Over the years, it has become harder for a small retailer to compete with the likes of Amazon and other big ecommerce stores. This trend has been growing and it seems like nothing was going to slow it.
Then Covid-19 came around and it sent online shopping into the stratosphere. Consumers were already used to shopping online, so during quarantine it came as no surprise that they would continue to do so.
Which could have spelled disaster for the small brick and mortar stores. As people were forced to stay in, they had to stop their trade. Now, everything from ecommerce greengrocers to tailors and more can be found online.
Unless they also had a web presence. Those small retailers that also have a way to sell online didn’t miss a beat during the quarantine. Some even launched their online store during the quarantine as they knew they couldn’t survive without doing so.
Only way to compete
If you can’t beat them, join them. And that is precisely what many small retailers have done. Instead of trying to beat Amazon at their own game, many small brick and mortar stores simply went to a site where you Register Your Barcodes and started sending their stock into Amazon and let them handle the fulfillment rather than try to expand into a large scale operation with warehouses and supply chain problems.
Of course, this costs money but the alternative is daunting. Either you adapt to the current reality or you won’t survive.
The end of High Street?
As rents soar in the areas of town with the most foot traffic, it becomes ever harder to keep profit margins in a respectable zone. And this was all before Covid-19 struck. Then it became impossible to continue paying those kinds of rents.
As a result, many retailers turned to having a web presence to allow people to browse and compare prices without leaving home.
What happens now to High Street? The trend is that many retailers will simply close up their shops. They simply couldn’t adapt in time. Others are moving their stores to areas with lower rents to accommodate people who do still want to have the option of an in store visit, while offering online shopping.
It is easier than ever to have an online store these days even without needing a website. Facebook even offers a shopping experience for brick and mortar stores. A social media page, then, becomes the new High Street.
Reimagining the instore shopping experience
When Covid-19 is finally behind us and life can go back to normal, there will be many things that don’t return to how they were before.
And shopping is likely to be one of those things. It is simply too convenient and economical to shop online. This means that the way shopping will be done will be different.
People will likely want to get out and about again and will want to visit retailers, but the experience needs to be something to draw them in. A greengrocer will likely need to offer cooking classes. A boutique will want to offer trade-ins of old styles to buy new ones that have to be done in store. People are looking for a good reason to go in person.
