RETAIL REVOLUTION HASTENED BY PANDEMIC
How we shop will change forever, and that’s good, writes Heather Thomson.
At least once a week, my threeyear-old asks me if the “bad germs” have gone away. This is the term we use to explain the COVID -19 pandemic. His little world has been turned upside-down and placed in a bubble.
Life is slowly returning to normal, or perhaps more precisely, a new normal, for him. He can now see a few of his friends but we still practise social distancing, something difficult for a threeyear-old to comprehend and almost impossible for a parent to enforce. But we try.
We are all adapting the best we can to a Covid-transformed world. We are creating new habits. Besides assiduously washing our hands and keeping our distance from others while in public, as consumers we are using curb-side pickup, ordering restaurant takeout that includes do-it-yourself cocktail kits, and, of course, increasingly shopping online.
The global market has been at our fingertips for years but thanks to retailers upping their game because of the pandemic, that global market is now arriving at our feet in a matter of days, sometimes hours. We are entering a recalibration. There is no going back to life exactly as it was.
For consumers, and smart retailers, this is good news. And we have COVID-19 to thank.
The pandemic may have brought the world to a halt but it also sped things up, specifically the changes to online retail that were already happening. E-commerce activity in April increased 146 per cent compared to April 2019, for example, but this doesn’t mean what you might think it means. It doesn’t mean the big online retailers will always win. And it doesn’t mean we’re all headed online all the time to do our shopping.
In-store shopping is not dead. We have seen the excitement of people returning to stores as physical restrictions are lifted. And in this competition for consumer dollars, size doesn’t matter as much as innovation.
It’s all about giving consumers more choice, more power and more convenience. It’s the old adage, “the customer is always right,” with a 21st century twist.
The “new normal” in retail shopping will not be a binary choice between online and in-store. It will be a mixture of both. Whether you realize it or not, this evolution is being driven by you, the consumer. You are cannily using two seemingly contradictory, yet compatible, practices: “Research Online/ Shop Offline” (ROPO); and “showrooming.”
According to a recent international survey, almost 90 per cent of Americans said they engaged in ROPO to research a product online before buying it in a store. Conversely, two-thirds of Americans also indulge in “showrooming” where they tested out a product in a store before buying it online.
If consumers have a multitude of choices, retailers have just two: adapt or perish. It is estimated one-third of businesses will not survive the summer in our current landscape. That’s a harsh prediction but many of these businesses weren’t going to last the next 18 months anyway, even without COVID. Those that will survive can’t afford to get complacent. You the consumer will see to that.
The biggest piece of advice I have for retailers and business owners is this: don’t do things differently, do different things. Don’t be fixated on one type of consumer experience. Don’t neglect your in-store responsibilities but get online. If you’re local, by all means promote your community connections and roots. But don’t rely on that to save you in a world where consumers are looking for the best product and service at the best price — and the world is a click of the finger away with free delivery.
My advice to consumers: enjoy your unprecedented power in the “new normal.”
These changes were coming anyway. The pandemic has merely sped things up. Despite the economic setbacks and still uncertain days ahead, it is not all doom and gloom. Consumers are already benefiting from the retail evolution. Retailers who embrace the challenge will thrive, not just survive, and be even stronger when the “bad germs” are gone.
It’s all about giving consumers more choice, more power and more convenience.