The Covid-19 pandemic is just the latest challenge for retailers.
The high street has been under pressure for some time
as more people opt for the convenience of shopping online
and retailers have also struggled in the face of increased competition.
Lockdowns, social distancing regulations and falling consumer confidence
have made the situation worse, with many retailers closing stores.
So how is the retail sector facing these new challenges?
Across the world, lockdowns and social distancing measures
have forced many retailers deemed non-essential to close their physical stores.
The shock fall in revenue has pushed many firms into financial crisis.
In the U.K. alone, fashion chains Oasis, Warehouse, Debenhams and Cath Kidston,
just to name a few brands, went into administration.
At the same time, consumers, confined indoors, were forced to use online shopping for most items.
In April alone, Inditex, the biggest fashion group in the world,
which owns Zara and Pull&Bear among others, reported a 95% increase in online sales.
H&M reported a 40% jump in online sales from December until the end of May.
And this is a trend that’s likely to accelerate as more people come online.
While the overall impact of the pandemic on e-commerce remains to be seen,
the coronavirus crisis has already altered consumer behavior.
Among 100,000 consumers surveyed in 50 different markets,
45% said that they are prepared to keep using products and online stores they found during the lockdown.
This number rises to 50% for households with children.
To answer this demand, retailers will have to keep
investing in their online presence and delivery services.
For example, Go Instore, a retail technology start-up, works with retailers to provide customer support
through its advisors, who can offer tips on products and answer customers' questions.
But now on this device here it’s even more intuitive than before.
It’s all about giving consumers the comfort they might not get without a human-to-human interaction.
We’re still utilizing the stores and the store staff, it’s just they’re being utilised digitally.
So what does the future hold for brick and mortar shops?
Will the high street or the mall be another casualty of coronavirus?
There’s a lot of uncertainty. We’re bringing in all this social distancing
and that’s creating for a lot of people quite a frustrating customer experience, right.
You can’t try on clothes in the changing room, you know,
a lot of the stock has to be put elsewhere after you’ve touched it.
Many brands are taking stock of how much physical presence they need.
Inditex, for example, said it will close up to 1,200 shops worldwide.
Department stores John Lewis and Debenhams have also announced store closures in the U.K.
Nonetheless, analysts are convinced the pandemic won’t mean the end of the physical store.
So I’m quite bullish on this. People are coming back to stores.
Our consumer research has told us time and time again that people like shopping in stores.
Even millennials and Gen Zs that have all the apps on their phones still like to shop in stores.
As lockdowns lifted, consumers have been returning to the shops in droves.
For instance, retail sales in the U.K. jumped 13.9% in June from the previous month
as non-food and -fuel stores were allowed to reopen.
In the euro zone, retailers also registered a higher number of purchases
when lockdowns began to lift in the month of May. Retail sales were up 17.8% from April.
But in most cases, shoppers returned to a different retail experience.
There are limits on how many people are allowed in store,
temperature checks are the norm in some places and there are restrictions on trying on clothes.
Even so, we might opt to shop in different locations.
In the short term I think malls and retail parks will do better because they are able to do social distancing,
they’re wide, open spaces, they have big passageways, it doesn’t feel unsafe.
66% of people have said they will continue to avoid busy places even as official restrictions are relaxed.
Locations that used to command a premium on rents because of high footfall
might now be a drag on tenants and landlords alike.
How about our shopping carts?
Have our spending habits changed because of the pandemic?
We’ll see a lot more athletic wear, loungewear, casual clothing, fewer dress-up and occasion-wear.
And combined with the fact that people are going to be working from home more,
there will be obviously fewer office and formal clothes, and more casual clothes.
So it will be a shift in the mix of what people buy.
Recent data has also shown a surge in bicycle sales,
DIY products and furniture items as people spend more time at home.
Besides catering to these new consumer patterns, some retailers are looking
to bridge the online and the physical store experience in this new landscape.
Demand for our technology from our existing customers increased dramatically.
And then we’ve had a huge influx of new retailers coming to us and trying to utilize the solution.
What sort of retailers are looking at your product and seeing, ‘well this could really help us’?
Think about the products that typically you would research online
but you would be more comfortable to purchase in store.
So things like consumer electronics, cosmetics, believe it or not, fragrance is working really well,
and then of course we’ve got things like sporting goods.
And unlike other leisure industries facing further disruption,
retail still represents an opportunity for consumers to part with their cash.
There is a real desperation in a lot of people to get back to doing normal things.
And actually going to a store and going shopping could be a part of bringing that normality back.
Hi everyone. Thank you so much for watching.
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