Impact of Covid-19 on the Retail Industry: Digital Transformation and Challenges

The retail industry is transforming due to the impact of Covid-19

According to my views and thought at present time the retail industry is transforming and changing like never before. The new generation is full of digital customer who has grown up by doing an online banking and communicating over touchscreens. As recently tourism and event industry has faced a lot of challenges due to the impact of covid-19, retail industry has also faced a significant impact due to the covid-19 pandemic. As before the rise of covid-19 retailers are already facing the challenge which is decreasing numbers of physical stores and covid-19 carriers’ novel issues and problems such as shops closures, employee cute offs and consumer reduced their spendings. During the covid 19 period customer shift towards the trend of online shopping and also towards social e-commerce platforms which are so popular in new generation (Sharma & Jhamb, 2020). But this growing trend of online spendings has also highlighted many challenges such as lengthy and tiresome return procedures, late product deliveries, and some time customer expectations are not matched as seen the product image online.

So, according to me the retail at present time is moving towards digital market and social e-commerce marketplace as people now preferring more to buy online rather than going in a physical store. As with the availability of vaccines in the market physical stores are opening again the retail businesses is already seen some rising sales. Reliant on income, clients will return to spending at dissimilar speeds and with the diverse behaviours they accepted throughout lockdowns. Physical stores will probably continue fronting the similar digital disturbance they did previously the epidemic, pressuring retailers to reconsider their in-store experiences. So, I think that retail industry can go with both digital and physical stores but both sectors have to adopt the use of new technology to enhance the in-store and digital shopping experiences of the customers. Retail industry can make the use of AI, online payments, big data, augmented reality, etc.

Moreover, retail can improve their supply chain by also implemented the correct technologies which can solve the problems their customer is facing such as difficult return process and late deliveries. Retail industry can adopt the use of cloud-based technologies which can help them in track and handle their inventory in real time. This new cloud-based technologies can help retail industry to solve the issues faced by both the retailers and customers. As, this cloud-based technologies help retailers in track their current inventory level and help them in refilling their stock level which will help them in make available every item on time to customers. Moreover, this new technology also help customer in tracking their position of order placed. The companies. Many famous companies such as Walmart, Amazon, and The Kroger Co in UK have been already implemented the use of new technologies such as RFID, warehouse management system, etc. Moreover, use of CRM in retail supply chain network can help them in reduce their data entry, enhance purchasing, automate tasks, improve warehouse and inventory of the retailers which help the in serving their customer effectively and efficiently (Roggeveen & Sethuraman, 2020).

References

Roggeveen, A. L., & Sethuraman, R. (2020). Customer-interfacing retail technologies in 2020 & beyond: An integrative framework and research directions. Journal of Retailing, 96(3), 299-309.

Sharma, A., & Jhamb, D. (2020). Changing consumer behaviours towards online shopping-an impact of Covid 19. Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, 24(3), 1-10.