It isn’t an unknown phenomenon that the COVID-19 global pandemic has implications that will last a decade. In addition to the obvious consequences such as the overburdening of health care, the psychological consequences of people during the lockdown and of course the amount of deaths that have occurred, the shopping landscape is also in danger. During the lockdown all the psychical stores had to shut down and small retailers lost a lot of revenue and some even had to shut down (Flitter, 2020). But given all the negative messages and assumptions in these different times, I’m going to talk about the positive side of the changing field of retail because of COVID-19 in this blog post. Ecommerce has experienced tremendous growth recently, which would take years longer under normal circumstances.
Take the supermarket chain Picnic, for example, in the Netherlands. Prior to COVID-19, it was an emerging but not yet such a popular chain delivering groceries at home. Picnic’s business model differs completely from the large chains such as Albert Heijn and Jumbo (Brick Meets Click, 2019). However, during the lockdown, households mainly wanted/had to order their groceries online, which greatly increased the demand for Picnic. As a result, picnic has put itself on the map many times faster than expected, as CEO Michiel Muller mentioned himself (De Lullenpodcast, 2020). And not only Picnic experienced an enormous grow: the ecommerce consumer sales rose with 28.48% (Meyer, 2020).
But not only did the ecommerce grow; the retail itself changed as well. Hennes & Mauritz is convinced they will exit the virus in better shape than before (Provan, 2020). Of course, the sales fell during the first wave of the virus but the fast-fashion retailer sees a rise of revenue again. To stimulate the revenue even more, H&M announced to close 250 of its stores globally (BBC News, 2020). Since the virus moved most of the shoppers online and all parts of the industry are being affected investing in online channels will be more profitable.
I, personally, am very interested in the change in retail and enjoy positive outcomes like this. During these strange times, we need to stay focused on the positive developments, right?
BBC News. (2020, October 1). H&M to close 250 shops as Covid drives sales online. Retrieved 1 October 2020, from https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54369802
Brick Meets Click. (2019, February 2). Picnic’s online grocery model: How it achieves growth and profitability with delivery. Retrieved 1 October 2020, from https://www.brickmeetsclick.com/picnic-s-online-grocery-model–regular-route-delivery-combined-with-mass-market-pricing
De Lullenpodcast. (2020, August 1). Online Ondernemen [Video file]. Retrieved from https://open.spotify.com/episode/1pfGApyzZ7UmRrKRMGKkg3?si=NUk-eJCfT8OH882xqyxglQ
Flitter, E. (2020, July 13). ‘I Can’t Keep Doing This:’ Small-Business Owners Are Giving Up. Https://Www.Nytimes.Com/#publisher. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com
Meyer, S. (2020, July 28). Understanding the COVID-19 Effect on Online Shopping Behavior. Retrieved 1 October 2020, from https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/covid-19-ecommerce/#changes-in-revenue-across-ecommerce
Provan, S. (2020, October 1). H&M plans to close 250 stores. Retrieved 1 October 2020, from https://www.ft.com/content/3df5f267-abe4-480e-a46b-526b9ac0ec57
