Following our editor’s weekly letter, Checkpoint Systems’ David Murrihy believes we need to come together and devise a unified approach in bringing customers back into stores.
After weeks of shutdown, which felt like a lifetime, apparel retailers are reopening their doors across the country but the big unknown is will the shoppers return?
Consumers, locked in isolation, have had to learn new habits that have seen online shopping explode – many retailers have reported between 50% and 100% online increases and, in the case of Accent Group, a whopping spike of 300%.
The expectation is that, post-Covid, some of this online growth will remain long-term and the challenge for bricks ‘n’ mortar retailers is how to entice the consumer back for a bit of ‘retail therapy’ in the local high street or shopping centre.
Encouragingly, a recent survey in the US showed that 54% of consumers are ready to buy apparel in store, which was well ahead of some other categories such as DIY (36%) and footwear (32%).
However, in the same survey, 65% of shoppers advised they would have concerns around safety in change rooms and/or working closely with a store associate but as many as 80% stated that they would feel safer to shop if stores were using sanitiser, face masks, wider aisles, extensive cleaning/disinfecting and other safety protocols.
Over the past couple of weeks, I have visited several shopping centres in Melbourne and my interstate colleagues have done similar visits in other cities across Australia.
The good news is that most stores have some Covid related signage, suggested store occupancy numbers, sanitiser somewhere in the store and have escalated their cleaning processes.
However, that’s where the consistency stopped and, beyond that, the protocols being followed vary greatly from store to store and there appears to be much confusion and uncertainty as to what should be considered ‘best practice’.
Some stores have sanitiser in the doorway (and enforce the use of it as a condition to enter the store), some don’t although you might find a small bottle on the inside counter if you ask; fixtures have been moved to create wider aisles in some stores whilst in others the stock was jammed so tightly you could barely enter single file let alone pass anybody on the way in/out without compromising social distancing guidelines.
Entry/exit doorways were easy to navigate (and enforce) in some stores but much more difficult in others due to store layouts and the amount of stock and fixtures.
The protocols around fitting rooms seemed to cause the most confusion.
Essential retailers such as Kmart, Target and Big W have remained open throughout the pandemic with their fitting rooms closed for health and safety reasons whilst Rebel Sport, which have also remained open, have kept their fitting rooms open as usual.
Interestingly, Kathmandu reopened a few weeks ago with fitting rooms firmly closed but now have opened them.
For other retailers that are reopening, some fitting rooms are off limits, some are open, and some stores have fitting rooms available but are discouraging shoppers from using them.
All store staff mentioned that they had extended their returns policies to allow people the opportunity to take goods home for try-on and return if it doesn’t fit.
Which raises the issue of how to handle return garments!
Generally, it is accepted that the coronavirus can live on hard surfaces for up to 3 days.
What is lesser known is that on porous materials such as cardboard, studies show this drops to 1 day.
Strangely, no study has been done on how long the virus may live on fabrics but, being generally quite porous, the suggestions are anywhere from a few hours up to 1 day.
With such varied guidance, some stores are holding returned garments in ‘quarantine’ for 3 days before placing them back on the rack for sale, others quarantine for 24 hours and at least one store that I spoke with gives the returned garment a good old spray with Glen 20 and hangs it back out for sale when it’s dry (and hopefully the smell of disinfectant has gone)!
Governments and economists talk of the business impact of the virus in terms like “V curve”, “U curve” and “L curve” all with accompanying charts generally showing a sudden dip and various rates of recovery.
But, at individual business level, whether they be small business owners with one boutique or listed businesses with a fleet of stores, the hard reality – without the need for any pretty pictures – is, the sooner you can get shoppers feeling both confident and comfortable to come back into store and start spending, the more likelihood of your business surviving and hopefully thriving in the years to come.
The immediate concern is that the current level of inconsistencies and confusion will prolong consumer hesitation and a much slower return to worthwhile and profitable levels of business. The whole of the retail apparel industry – retailers, NRA, ARA, AFC and shopping centre landlords - need to work together now to provide consumers with a consistent and inviting experience of what safe shopping can be like in the ‘new’ normal.
Apparel retailers have a lot of work to do and time is of the essence. At a time when it is difficult to predict what will happen next week, let alone next month or next year, the actions and decisions taken now will determine the future of businesses for years to come.