Unlocking a new retail experience

The India that has been ‘unlocked’ is a new one for shopkeepers. Whether for shopping or business, it is hesitant to visit a store. Only the most deep-pocketed retailers have been able to tide through the weeks of lockdown, and when shutters open, a new marketplace will await them.

There is a new challenge that will test their resilience – customers. Customers will carry their COVID fears to the marketplace and hesitate to shop like they once used to.

In response, retailers will have to obsessively prioritise hygiene. The promise of contactless retail is what had enabled the ecommerce sector - despite it owning a single-digit market share - to temporarily serve as the missing link between people and their product needs.

However, while much has changed in the last few weeks, the retail sector has one advantage: people still want to shop offline. If tactics like overly aggressive discounts couldn’t sway sentiments to go online over physical retail, then clearly shopkeepers have been doing something right.

And initial signals from small stores have confirmed that people have begun to visit shops again. Though subdued at the moment, footfall and initial discretionary spending can pick up – provided customers are reassured that they’re safe.

There’s also a larger societal understanding of the virus at play: COVID-19 prevention is as much a personal imperative as much as it is a business responsibility. Retailers and their staff today know that ignoring COVID protection is as much a danger for them as it is for their customers.

The sector needs a common, comprehensive framework that retailers small and large can adopt and demonstrate compliance to.

A common Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) that sets in stone the fundamentals of safe shopping; from thermal screening at entrances to mandatorily masked staff and conveniently located hand sanitizer stations, such investments can normalise retail in the new normal. While all retail segments will have to adopt SOPs relevant to their unique needs, what is common is rigorous compliance and urgency in enforcing measures.

It is up to every shopkeeper and stores of all sizes and categories, whether mall-based or independent, to respond to this COVID-mitigation clarion call together. While consumers will definitely take note of the recklessness at some stores in avoiding COVID transmission, the price of ignorance will be paid by the entire sector, risking in the development of fierce retail aversion.

(The writer is Managing Director of Future Retail)