By Anne Welsh at Painless Universal
May 6th, 2020
The new way to shop whether you are shopping for food, clothes or home equipment is going change. The sooner we start understanding the process of our new way of life the better. Throughout this situation, almost all retailers will not stop thinking about how to provide us with the best shopping experience they can offer.
The economy is going through massive pain and really needs us to start shopping. Many people are afraid and asking the question how we will return to the UK high street after lockdown? The coronavirus pandemic will definitely change consumer habits, but the question will be HOW?
Many of you have likely started receiving the newsletter from a few retailers about the stores looking forward to welcoming you in their stores again. What are they doing differently? Will you have to queue in line or book their shopping appointments directly on the store’s website before going into some shops, will there be fewer people let in stores, in store merchandise – will stores now display fewer items to create more space, will each shopping baskets be sanitised before given to each client. The joys of just browsing might be taken away as there will be fewer items to look at. The personal touch of asking a member of staff to assist you might be restricted to only a fewer staff who might not want to interact with the costumers.
But there are also the growing fears that the lockdown may rapidly create huge changes in how we shop; but we might start seeing fewer shops, more home deliveries, more local shopping and changes in the way we buy fashion.
What is going on now is a massive shake up to our reality and for most people the situation will definitely be forcing consumers to reassess how and when the shop but avoiding the queue might now be difficult to happen.