Consumer Behavior
Retail recovery from COVID-19 is all about engagement
COVID-19, and now the omicron variant, continue to spur tremendous change in the retail customer experience. Key to survival is engagement and answering a lot of ‘why’ questions.
December 7, 2021 by Judy Mottl — Editor, RetailCustomerExperience.com & DigitalSignageToday.com
In early 2020, when COVID-19 began to paralyze the retail industry, with stores shuttering and retailers fast realizing they had to go digital strong and fast, it was an unknown time for stores, e-commerce operations and the consumer.
The thought and hope were that the pandemic would be quickly contained, and the retail consumer experience would fast return to 'normal.'
Now, two years later, it's a new 'normal' as the retail experience has changed dramatically, both for the retailer and the shopper.
Retail Customer Experience reached out to Stephen Beck, founder and managing partner of cg42, and an expert in the consumer sentiment and retail industry, to get his insight on the state of retail and what's to come in 2022.
Q. Given the huge changes in retail due to COVID, and the changed consumer behavior, when will in-person retail truly bounce back – this year, during the holiday season, in a year? And what will ultimately drive consumers back into stores on par with pre-COVID days?
A. The definition of convenience for the average person has evolved over the last two years. Physical retail that was oriented around convenience will need to adjust to the changing definition. Physical retail that is oriented around other factors such as "an escape," "an event," or "a discovery" will continue to have a place in people's lives, but "convenience"-oriented shopping has mostly moved online and will continue to stay there.
Q. While nearly half the U.S. population has had at least one vaccine shot there remains many not vaccinated, and a new variant in play. What do these developments reveal for the retail industry this year and next year?
A. The path forward for the retail industry is less about vaccination status and more about the new habits customers have formed during the last two years. How retailers react to how people have changed their behavior will be most important this holiday season and next year.
Q. Should the focus for retailers at this point be creating and implementing safety practices considering COVID or should it be focused more on re-engaging with customers? Or both? And why?
A. This is not an either-or question. Every retailer is run by people and the people in charge need to live up to their responsibility to keep the people they employ and the people they serve healthy. So of course, retailers need to keep implementing and improving safety practices. Not just to make customers feel safe — and incentivize more in-person shopping – but mostly to do their part to actually keep them safe. At the same time, the enlightened retailers have never stopped engaging with customers — they've just done it in different ways. So, for them, it's not about re-engaging, but continuing to engage.
Q. What are retailers doing right and what are they doing wrong at this point as the retail recovery takes root?
A. The companies that are focused on "why" people choose them, not "how" people choose them are the companies that will most successfully benefit from the retail recovery. Retailers must be asking questions like "What problem do we solve?," "What experience do we create?" and "Why should someone choose to do business with us?" The companies that have well-defined answers to these questions are the companies that will experience outsized performance during the recovery.
About Judy Mottl
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