Road to Recovery: Lessons from Mid-Size Retailers

There are many fresh wounds left by the financial state caused by the global pandemic. One of them can be seen in the world of retail. Sure, e-commerce as a model has had its triumphs and, early on, while people were buying items in stock, some retailers saw a spike in sales. Now, however, things are not looking so great. A lot of people are out of jobs or have trouble paying their rent, which significantly lowers their average purchasing power. In turn, this shifts their priority focus and makes them more resilient to impulse purchases. So, how do mid-size retailers recover from this situation? Here are some tips to help you out.

Online sales are rising

The first step towards recovery lies in turning towards online sales. From May to June this year, there has been a massive spike in online sales. Why? Well, because of the whole situation with the pandemic, people are reluctant to shop in person, whenever they can avoid it. Therefore, they prefer to buy the items they need online and have them delivered to their doorstep. So, retailers might want to work on their e-store, improve their logistics and, overall, invest more dedication in their online sales.

The logistics

When it comes to logistics, the entirety of your delivery system plays a major role in the efficiency of your business. First of all, when it comes to logistics, efficiency can be translated into cost reduction. Lower overhead allows you to lower your prices (thus making you more competitive) while staying profitable. It also allows you to earn more profit at the same prices. For long-distance deliveries and, overall, delivery planning, it might be a good idea to look for an expert opinion. A single freight quote may give you a completely different perspective on the situation at hand.

Customer behaviour change

Another thing you need to consider here is the fact that customer behaviour has made a slight shift, as well. For instance, trapped in their own homes, people are getting more and more interested in home furnishing retailers. Apart from this, DIY kits are also a huge point of interest, from the perspective of your customers. This is due to the fact that the time spent indoor encourages people to develop new skills and commit to self-improvement. For the same reason, exercise kits have seen increased interest, as well. Overall, if there’s a way for you to include or expand any of these categories, this is definitely something you should consider.

Things are stabilizing

Before we continue, it’s important that we interpret this statement in just the right way. First of all, it’s crucial that we mention that stabilization isn’t necessarily an advantage in a conventional sense. The fact that things are stabilizing only means that the months that are ahead of us might become easier to predict. Making a more accurate financial projection and growth model will allow you to better adjust to the ever-evolving situation. This is the crucial step in recovering from all your losses.

Reinventing advertising

One of the biggest misconceptions of the business world lies in the idea that you can, somehow, get great promotion for free. Advertising is not dead and the only people who claim so have no clue about how to do so right. In their defence, it’s not their job to know everything about everything. So, instead of lamenting about the lack of efficiency that your brand is experiencing in some fields, you could look for professional help. The way in which your target audience communicates explores the world and spends their free time is evolving with technology. Those who can’t keep up with it are bound to get left behind.

Chatbot customer service

The next thing you need to consider is the integration of chatbots into your model. First of all, in retail, present-day chatbots are more than capable of resolving the majority of issues. The customers don’t mind that they’re not tended to by a human customer support representative, seeing as how, this way, they get an immediate response. By automating this process, you facilitate things and reduce the margin of error. Both of these advantages are worth their weight in gold.

Change to your business model

Previously, we’ve talked about the scenario where you need to shift your store into a digital environment. The thing is that this doesn’t apply just to your brand’s relationship with your customers but it’s dynamic with its own staff. In other words, you should give a thought to the idea of switching to a predominantly remote workforce. This reduces your overhead and creates a world of benefits that you would be foolish to ignore or neglect.

In conclusion

Once you have all this information in the possession, it’s time to develop a new strategy. Gather your data, consider the mediums you have available. Study your potential partners (in all aspects of your business) and be prepared to start changing things. Sure, you will have to get creative and there are some things that are already functioning fine, which means that they really don’t have to be changed. Nonetheless, remember that the business world is an ever-shifting landscape. Just because things are bad now, this doesn’t mean that they have to be even worse. If you’ve fixed them, this doesn’t mean that they will remain fixed indefinitely. Always be on the lookout for change.

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