6 key considerations for a successful store reopening strategy
Cate Trotter
Helping transport, construction and government 10x performance by upgrading processes
Some good news for retailers – customers want to get back in store. Some surveys have shown that customers miss shopping more than they miss going on holiday.
But it’s a challenge to reopen well – in the right way, at the right time. There’s lots to consider. Below you’ll find six key areas you should be thinking about as part of your reopening strategy.
If you’d like full assistance developing the right reopening strategy, Insider Trends has a end-to-end reopening consultancy package. Click here to find out more.
1. Keep customer and employee trust front and centre
Trust has emerged as a key driver of sales for retailers. In some cases it’s overtaken price and convenience.
There’s much to consider in terms of what you do, but how you communicate it to staff and customers is also key.
Clear, transparent reporting is crucial. Third-party certification of the cleanliness and practices of your spaces may also help boost trust and confidence.
2. Identify signposts to keep plans flexible yet focused
Timing is key. Enter too late and you’ll miss sales. Ramp up too early and you’ll face another costly closure and re-opening cycle.
No one knows exactly how the crisis will unfold. Despite this, you can still plan and prepare.
With your team, identify a series of signposts that will indicate how the crisis is developing. Agree what your business will do at each point. When these signposts emerge, you’ll be able to quickly speed up or slow down your re-opening strategy. You’ll be able to pro-actively respond rather than being caught on the back foot.
3. Consider store features to add, change and take away
How can you adapt stores to make customers and staff feel more confident?
Should you widen aisles, develop one-way systems, put up screens? Will certain store hours be dedicated to vulnerable groups? Will you run temperature checks at the door or insist that customers wear masks and gloves? Should you have changing rooms? Will you allow product returns, or offer a discount if customers agree not to return the item?
There are a lot of simple changes that can be made – the challenge is the sheer number of changes to think through.
4. Train your staff to support store policies, boost customer confidence – and know that you’re here for them
The actions and attitude of your staff can make or break your store re-opening. Consider what they can do to boost staff and customer confidence in your stores – such as actively offering assistance, enforcing store policies and regularly cleaning spaces. For certain categories of retail, how staff make customers feel will be almost as important as what they do.
Training is also about what staff KNOW, not just what they do differently. Have you made it clear to staff that you value and support them during this time? It’s crucial to make it crystal clear to staff that their safety and welfare is paramount.
We’ve got some fantastic training companies in our network – if you’d like an introduction, just drop us a line at contact [at] insider-trends.com .
5. Embrace simple and innovative technologies
Technology offers numerous quick wins to make your space covid-ready. You can give staff and customers PPE, install automated doors and touchless taps in bathrooms, and provide virtual queuing systems and self-scanning apps. Dream up other innovations too – we’ve heard of companies develop app-controlled digital screens, enabling hygienic, endless aisle functionality.
Of course, it’s not practical to install everything, but think of everything you could utilise, and then assess which ones will make the biggest difference to your staff and target customers.
6. Measure performance
Set targets for store occupancy levels, social distancing measures, use of hand sanitiser in-store and more. Measure and monitor these to ensure your spaces are delivering the experience you envisaged.
How to conduct these audits is another factor to consider. It may be simpler than you think – CCTV footage can be reused to assess occupancy levels, and footage captured on staff mobile phones may be helpful for other assessments. Cheap, accessible hardware and software may mean auditing your spaces is easier than you might think.
Get in touch if you’d like free intros to rated companies in our network
Our network is helping retailers develop a variety of solutions. Some of them are adapting training programmes for store staff. Others are installing conventional technologies and developing innovative tech solutions for stores. If you’d like an intro or recommendation, just get in touch at contact [at] insider-trends.com
Creating a robust plan for your business
As always, we’ve done our best to create a ‘one size fits all’ set of tips. But every business is different and needs a strategy tailored to its category, region, channels and audience.
Our store reopening packages are helping retailers get their reopening right. And they help them do it quickly – often in days rather than months.
If you’d like help developing a strategy with the perfect timing and actions for your business, get in touch.
Co-Founder at Empactivo | Digital Culture & Employee Experience Enthusiast | Sustainability & People Engagement ??
4 年Totally agreed ?? And as an example for the 5th item; "Embrace simple and innovative technologies", we have an idea ?? You can show your shopping mall or store's current density status by integrating easily with in-store people counting systems or by entering a brief data in certain periods. ?? A neat microsite (like this in the photo) can be displayed via Instagram or through your website and mobile application. People can have a clue about visiting your store or mall. For example, while your mall/store is actually in a suitable status in terms of social density, many people may think that "the mall/store is probably busy now". In a different situation, people can come to the mall/store at a busy time and cause very long queues and thus have a bad experience. Unfortunately, the customer waiting in the queue does not benefit neither himself nor the store ?? Even if a weekly visitor frequency data is shared, we can inform the customers that "our mall / store is full now, our best forecast for a less density is X hours later". Pre-booking can even be obtained through this micro site and these pre-bookers can be rewarded by discount coupons ;) For more details, you can check-out our LinkedIn page Mall Omega ????
CEO | One iota
4 年Interesting points Cate Trotter and agree with Neil Venables comments re sales conversion never being more critical. The introduction of wider aisles will likely mean less stock on the floor, stores likely to have less staff due to less footfall so the need to have endless aisle solutions absolutely key. We are seeing retailers request apps that can interface with other screens in store to ensure customers can shop safely at a social distance without necessarily having to touch screens. This can include 'throw to screen' options from store associate iPads, transferring to other PED's instore or paying via QR codes displayed on the kiosks via the consumer mobile device. I am sure there will be lots more innovation to come from all retailers and their technology partners as part of our new world of socially distanced shopping.
Commercial Director - International Markets FootBalance | Sports Industry | adidas | GM Intersport | Sporting Goods
4 年Cate, nice and clear points here. I believe how the staff and consumers interact is paramount as there confidence grows over the first few weeks of reopening. I believe conversion will also never be more critical instore or pointing to the said retailers ecom services/range offer to generate quicker cashflow out of the Spring season.