We’re still in lockdown 3.0 and right now, we don’t know how long it’s going to last.

There’s plenty that retailers can be dong while their physical stores are closed.

I’ve come up with a couple of suggestions that retailers and their teams can be doing that will help them throughout 2021.

Understanding Shoppers’ Needs

My first tip is to really understand who your customer is in this ‘new normal’. It is important to acknowledge how Covid may have changed who your customers are, how they shop and what they are buying.

Putting yourself in their shoes, their new routines and circumstances, will help you focus on how you can best serve them. For instance, if your ideal customer is working from home and juggling home-schooling, they want cosy, easy to wear clothing and footwear, not the latest pair of fashionable heels.

Always keep this customer in mind as you make decisions about your business in terms of product range, services, marketing and team training. The home-schooling, working from home customer doesn’t have time to spend all day scrolling. Timing your social media posts for maximum impact and visibility is important. Show them what they need to make their life easier or brighten up their day. Candles for home offices or home spas, board games for entertainment, runners for their walk during the day. Now is not the time for advertising sun cream or suitcases!

Communicating with Your Customer

Be aware of how you communicate.

From email marketing to instore greetings, you must remember to engage with your customers. Communication creates an impression good or bad. The words you use and the tone of your voice or the language you use online is so important.

With the introduction of masks in-store, this is very challenging. So, think about smiling with your eyes as well as having open, welcoming body language and share this advice with your staff.

Customer Experience

Retailers have the ability to disappoint or delight customers. If you deliver an exceptional customer experience both in-store and online, customers will keep coming back.

Experience has been the buzz word for the last few years. Live social media shop tours or virtual one-to-one appointments during lockdown helped local retailers survive. These ‘experiences’ need to continue in 2021.

Your Online Presence

Retailers also need to be aware that their presence  needs to look and feel the same instore, online, or on social media.

Customers don’t want to see empty shelves when they walk into your shop. So remember this when it comes to your website too. They don’t want to see rows of sold-out articles there either. Look at your website analytics on a daily basis and replacing out of stocks with alternative items or your best sellers. Ideally you should plan ahead, to ensure this situation does not happen at, just as you would with your physical store.

Thank you to the Western People newspaper who published my top tips for survival.