Dr Amna Khan,Senior Lecturer in Retail and Consumer Behaviour at Manchester Metropolitan University. explains the major changes consumers and retailers will see as lockdown restrictions are eased

As non-essential shops across England begin to re-open today, consumers will be experiencing a ‘new normal’ when it comes to their shopping experience.

While many of us have become used to the socially distant queues and one-way markers in our supermarkets during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, many non-essential retailers have been planning their own steps and measures to create a safe and welcoming experience for consumers entering their stores.

Here are four major ways that our shopping experience will change for the foreseeable future:

1. Store layouts

Retailers are having to think about their stores in a way they have never experienced before. There will obviously be a huge emphasis on cleanliness, so hand sanitisers and wipes will be a major feature for customers to use if they touch anything.

Spacing will also be a feature, with wider aisles and more distance between products. This will be costlier to retailers but will improve the safety and experience for consumers. With fewer people allowed into stores, many consumers may enjoy the shopping experience more, although retailers will have to develop new ways to get as many people spending in their stores as they have in the past.

2. The rise of cashless payments

We will see a huge push towards the use of contactless payments and a wider introduction of digital technologies such as ‘Scan as you Shop’ that we already see in supermarkets. This not only helps retailers but also shoppers who want to avoid queuing at checkouts.

A wider adoption of digital technologies will also help retailers to personalise the shopping experience, using the data they can collect to inform their store layouts and helping their customers to easily access the products they want.

3. Queuing and access

Queuing outside stores will be the norm until we have an answer to Coronavirus. Retailers are already thinking about how they can improve this experience for their customers, with traffic light systems indicating when a store is at capacity and the creation of ‘speedy’ shopping lanes for those who only want to purchase a certain number of items.

Those retailers who can find a way to make the queuing experience less onerous for consumers will be the ones who benefit most.

4. A new era for department stores?

We have already seen the number of products consumers are buying at one time in our supermarkets increase since the Coronavirus outbreak. Consumers want to avoid visiting multiple stores to get the items they need, and this could be a huge advantage to department stores.

If you also consider the amount of time shoppers will need to queue to access different stores, this can be massively reduced with one trip to a department store. While in recent times we have seen brands such as House of Fraser and Debenhams falling victim to changes in consumer behaviour, the advantages these stores offer will be high on the list of priorities for shoppers returning to the high street during a pandemic.

The in-store shopping experience is going to be very different for a long time to come and it will be interesting to see how many major retailers, and particularly fashion retailers, will cope.

While lockdown measures continue, will there be a demand for products designed for the summer holiday, wedding and festival markets?

I don’t expect to see a large rush back to the shops in the short-term, while retailers and consumers adapt and become more comfortable with the ‘new normal’.

As is often the case in retail, those that can adapt quickly to the change in consumer behaviour will be the ones that can survive.

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