Before 2020, many small and medium businesses operated with a basic website if they had one at all. A physical shopfront, word of mouth, and maybe a Facebook page was enough. COVID-19 changed that equation permanently. Within months of the first lockdowns, businesses without a meaningful online presence lost revenue, customers and relevance to competitors who had invested in their digital channel.
As a developer who worked through that period, I saw the demand firsthand restaurants needed online ordering, clinics needed telehealth portals, retailers needed eCommerce stores overnight. What changed was not just the volume of requests, but the urgency and the permanence of the shift in customer behaviour.
The permanent shift: Consumer behaviour that changed during COVID has not fully reversed. Customers now expect to be able to research, book, order and contact businesses online regardless of whether those businesses are "digital" companies or not.
How COVID Changed Business
- Physical-only businesses faced existential risk - Restaurants, retail, professional services with no online ordering or booking system had no fallback when foot traffic disappeared
- Remote work accelerated SaaS adoption - Businesses that had resisted cloud tools moved to them rapidly; this created demand for web-based portals, integrations and internal tools
- Healthcare went digital - Telehealth platforms, patient portals, online appointment systems the regulatory and practical barriers dropped fast, creating a wave of development work
- eCommerce grew years in months - The 2020 spike in eCommerce adoption compressed a decade of projected growth into 18 months, forcing retailers to build or improve their online stores rapidly
The Web Development Surge
The demand for web developers, especially freelancers who could deliver quickly without long agency procurement processes, grew significantly from mid-2020 through 2022. Businesses needed speed: a working online ordering system in two weeks, a video consultation portal in a month, a full eCommerce migration in a quarter.
This accelerated a trend that was already underway the globalisation of freelance development. Businesses in USA, UK, Canada and Australia discovered that skilled developers in India, Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia could deliver the same quality work remotely, faster and at competitive rates. Upwork, Fiverr and Toptal saw significant growth during this period.
What Businesses Needed Online
- eCommerce stores - WooCommerce, Shopify and Magento 2 migrations for retailers who had operated purely offline
- Online booking systems - For clinics, salons, consultants, trainers replacing in-person or phone-based scheduling
- Video consultation platforms - Telehealth, legal consultations, financial advice built on Twilio Video, Zoom API, or WebRTC
- Delivery and logistics integrations - APIs connecting online orders to fulfilment partners, couriers, and inventory systems
- Customer communication automation - SMS reminders, WhatsApp notifications, email sequences businesses that previously relied on in-person relationships needed new digital communication channels
Where Things Stand Now
The emergency phase of COVID-driven digitalisation is over but the expectations it set are permanent. Customers who discovered they could book a GP appointment online, order from a local restaurant app, or attend a legal consultation via video are not going back to doing those things in person by default.
For businesses, this means online presence is no longer optional infrastructure it is the front door. A slow, poorly-designed website costs real revenue. Missing eCommerce functionality sends customers to competitors who have it. Poor mobile experience alienates the majority of visitors.
How to Get Online Fast in 2024
- Start with WordPress or Shopify - For most businesses, these platforms get you online quickly with proven, maintainable foundations
- Prioritise mobile-first - The majority of web traffic is mobile. A site that works perfectly on desktop but poorly on mobile is a site that is failing at scale
- Build for speed - Google's Core Web Vitals directly affect ranking. A fast site is not just a nice-to-have it is an SEO requirement
- Add a booking or ordering system early - For service businesses, online scheduling is often the highest-ROI feature you can add
- Hire someone who has done it before - The lessons from 2020–2022 are well understood. A developer who built eCommerce and booking systems during that period can deliver the right architecture quickly