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Back to business RETAIL BEGINS TO BOUNCE BACK WITH REWRITTEN RULES IN THE POST-COVID ERA

BY SMITI JAIN NARAYAN

When nature unleashes her might, mankind is forced to their knees. Our best laid plans are waylaid, unbelievably, by an invisible enemy. The empire one had built up with much sweat, blood and tears stands threatened with extinction.

But it’s not in the nature of man to accept defeat lying down. When our back is to the wall, the survival instinct kicks in strongest. We rise again like the proverbial phoenix from the ashes of these last couple of months, tightening our belts and resolving to bounce back with renewed vigour and zest.

So even if it’s not quite business as usual by the earlier parameters, most retail businesses are slowly and steadily pushing forward with rewritten rules of the game. Precaution and prevention mechanisms are being put into place. The protocol of social distancing are being implemented even in the business space. Education of staff to maintain and follow strict sanitization and hygiene practices are now part of the work ethic training.

Consumers are slowly rebuilding on the confidence they had in their trusted retail houses and venturing out to carry on once again with the business of living, after the enforced confinement within the four walls of the house since the last few months.

Shops and other hubs where customers flock are slowly reviving if not thriving yet, but it’s only a matter of time as people learn to live with the new normal, mask and sanitizer firmly in place, maintaining an arm’s social distance all around.

Business houses are reinventing the rules and apart from physical stores, they are also diversifying in the web space to not lose out on the customers who are hesitant to come out still. Online shopping is the new buzzword which every retail store is developing as a parallel mode of reaching out to a wider customer base.

Of course the charm of a real store for buying and selling will never fade as customers still prefer to touch, feel, see directly with their own eye, compare and contrast closely with other products before making the final purchase decision. It is without doubt the most satisfying way to shop, making it a complete and fully gratifying experience, with direct interface between seller and buyer. And yet in these times of uncertainty and a new wave of positive cases being reported, the old shopping ways will take time to come back fully.

But for any business to survive, the motto is: never say die! The human spirit will find a way to triumph over every adversity and obstacle, and adapt to the changing realities with new business practices going forward.