The way businesses are adapting in these challenging conditions is like watching survivor. On one side of the spectrum many are barely scraping by possibly facing bankruptcy or choosing to load themselves up with debt without creative solutions to stay in the game. While on the other side, businesses are accelerating changes to simply convert to the new normal in a competitive way.

What caught my eye on this theme was seeing headlines like this.

A statement from Etsy's CEO back in early April produced an unintended boom to the marketplace of sellers who pivoted to contribute in any way. Or rather simply these small businesses changed their core products into what the demand was seeking. It seems reacting to simple economic models of supply & demand in 2020 happens a lot faster than we've seen in previous years. Here are a few other ones that speak to changes companies are actively making to supply businesses in demanding times:

On the go for ... business

Takeout Liquor Laws Relaxed For COVID-19 Should Be Made Permanent - Eater

To help struggling restaurants, states across the country have loosened up laws around to-go and delivery drinks — and it’s hard to imagine going back

Across the country, it is largely illegal to consume alcohol in public spaces, to take a drink to-go from a restaurant or bar, or to purchase a bottle of liquor from anywhere but a liquor or grocery store.

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But in order to provide restaurants and bars with a boost during the COVID-19 pandemic, many states have loosened liquor laws, allowing patrons to get cocktails or wine to-go from delivery windows, or have them delivered with their food. It seems to be working quite well, both for businesses and customers; businesses get to offload more product at a time when every penny counts, and customers get to enjoy mixologist-quality cocktails at home. And it raises the question of why the hell it hasn’t been like this the whole time.

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Restaurants typically make about 30 percent of revenue from alcohol sales, and for bars, it’s obviously much higher. So being able to move alcohol means an extra shot (sorry) at survival. Boccato says that their cocktail packages, which include the bar’s signature ice blocks and a QR code for a Spotify playlist of their jukebox’s most popular selections, have been a hit. And on top of their take-out window and their cocktail delivery service, they also have whole bottles of specialty spirits for sale. “As far as what percentage of our regular business that has earned us, it’s an infinitesimal fraction, but considering what’s happening we can’t complain too much,” he says.

Low tech entry for ... business

With billions of people around the world forced to adhere to lockdown and social distancing measures driven by the COVID-19 crisis, this has led to a sizable uptick in people buying things online. Whether this trend represents a permanent shift from the status quo or a temporary blip due to shelter-in-place policies is up for debate. But with the entire retail industry facing significant headwinds for the foreseeable future, if ever there was a time to embrace ecommerce, it would be now.

With Square Online Checkout, the payments processor is looking to capitalize on this shift by offering companies an easier way to accept online card payments — this works on any website, social media profile, instant messaging app, or even SMS.

With Online Checkout, Square is catering to all manner of business, regardless of whether they want a Square-powered website — or any website, for that matter. An online fitness instructor who is temporarily giving classes over Zoom might not have any desire to create an entire online store, so a solution such as this could work well

Commerce feed for ... business

Shopify launches Shop, a new mobile app | TechCrunch

While Shopify is best-known for powering the online stores of more than 1 million businesses, the company is launching a consumer shopping app of its own

Shop includes those same package tracking capabilities, but it also allows consumers to browse a feed of recommended products, learn more about each brand and make purchases using the one-click Shop Pay checkout process.

...the app is a response to a broader shift — not just from desktop to mobile commerce, but also from mobile web to native mobile apps. The challenge, he suggested, is that most of us only download and shop from a handful of native apps, so it can be hard for an independent brand to launch an app of their own.

He contrasted this with product recommendations on other online stores, which he said offer “a feed of products from brands you don’t know, brands you don’t care about — most these platforms are driven by advertising.” Shop, Rivera said, will not include any ads, and it will be available for free to both shoppers and brands.

...However, the current COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic crisis prompted his team (and Shopify at large) to ask “What are the things we can today to best support merchants?”

One of their answers: a feature that allows shoppers to browse local merchants, see which ones currently support delivery and in-store purchase, then make purchases to support them.