In this pandemic period, the main obstacle to electronic commerce is logistical. Transport and delivery flows are disrupted. Also, to maximize profits, it is advisable to favor short circuits and create a supply chain that brings producers and consumers as close as possible.
Since almost everything is online, not only selling is online but all communication is online, this could be big plus. The most important factor is to gain new customers via word of mouth. If current customers are satisfied with your service/products or brands you could ask them to tell something on the social media about their experience and they could advocates for your company. In many countries COVID-19 crises pushed not only SMEs to adopt to situation but also customers who are definitely changing their behavior much faster at the growing speed and vice versa. So, system should be ready for digital transformation and logistical offline support.
I don't know if it's a question of maximizing the revenue.
To my mind, it's rather a question of involving the revenue by E- Commerce sales when the traditional commerce in stores is stopped with COVID-19 pandemic.
Indeed, on-line (by Internet) and off-line (in shops) constitute two complementary channels and, at the moment, we have to privilegiate omni-channel approaches.
E-commerce isn't opposite of all to traditionnal commerce.
The most important is to find the good consumers, that is to say consumers which are ready to buy products, either by Internet, either in stores.
If the stores are closed (by a pandemic for example), they would buy online, and if they prefer to buy in outlets (for example for picking up directly products), they could do it.
A thing is sure: in 2020, the winning strategies in commerce are thoses based on multi and omni-channels alternatives.
This is the time to increase your social media and search marketing efforts. People are basically living online these days. With social media marketing you could target very specific geographic areas and audiences.
You should also invest in the delivery and customer service in order to maximize your revenues.
To maximize revenue for any company that adopts e-commerce it is important to have a good relationship with your customers, interact with them on social media. Also, you have to provide adequate logistics and a good e-commerce platform that guarantees good SEO and stability.
If you also have a physical store, and if it is possible to have a person going to the store, it can be used as a distribution center and thereby help to sell that stock. Another possibility is to transform your salespeople to online workers using digital media, such as WhatsApp, to contact your customers. Some stores did this here in Brazil and had great results.
That will depend on how they manage, however, with the technology we have now, revenues will have an incremental depending on the application you will be using and the approach.