have the cash to renovate.

In-home health and wellness

In this new world of forced isolation filled with uncertainty, seeking the familiar is a basic part of human nature. That’s why many instructors from a wide range of health and wellness studios have found their connection with clients is as strong as ever. People still want to feel healthy, so it’s unsurprising that they also want the routine of regular sessions with the familiar sound of their instructors’ voice.

Online sports platforms have seen a massive surge in live broadcasts of fitness classes, and indoor fitness equipment sales have also increased. In the face of this pandemic, the fitness equipment industry and home exercise programs are both well-positioned to boom.

Buy now pay later

Although the Buy Now Pay Later industry of BNPL is still relatively new, it has seen exponential growth over recent years with the number of consumers with arrangements increasing to over two million. Initially led by a conscious shift from traditional credit cards, strong growth in online shopping combined with consumers restricting social movement by self-isolating will see a massive spike in industry revenue during 2019-20.

Read more on how to setup a Shopify store.

During this period of economic uncertainty, consumers will be expected to limit most of their discretionary spending. That being said, they will likely continue using BNPL arrangements when they need to purchase any essential goods or services that they can’t or don’t want to purchase upfront.

The global spread of COVID-19 is the biggest risk for global economies since the Global Financial Crisis, so predicting whether these trends will endure is difficult to say. There are unfortunately no crystal balls, so no one can be sure exactly when all of this will end, but for now, at least, they seem to be in relatively good positions. And whatever we do today is going to have an impact on whatever the new normal looks like post-C-19 for all of us.