Covid-19 vs. Businesses is a serious topic for today. People are facing financial crunch, organizations are under severe loss, unemployment is multiplying manifold. However, it is much clear that prerequisite retailing and e-retail is thriving at present times. On the same, recently Sajith Pai of Blume Ventures tweeted that “I work in an early stage venture fund. As the Covid-19 crisis took hold, we reached out to our portfolio to check on how the virus was impacting them. We saw an interesting pattern emerge. We understood Covid-19’s impact on businesses. It clearly favours most digital businesses, though not all, and it also favours some physical or atom businesses, including e-commerce or even hand sanitizers. Given this, a simplistic digital vs physical or bits vs atoms framework isn’t a good lens to view Covid-19’s impact.”

Among other changes, e-commerce is likely to emerge as a winner as more and more shoppers are following this to buy essential and non-essential items. In the future too, this change will have certain lasting effects. Earlier, market research company Nielsen had said that many FMCG players will look to go aggressive on e-commerce in both near and long term as part of rethinking their strategies since e-commerce is on rise, as per recent estimations. Staying confined to homes, is affecting us in various ways and shopping manner is also something much impacted with this reason.

Meanwhile, among other changes, shopping is becoming a ‘rising after effect’ of lockdown. “Preference will shift to standalone stores. Health and safety are going to be the primary differentiators,” a report said.

Further, brands which enjoy strong credibility and loyal customer base will be the first ones to recover from coronavirus blow. Retail Business, Raymond Ltd’s report said.

Moreover. The consumer behaviour is mostly determined by lifestyle & culture. As we know we are social animals and connected to the world with dependency, travelling, meeting. People have been known to conduct religious gatherings, wedding ceremonies and birthday parties even at the peak of the pandemic. Due to this, consumer behaviour is expected to undergo major changes when the economy finally comes out of a shutdown.

“Millennials in particular are likely to indulge in revenge buying to make up for not being able to purchase during the lockdown. When the economy opens up, the initial shoppers will be millennials going for revenge buying, discount seekers and bargain hunters,” Retailers Association of India (RAI) said in a statement. Further, there will be other behavioural changes as well with the reasons for shopping and going to malls expected to undergo significant changes.

What Should Retailers Focus On?
This vulnerability has notably impacted retailers and manufacturers in the country. Retailers are struggling to keep products on the shelves, and sales data confirms for us that across the country, many categories are seeing elevated sales numbers.

According to our survey, one in three consumers indicate news of Coronavirus has already impacted their shopping behaviour. The impact is felt in several ways including: stocking up on products they wouldn’t otherwise stock up on, experiencing product shortages, purchasing products they wouldn’t otherwise have purchased, shopping online when they would usually shop in store, and shopping in new stores. These stats varied between shoppers who made in-store purchases versus those who made online purchases in the past week. Online shoppers are feeling the impact of shortages slightly more than in store shoppers.

In this crisis, retail companies are in a confused state if they focus on profits, they are will not gain more consumer base. If a retail brand comforted victims and took positive actions and provide supportive materials to protect from COVID-19, or transported daily need material to needy areas it will be remembered to some extent as a sensitive brand.

Once after everything is sorted, the retailers will be forced to give better experience to customers. The feeling of relief when the lockdown is ultimately lifted must be planned for in advance. What will retail brands plan and how will they analyse what consumer expects is where they brand growth will stand.