AGA Digital Magazine

A MORE TURBULENT FUTURE By Len Lewis

In catching up with the latest research on what the post- pandemic retail world will look like, Covid-19 appears to be a test run for operating in retail’s disjointed future.

Commenting on its recent CEO survey, Bain & Co. noted: “They view the Covid-19 crisis as a dress rehearsal for a more turbulent world to come.” Much of this turbulence will be the result of e-commerce which has jumped five years ahead of it time and industry observers will be forced to up their investments in online selling and marketing. “If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that nothing is outside the realm of possibility as far as the future goes,” says Ciaran Bollard, CEO of Kooomo, an ecommerce platform provider. “Brick and mortar retailers were forced to place digital transformation at the top of their agendas and online retailers have had to respond to the immediate, and unprecedented changes to consumer behavior at the hands of Covid-19.

Will consumers be coming back to your stores for that old time shopping trip or will direct-to-consumer strategies become the norm in a post-Covid world and permanently change the face of retailing? These are questions that a broad spectrum of retailers on the domestic and international scene are wrestling with as the world enters the second year of the devastating pandemic with only a faint glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. But is it an issue that’s becoming increasingly irrelevant since no one will emerge from this social and economic debacle unscathed or unchanged? To survive and, hopefully, flourish retailers must retool for recovery by adopting a consumer-first attitude that includes enhancing the in–store experience as well as preparing for a new era of “touchless” selling.

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