Keeping Your Retail Business Open During COVID-19
This article was written by one of our amazing contributors! Content may include promotional links.
We are living through one of the most worrying times in recent living memory.
The global COVID-19 public health emergency has quite justifiably caused the world considerable worry. And, with the threat ongoing, it remains to be seen how long we’ll be living with the threat of the virus hanging over us.
As we adopt social distancing, self-isolation, quarantine, and lockdown measures across the planet, many businesses have had to close their doors. Those that have remained open are having to adapt to a situation that they could not have foreseen just a few short months ago.
For a lot of retailers, closing their doors is not an option. They may provide essential items that the public needs. In addition to this, the running costs of business don’t go away just because the doors are shut, and there is also a danger of stock depreciation as items with short shelf lives sit unbought.
The current crisis has already caused some retail chains to close permanently, and it looks set to threaten many more businesses besides. How do you keep your business from going under because of COVID-19? If you run a retail business, how do you adapt to the challenges that COVID-19 has brought up?
We’ll discuss the ways that a retail business can adapt its operations and its outlook in order to trade safely, retain customers, and also to weather the financial storms caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Protect Your Employees
If you are remaining open during the COVID-19 pandemic, you will need to ensure you are doing everything in your power to protect your employees.
Make sure that you train your staff on your expectations of them during the pandemic. You should never put them into the direct danger of becoming infected. This means that you should provide them with all of the necessary equipment needed to protect themselves.
Provide your team with silicon gloves. You will need to check that your team is wearing these at all times. You may also need to supply them with other forms of PPE, such as aprons.
Replace existing branded staff name tags with silicone lanyards that are easily cleaned.
Communicate with your team regularly throughout the crisis. Check on their health and that of those in their households. You will need to ensure you are clear on your sickness policy and that you are following through on it during these challenging times.
Protect Your Customers
You will need to ensure that you do everything possible to look after customers visiting your store. You can do this by creating clear signage throughout your store that communicates specific social distancing measures, as well as other protective procedures.
You will need to limit the number of customers that enter your premises—the number of people that you can let it will vary depending on the size of your store. For small stores, you may only be able to allow a small handful of people in at one time.
You will need to monitor the number of people coming in and out strictly. If you have two entrances to your store, use one as an entrance and one as an exit to make things easier.
Create a flow throughout your store so that customers will walk the aisles in a specific direction. You will want them to be able to walk the entire shop without having to pass another person or come within ten feet of anyone else. You can do this by taping arrows to the floors and placing signage on shelf edges.
Place markers throughout the store to indicate the two-meter distance that everyone needs to maintain.
If people are likely to need to queue outside your store, you should create a queuing system using barriers. Again, you should put markers on the floor to keep everyone safely distanced.
You may need to in place measures to prevent customers from picking up items that they are not going to buy.
Reconfigure Your Layout
During the coronavirus pandemic, people’s buying habits will have changed. They will now be looking for essential food items or other items that will be useful during a lockdown situation.
Think about laying out your store in a way that helps your customers find exactly what they need.
Think about the placement of products that will be useful for your customers. They may not have gone in for these items, or have even thought about them. But you may inspire them to do something different for themselves during this lockdown.
If your supply chain has suffered as a result of the crisis, you may not be stocking quite as many product lines anyway, so moving your displays around will help you make adjustments for this fact.
Revisit Your Mission Statement
The current situation with COVID-19 is the perfect time for you to revisit your companies mission statement and to reconnect with the ideals that your business was founded upon.
When you started the company, you may have wanted to help specific groups in some way or to provide for the local community. Now is the time to revisit those values and really put them into place and make a difference for those who are struggling during this time.
Your business may be suffering as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, but there may be others out there in a worse situation. By helping others during these challenging times, you will be able to create a lasting impression with your customers as a caring business.
Pivot Your Business
If you provide services that may be beneficial to customers during these difficult times, you should pivot your business to make these areas a priority.
If you do click and collect orders, this will help reduce the contact that customers will have when visiting your store. They can order online and pick up their order at an allotted time.
Similarly, if you have a delivery option available, make sure that you deploy your resources into this area of your business to ensure that it is able to meet the growing demands that you may be experiencing.
You may need to redeploy staff from areas of your business that have been negatively affected so that you can improve the services in these areas.
In addition to staffing support, you may need to invest in your web services. Increasing the bandwidth of your website will allow you to process more transactions at once, which increasing your SEO spend will help more potential customers find your business online.
Be Cautious of Your Branding Messages
During the coronavirus pandemic, many businesses may be tempted to try and capitalize on the fears that many people will have.
While they may manage to drive sales in this way, ultimately, it will cost them in the long run. Cynical marketing ploys will be spotted by consumers, and pretty soon, you may find that there is a social media campaign against you that could severely damage your reputation.
One type of marketing that you should avoid during the coronavirus crisis includes using scarcity tactics to try and push products.
Usually, carrying a message of ‘while stocks last’ is not a bad thing. However, following on from the recent panic buying of many essential goods, it is a technique that may appear insensitive during these times.
In addition to this, you should be mindful of increasing any prices on essential items. There may be specific measures in place that will prevent from doing this. But, even if there are not, you should not try to profit by hiking up prices when people need them.
Be Positive and Supportive
Use your public visibility to provide a positive message of hope. Many people will be finding the COVID-19 crisis stressful and hard to deal with. Help them through it by providing a friendly and supportive service.
Customers may be coming into your store feeling stressed and worried. Ensure your staff knows this and that they are empathetic to customers’ needs. By being more patient and understanding with customers while they are under stress, there is less likely to be any major tension between customers and employees.
Similarly, you should be aware of the stress that your employees are under. They may have financial worries or concerns about their health. Make sure that you are providing them with support during these difficult times.
Understand the Support Options
Your government may have put in place financial support measures that will be of relevance to you as a business, or to your employees.
It is important that you read and understand all information from your government, and you communicate anything of relevance to your employees. If any of your employees have missed out on any work due to COVID-19, you may need to provide them with additional support if they are to make any claims.
If there are grants or loans for financial support, ensure your finances are in order and that you make an application for these in a timely manner.