Will Omicron Virus Rewrite The Rules Of Retail?

Want to know what industry leaders are doing to grow their revenue during the pandemic? Check out challenges the retail industry faces and how to overcome them.

The pandemic has caused a great shift in buying behaviors and forced retailers to shift to e-commerce overnight to survive.

Despite the pandemic’s challenges, the retail industry has delivered positive returns to shareholders. It remains one of the best performing sectors, only behind the pharma, basic materials, and electronic goods sectors.

However, data on a granular level shows that the gains weren’t uniform, and there’s still a huge margin between industry leaders and companies whose businesses are slowing.

This huge gap exists because businesses haven’t set up an online presence and systems yet, thinking that things will go back to pre-pandemic times.

But we’re stepping into the third year of the pandemic, and the “online shopping” trend is here to stay along with heightened consumer expectations of exceptional customer service, convenience, and a great user experience.

So, if you’re not adapting to the new normal, you’ll lose revenue as shopping online has opened up various alternative brand options for your consumers.

This article will outline the various challenges retailers face and how you can make the shift to the new normal and reach record-breaking revenues. Here’s what’s covered:

Challenges Of Retailing During The Pandemic

When the pandemic began, retailers were forced to stock up on supplies at lightning speeds because of a temporary demand surge triggered by state-mandated lockdowns.

Physical stores weren’t fully prepared to address the challenges then and clamp down on purchases like their online counterparts. So, they faced shortages and supply chain issues.

However, industry leaders emerged with more profits as they quickly anticipated challenges and responded to sudden changes in buyer behavior and supply.

That’s why it’s essential to know the challenges you’re up against and the ones you’ll face soon to respond to them quickly and boost your revenue. Here, we’ve listed the top 3 challenges and their solutions.

• Giving Shoppers A Compelling Reason To Visit

It’s no surprise that consumers are wary about venturing to physical stores situated in crowded places to make a purchase. Besides, there’s no reason to leave the comfort of their house to shop when they can order online.

So, retailers have to give consumers a compelling reason to visit their store despite the pandemic situation.

To get started, retailers can set up shop in open-air shopping areas to reduce exposure concerns and focus on building relationships to prevent online stores from poaching them.

For example, Best Buy set up an advisor program that allowed their consumers to get free in-home consultations of the products their home could use and how they should be installed.

The program was focused on building relationships and not selling, so it successfully managed to lure consumers away from shopping online.

Alternatively, you can also set up a Buy-Online-Pay-In-Store (BOPIS) to attract foot traffic and keep your physical store running.

As the name suggests, BOPIS allows consumers to make a purchase from your online store and pick up their products in your physical store.

This model is gaining popularity because it reduces shipping costs, helps you build a personalized relationship with shoppers (you can send personalized texts that suggest items based on their preferences.), and improves your foot traffic.

And if you need help setting up a BOPIS system, contact 24SevenCommerce. We can set it up for you to start receiving orders right away!

• Improving Consumer Experience Online

Increasing foot traffic and focusing only on the BOPIS system isn’t enough to come out on top during the pandemic. As we mentioned earlier, most consumers have moved to online shopping, and this behaviour is here to stay.

So, not having an e-commerce store that caters to your consumer’s needs would mean losing to your competitors and becoming obsolete.

Moreover, consumers also expect detailed, up-to-date product information and are keen on tracking orders. They also prefer a simple and seamless experience to aid their online shopping.

So, it’s important to build an omni-channel presence that offers consumers a great shopping experience regardless of whether they’re shopping from their mobile, desktop, telephone, or through a brick-and-mortar store.

24Seven helps you build user-friendly and responsive e-commerce websites on popular platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, etc., and integrate them with your brick-and-mortar store to thrive during the pandemic.

And if you’ve too much stock, you’ll be left with dead inventory and forced to sell products at discounts, thereby reducing your profits.

So, it’s important to have an eCommerce website and a channel like Octopus Bridge that integrates with your POS system to manage inventory without the hassle and prevent other problems like duplicate entries.

• Inventory Management Challenges

Inventory management issues come with the integration of physical and online stores as stocks need to be redirected from physical stores to e-commerce channels.

If this process isn’t monitored properly, you’ll lose customers to “out of stocks” or your website may show products “in stock” when you’ve run out. Both situations will lead to customer dissatisfaction and tank your reputation and sales.

And if you’ve too much stock, you’ll be left with dead inventory and forced to sell products on discounts, thereby reducing your profits.

So, it’s important to have an eCommerce website and a channel like Octopus Bridge that integrates with your POS system to manage inventory without the hassle and prevent other problems like duplicate entries.

• Taking A Progressive Approach

This is not the time for retailers to survive the storm. With a more aggressive and progressive approach to both digital transformation and the new era of customer experience and services, the future may not look so dark.

The retail industry does face a lot of challenges during the pandemic. Still, retailers can overcome them if they rise to the growing demand for better shopping experiences and personalization.

24SevenCommerce helps you set up an online store and integrate it with your POS to offer better customer experiences online and in-store (via BOPIS) and record increased sales and revenue.

“We’ve been a brick and mortar retailer for 25 years and have devoted our energy to make our shops a unique real-world shopping experience. When the time came to open our eCommerce store, 24Seven helped us make it happen with a solid team of dedicated professionals.”. – Andrew Berry CEO | Vault Of Midnight