On the other hand: Shopping is fun! We asked a few of our Most Innovative Companies in Retail for predictions about what the future of buying stuff looks like. The mall is practically a rite of passage for cool teens cultivating a social life.
But with brick-and-mortar on a decline, malls will need to look beyond the RadioShacks , Aeropostales, and Cinnabons to stay busy. Enter Westfield Labs, a San Francisco-based entity that is working to rethink what malls are capable of, often with a sprinkle of digital savvy.
While sometimes a shopper just wants to make a purchase, other times they want to see, touch, and experience a product before making a purchasing decision, or maybe even just be inspired. Part of that in-real-life retailing requires taking pressure off the shops—and minimizing risks like expensive rent. When local conditions allow for retail stores to open, they confront a variety of guidelines that vary by state.
For example North Carolina places specific limits on the number of customers allowed per square foot, while Oregon generally advises that the number of customers in the store should be limited so that customers can remain six feet apart.
Whether or not customers are required by law to wear masks in stores depends on the state. How retailers implement these guidelines also varies among types of retailers and even within store categories. Grocery stores, for example, have adopted a wide variety of specific methods to ensure that customers remain apart. These variations are due to differences in the prevalence of the virus, diversity in local attitudes toward social distancing, and political forces.
It is also difficult to formulate and implement guidelines that apply to all types of stores because of variations in store layout, customer flow, and the willingness of customers to comply with social-distancing advice. To make matters even more difficult, we still have a limited understanding of how Covid is transmitted. These guidelines are based on the fundamentals of operations management, our own research on traffic flow within stores, and the best information available about the transmission of the disease.
We also highlight how these principles impact the bottom line of retailers who are struggling to keep afloat while keeping their customers and employees safe. All experts agree that to lower the risk of virus transmission, retailers must lower the density of people within the store. The easiest way to do that is to limit the number of customers in the store at any one time.
One way to increase throughput and sales is to increase the number of people in the store. To maintain social distancing, however, this requires additional floor space.
Therefore we see Harrods expanding to remote locations and restaurants seating customers in parking lots and on closed streets. Therefore, these retailers should at this time focus on the efficiency of the shopping experience.
Shopify, which sells e-commerce software tools to small and mid-sized merchants, has seen its revenue grow nearly percent year over year in the first nine months of the year. The Canada-based software giant has benefited from small brick-and-mortar merchants scrambling to set up online shops amid store closures and reduced foot traffic even when their doors are allowed to remain open during the pandemic.
Etsy, the online marketplace known for handmade goods sold by small merchants and artists, has also profited handsomely from the shift.
Many online shoppers flocked to Etsy in the first half of the year to purchase masks that small merchants were producing at a rapid rate, but have since gone on to purchase other non-mask items too.
Shopify knows this, and has started to tiptoe its way toward creating its own online marketplace to help online shoppers discover Shopify merchants by transforming a package-tracking app it already owned, previously called Arrive, into an app with more of a shopping focus.
As for Etsy, it is now home to more than 3. For many small brick-and-mortar retailers, the pandemic has vanquished the idea that ignoring e-commerce is a viable option.
Popular restaurants and bars will once again attract crowds. Travel will rebound, as should live sporting events and concerts. But many of the changes in how we buy things will stick. The main obstacle to purchasing some of these low-priced goods online is the order minimums some online retailers require to make it economically feasible for them to ship them out. For people who tried out ordering groceries online for the first time during the pandemic, many will never return to consistent in-store grocery shopping or, at a minimum, will be more willing to place the occasional grocery order online.
Case in point: For the first time, the giant grocery chain Kroger is expected to crack the top 10 list of largest online retailers in the US by the end of , according to eMarketer estimates. A long-deteriorating middle class, lack of merchandise differentiation, and indifferent customer service all played a role in ceding customer loyalty to discount chains as well as online retailers.
In this report on the store of the future, we explore how these trends and others will impact store innovation in the years to come.
Products on shelves have a smaller footprint, as retailers shift more space and resources to online fulfillment, digital engagement, and even recycling. Meanwhile, real-time customer analytics and automation will become essential to store operations. Broadly, this report explores the ongoing evolution of convenience, personalization, and digital connection.
Increasing investment into these fundamental retail pillars will impact store operations, shopper marketing, and merchandising going forward. With new tech-enabled features, the store of the future will be able to provide a more frictionless and personalized experience that meaningfully engages shoppers.
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