9 Best Practices to encounter Post covid-19 retail market challenges for retailers

Post covid market scenario will see a consolidation in overall offerings in each category of products and services. It won’t be as same corporate or business world which use to be in Pre-covid times.

The market trends won’t be as usual for the longest of the time going forward. This pandemic has changed the way use to approach our daily routine work life along with preferences.

One thing is sure that retailers and marketers will be in need of a different set of skills and approaches to combat the market challenges post covid.

Let’s discuss this in brief.

Top Class Hygiene standards – Going forward customers will prefer the stores or point of sale having high standards for the cleanliness, safety, and hygienic aspects of retail space. Retailers need to invest and maintain their retail space in line with global hygiene standards.

Adapting Digital Marketing –  Since online shopping became a big certainty, retail has converted gradually into a digital and internet-driven space. Promoting your business and products through digital media will be the way forward for retailers and professionals. Digital footprint needs a serious approach here onwards if brands looking at reaching out to the maximum consumer base.

Social Media Optimization – Retailers need to invest and start taking social media as a separate marketing medium for their business now. There is immense and stupendous potential if this aspect of marketing tackled in the right way.

Staff quality – Invest in learning and acquiring new skill sets relevant to your domain. Continuous Staff training and grooming will pay off in long run for retailers.

Omni-channel approach – A must-have channel integration process that makes your store, brand, and organization look wholesome and intact helping to reach maximum customer satisfaction levels. Omnichannel retail is the future for most consumer brands to attain top-level customer satisfaction. Effective Omnichannel practice also helps to reduce customer churning to competition brands and stores.

Futuristic Products update – This makes you look relevant to the current or future requirement, e.g garment retailers can start selling antiviral fabrics, or a ply manufacturer can provide antiviral plywood.

Channel Margin restructuring – It can help brands to increase their involvement with end dealers. This can become at risk of lower Gross margins but keep your channel and partners intact and unharmed with the mess created by this pandemic.

Invest in learning modern-day retail practices –  Learning Retail math relevant to your business domain which help you and your team to calculate important numbers and calculation with hands-on supremacy. it’s crucial to know your retail math

Cost optimization– It means you should have a relook on your store or business opex (operational expenses) like Rentals, salaries, marketing exp, the interest cost, depreciation, credit card exp, electricity, Misc, etc quite closely and must lower it down by 30–40%. Please remember a penny saved is a penny earned and in business if you save 100 rs that allow you to absorb 1000 rs sales degrowth.

Going forward as we move into 2021, we can hope to see more customer’s internet shopping while never taking a gander at a screen, particularly on Amazon, Flipkart, Ajio, Myntra etc.

Yet, even brands who aren’t on these platforms can use the brilliant speaker and voice search innovation or blogs and websites to promote their business.