![]() ![]() The result has been a shift in business priorities, with savvy retailers recognizing the importance of pushing aside growth in favor of customer loyalty. Meanwhile, for retailers, operational upheavals have ushered in no-touch business practices focused on protecting both customers and employees. ![]() During the COVID-19 lockdowns, visiting physical stores was mainly limited to utilitarian retail stores, such as supermarkets, petrol and drug, while more hedonic types of retailers, such as fashion, jewelry and furniture, as well as restaurants were forced to close their doors. Now, as countries loosen COVID-19-related restrictions, both customers and retailers have found themselves adjusting to the new reality. Trips to the mall, dining inside a restaurant, socializing over coffee and heading to the gym all came to an abrupt halt as stay-at-home measures were issued to prevent the spread of the virus. The retail industry has entered a new “abnormal,” driven by the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic also heavily affected the service industry and specifically retailing. ![]() Such massive interventions have not been observed in Western countries since the end of the Second World War. Since the virus arose in Wuhan in China in 2019, it has spread across the world very rapidly leading to strong government interventions and measures, such as nationwide lockdowns. One of the most dramatic external events in the past decade has been the COVID-19 pandemic. The full terms of this licence may be seen at. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. ![]() This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |