New era of retail:

What the shopping experience will look like from next month

SHOPPING by appointment, clothes going into quarantine and personal shoppers going out to your home with garments for you to try on.

The look and feel of Irish fashion retail after lockdown will be complex.

But in a sea of what ifs, one thing is certain – the days of heading off to the changing rooms with armfuls of clothes are over.

As for touching cosmetic samples, that will be a ‘no go’ when shops reopen.

You can expect to be offered gloves in order to try on clothes in some stores.

Paula Rowan, whose leather gloves feature on the cover of ‘Vogue Italia’ this month, will ask customers to wear surgical gloves in order to try on her gloves for fit purposes at her Westbury Mall store, Dublin.

“Unfortunately hand sanitiser can damage the soft Italian leather so surgical gloves is our best option,” she said.

Changing rooms may not be offered in the early weeks of June when clothes shops reopen as retailers assess demand for an in-store experience.

First out of the blocks will be the small fashion shops and ‘indie’ boutiques who are fine tuning their safety procedures before lifting the shutters on June 8 followed by the department stores on June 29.

Many independent retailers who did not have online operations during the lockdown are now considering extending their opening hours to make up for lost ground.

According to Jean McCabe, owner of Willow Boutique in Ennis and Galway, and who is also deputy chair of Retail Excellence Ireland, some shops in shopping centres feel August 10 is “too long to wait”.

Plans put together by the Brown Thomas Group reveal the full extent of how its ‘new normal’ will look with 25 different channels to engage with customers, from the physical stores opening on June 29 to online, its app, direct messaging across social media and virtual one-to-one appointments.

The ‘sales floor’ channel, with 72 sales associates in its Dublin store, can take customers on a walk through the store’s rails with their iPads.

Questionnaires filled out by over 3,000 customers during the lockdown put a spotlight on how customers want to shop now and, according to Brown Thomas fashion director Shelly Corkery, there is a major appetite to get back into store.

The question has been how to achieve that with safety in mind.

The Brown Thomas trading hours are to be reduced with 10am-6pm Monday to Saturday and 11am-6pm on Sunday and this will facilitate a deep clean of the store before and after trading with “enhancements” throughout the day and strategic sanitisation points.

A new ‘Qudini’ system means customers can book appointments either ahead or on the day to enter the store for a wander or to have a styling appointment without having to queue outside.

Ms Corkery confirmed that any piece of clothing or accessories touched by staff or a customer will have to be steamed.

“Anything brought back by a customer will go into quarantine for 24 hours. The dressing rooms will be monitored as well and everything will be addressed in terms of touch,” she said.

Personal shoppers such

‘It is going to be a slower pace, a whole new world’