Planning is critical nowadays to customize your retail investment

Many retailers experience a sharp drop in footfall or have decided to temporarily close their stores to stop the spread of COVID-19. For most, this also imposes a need to review investment planning and prioritize differently than before the crisis.

Time to consume: 3 min
14 April 2020

Don't forget the long-term changes

Short term examples of necessary COVID actions by retailers are immediate investments in staff and consumer protection, like plastic shield and ticketing solutions, virtual queues, etc. Long-term, the ongoing crisis will make us much more aware of the consequences of globalism and the way it may affect our health, which will increase the consumer’s focus on making sustainable choices. We at ITAB can already see the market moving in that direction. Sustainable shopping will be in the center of the retail business attention, now more than ever. That’s why it’s important for us all to think about how we can create more sustainable shops with less energy consumption, recyclable materials, and higher security for staff and consumers.

Focus on sustainable shopping

A lot of our customers already use the decreased number of consumers to get ready for the recovery by increased investment in sustainable shopping. One example of how this period of more or less empty shops may be used to strengthen sustainability in shops and public spaces is lighting retrofit projects, where old inefficient lighting is recycled and changed to LED, to save at least 50% energy consumption. Another example is to increase self-checkout solutions in the stores to increase efficiency/save costs and reduce possible virus spread in the future.

If you need help to discuss how to make your consumer experience and your service safer as well as your operations less costly we are here for you.

Article written by
Stefan Ståhl
ITAB