Due to covid19 the retailer hasn´t had much interaction with their consumers these past few months. People are on strict lockdown in their houses and only venture out for essential items. Many have even turned to grocery delivery services to avoid leaving their house alltogether.
Lockdown will have to ease at some point, but that point seems far off just yet.
“It would seem that the coronavirus is accelerating the structural changes we’ve been seeing across retail and society for the last decade — toward online interaction, toward e-commerce and away from brick and mortar, toward direct-to-consumer away from department stores,” – BMOs Managing Director.
According to Thomai Serdari, a professor of luxury marketing and branding at New York University’s Stern School of Business says that the amount of people who go back to supermarkets to buy their weekly shop, how often and how they act, depends on what they learn from their time away in lockdown. We may see new consumer habits: a new appreciation and understanding of consuming less, especially as we expect an impending recession. People may also be craving entertainment outside of their houses and we could see a fast recovery of restaurants and bars as consumers flock to eat and drink out.
What is likely is the increase in demand for “cleaner” shopping; A whopping 87% of U.S. shoppers prefer to shop in stores with “touchless or robust self-checkout options. Right now people are scared as they move around the supermarket, worried about what to touch and if they are too close to their fellow shoppers. Retailers will need to figure out a way to bring a sense of calm and structure to the new shopping experience.
“There will be hand sanitizer everywhere you go, payment options that don’t involve touchscreens or cash. Just not having to touch something that is also being touched by multiple people. This will pass, there will be a return to normal, and the DNA of the brand is still going to be critically important.”
Although we can expect a shift in trends, sustainability will still be at the top of consumers minds.
“The importance to the younger consumer has not eroded,” Caroline Levy-Limpert, CMO of intimates manufacturer Gelmart International.
So what can we really expect from these new buyer personas? Well, for one thing their behaviours will likely be shaped by the new fears from isolation induced habits.