Anita Bathija
As the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak emerge and crystalize at a rapid pace, the Coresight Research team is changing how we cover this crisis. With this post, we launch our blog on the coronavirus crisis—allowing our analysts to offer their insights and analysis on the outbreak more immediately and in a bite-size format.
Our inaugural post runs down our 15 “must dos” for retailers in the US and other Western markets—and these include learnings from our coverage of the China market and how we saw retailers there responded to the coronavirus shutdown. Here are our 15 things US retailers must do now:
- Over-communicate with customers and employees. Across all available channels, keep customers and staff informed, show empathy, and be as responsive as demand allows.
- Figure out innovative approaches to product delivery. Online demand for groceries and other essentials is surging, and retailers can serve this with curbside pickup, pre-selected product bundles (e.g., of groceries) or other innovations.
- Rethink shipping/returns. In the immediate term, many online retailers are prioritizing staples over discretionary items and informing customers of potential delivery delays on discretionary items. Extend return periods until the crisis is over.
- Where employees are at risk, look at co-employing with other retailers and restaurants. In China, we saw staff from the food-service industry redeployed to grocery retailers under partnerships between firms in these sectors.
- Renegotiate store leases to cut expenses. We expect stores to remain closed for several weeks—possibly months. For many impacted retailers, slashing fixed costs will be essential for survival.