Contactless Shopping…Here to Stay?

I don’t know about you, but I am tired of talking about how the pandemic has impacted retail.  It’s true, it has.  We all know it, we all see it, but what does it mean going forward?  In a recent study by RSR (What Contactless Shopping Means For The Store), they address some of the changes that have occurred and now it is up to retailers to determine how best to proceed. 

For example, the RSR study shows that “More than one in three retailers say that online orders are now being fulfilled outside of the store’s walls between 25 and 50% of the time.”  So that customer is not coming in the store, the store has to hire differently, operate differently and obviously explore the profitability of those changes. 

So does this make sense for retailers?  The RSR study says, “As a practical matter, retailers selling General Merchandise and Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) belief that new BOPIS (buy online, pickup instore) are well worth the added effort. During the COVID-19 lockdown, these retailers were most likely to have been deemed “essential” – in both the minds of consumers and local lawmakers alike – allowing them to not only stay open, but to experience dramatic improvements in sales, often in record numbers. Fashion retailers, by way of comparison, were viewed as far less vital during lockdown, and are therefore less likely to see the new hoops they must jump through to fulfill BOPIS orders as worthwhile.” 

Interestingly, the Hard Goods retailers are the least likely of all retail segments to view BOPIS customer orders as being more profitable. Here, it is a clear indication of a simple truth: people still visit hard goods stores to purchase the items they expect to be in stock. Since these shopping journeys are less likely to start online, hard goods retailers are just fine with keeping the need to blend physical and digital worlds as a longer-term project – for now, at least. But in a year of disruptions, one of the most profound trends that emerged was the increased popularity among shoppers to utilize alterative services for such things as groceries and toiletries.  

Even before the pandemic, customers were already calling the shots. Now they are calling the shots in highly individualized ways. While it is an overstatement to say that no two customers shop in the same way anymore, the likelihood that fewer common patterns exist among once similar shoppers is hard truth. Combine this with all the pre-existing complexities of selling goods now (high labor cost, unstable supply chains, competing with Amazon, mass increases in returns, etc.), and retailers are in a very difficult position. 

If you want proof of the changes, go to your favorite store and just notice how many people are fulfilling orders, taking product out to consumers, and think about how different that is from years past.  Shopping is still an experiential activity and retailers still need to tell a story…make it appealing to come inside…to give a reason for being.  But at the end of the day, that’s why marketing and sales go hand in hand for all retailers.