THE WEEK IN RETAIL
EDITOR’S COMMENT SHARE YOUR NEWS AND VIEWS WITH ME AT ABEGLEY@55NORTH.COM
CAN WE MAKE HOME DELIVERY STICK IN THE LONG TERM? There are many interesting questions that covid-19 is posing the convenience retailing industry. One of the most interesting is home delivery. On the face of it and if done well, it can add £10,000 onto a store’s weekly turnover without impacting on in-store sales. That’s effectively like adding another small store onto the one you’ve got. There aren’t many solutions that can transform a store’s fortunes so dramatically. Home delivery has been bubbling around for a while with a lot of retailers talking about it but far fewer actually doing it. ACS’s Local Shop Report for 2019, for instance, found that only 10% of retailers were actively offering a home delivery service. Compare that with the findings of an ACS survey revealed this week that found that a whopping 65% of stores are now delivering products direct to their customers’ homes. Necessity may very well be the mother of invention and it just shows what the industry is capable of when it puts its mind to it. Coronavirus has massively accelerated the adoption of home delivery, that’s undeniable. But the bigger question is, what will happen
when lockdown ends and we return to normality, whatever that looks like? Having been forced to learn the basics of running a home delivery model and having established a database of shoppers who use the service, it seems like it would be a wasted opportunity to let home delivery slide after the dust has settled. It’s also highly likely that many shoppers who use home delivery services during lockdown will start to rely on them and find them useful and convenient. Why would you want to risk losing those sales in a post-coronavirus world? In fact, the sales that retailers make via home delivery could potentially end up being the most profitable legacy of covid-19 of all for our sector. Let’s face it, many shoppers will go back to using supermarkets - but a solid home delivery business has the potential to outlast the virus and continue delivering incremental store sales and profits long into the future. This is a gift horse that coronavirus has parked on our doorstep. It might be foolish to look it in the mouth.
ANTONYBEGLEY ANTONYBEGLEY @ANTONYBEGLEY
ANTONY BEGLEY, EDITOR
WEDNESDAY 6TH MAY 2020 / ISSUE 3 / SLRMAG.CO.UK / 3
