The ability to adapt to customers’ needs will dictate the survival of retailers post COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken over the world, forcing people to find different and safe ways to perform most daily tasks. Picking up the mail now is more than just going outside and grabbing packages – it’s become a ritual that entails masks, gloves and a full sanitizing wipe down before you can get your hands on whatever you’ve purchased.

This new way of living has impacted every single aspect of retail businesses, as well as the service sector, and they will be the first to face drastic changes when the worst of the pandemic settles and we take the steps to start over. According to Paco Underhill, environmental psychologist, as well as founder and CEO of market research and consulting company Envirosell Inc., the role of hygiene and cleanliness will forever influence the way we live, work, and consume. “One of the questions that everybody is asking is ‘how do I keep it clean’ and ‘is it clean’,” said Underhill. “Whether you are in a doctor’s office or in a restaurant, that radar for cleanliness and hygiene is going to be permanently turned on.”

A new normal

Hyperawareness towards cleaning is not the only thing that’s going to change in the world post-pandemic. As stated by Underhill, the COVID-19 crisis has changed people’s way of living, and therefore, it has changed their needs. The new normal reflects directly in the way we consume and we have started to see the ramifications of those changes affecting the design of our homes, hospitals, the way we travel, and most especially stores and shopping centers. This is where the digital world comes into play – with the closure of non-essential businesses, retailers have migrated to the internet to stay connected to their customers. “Almost everyone had to learn how to use their phones and computers better,” says Paco. “This has forced us all to improve our digital literacy and made us rethink the way we live and consume from now on.”

The migration to online shopping has caused bigger issues – since many of us don’t know what will happen tomorrow, we are more imminently concerned about today, searching for a sense of immediate gratification, particularly in the younger generation of consumers. “Once you reach age 40, 80% of your weekly purchases are the same thing. You have decided on the kind of hair color, you’ve decided on the kind of mustard,” explains Paco. “After age 40, 80% of what you buy week in and week out is the same thing. Why do you have to go to a store? If you are 26, though, you are still deciding who you are. You are still deciding your hair color, you may change your mascara, you may experiment and you don’t always have to always have the same thing – those are all things that are changeable.”

For those younger consumers who are still deciding who and what they are, the relationship of the phone to the store and the shopping mall is a seamless one. The change, as stated by Underhill, will be in the fulfillment of the purchase. “Part of what’s going to happen is people will be forced to decide between going to a shopping mall and walking away with the material or going to the shopping mall, looking at the merchandise but ordering it online.”

“What made a store or shopping mall good in 2000 and in 2020 are different and these are parts of the evolution of us as a society,” reinforces Underhill. Retail is always the dipstick of social change and the survival of every business that has been greatly affected by the economic freeze due to stay-at-home orders will be tested by their ability to adapt to the changes happening in the coming months.

(by Izabella Arouca)