Retail Recovery Early Signs

A lot of innovative ideas/experiments I have witnessed in discussions/webinars to provide Safe Retailing and Recovery path for offline Retailers

My Personal Observations

• Never stepped out since March 23rd
• Essential supplies Milk / Curd / Vegetables through Supr (Digital Shopping)
• Groceries purchased via swiggy  (Digital Shopping)
• Working style, Learn / Code @ home has been rewarding
• The pattern of corona hasn't seen a decline, in fact, it feels scary, How do I prepare to get into a social circle

What Retail has seen in Feb / March / April

• Store closure
• Furlough
• Loss of jobs/possibilities of bankruptcy

Since May, Stores across the world are preparing for the new normal. Retail community is working together to get back to safe Retailing

Key Observations

• Shoppers go digital and provide live support/adoption of live chat/video streams for a personalized experience
• More offline store go digital leveraging platforms like Shopify
• Exploring Contactless shopping with Physical Distancing, Signs, Kerb Side pickup, Appointments

AI Opportunities

• A lot of video analytics opportunities for Compliance, alerting, contactless shopping, chatbots

The Future
There are a lot of challenges in terms of operating in a new environment. There are different segments of customers post COVID scenario. The new shopping patterns, panic buying, health-conscious buying everything will challenge the demand forecasts during the normal operating environment. The store layout also will change, the way items are arranged, AISLE layout, and planogram.

Realistically we can look at

• Going digital
• Restart in a Staggered manner
• Limit Focus on certain segments of products

Apparel / Luxury shopping would need a few quarters to rebound to normal activity. The recovery also depends on economic factors, local government support, economy, and population mix. It will take a few quarters for consumers to get used to the new normal.

References
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Keep Thinking!!!