5 Retail Strategies For The Social Distancing Era

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world in countless ways. One thing that has been circulating throughout the news recently is social distancing. For retailers, social distancing has significantly impacted their operations. Since we don’t know what the future holds, there are a few things your business can do to adapt to the current situation.

Let’s look at some helpful retail strategies to keep your business afloat during social distancing.

Adopt e-commerce

This is one of the most crucial retail strategies you should apply to your business. If your physical store remains closed during the pandemic, you can still sell online through the e-commerce store. If this term sounds new to you, making the switch seems to be a quite complex and expensive task. However, you’d be surprised by how easy it turns out to be.

This option is beneficial to retailers with limited inventory. As for a larger business, setting up an online store is possible but might require extra time and effort. Magento, BigCommerce, Shopify, and WooCommerce are some leading e-commerce platforms for merchants to build their online businesses. Besides that, try to look into the capabilities of your POS (Point of Sale) system. Most advanced systems usually integrate with multiple extensions, apply cutting-edge technology, and offer automated features so that you can optimize business performance at ease.

Sell on social media

Selling on social media is all about appealing to a niche audience. Social platforms like Facebook, Instagram are some of the popular platforms that allow shoppers to purchase items from multiple brands. For example, Instagram offers a feature of Shoppable Posts that enables users to connect to a seller’s inventory and purchase products. Interestingly, this feature keeps shoppers entirely within Instagram for in-app payments or be redirected to the exact item on the seller’s website.

Many merchants opt for this kind of selling since it is easy, quick, and inexpensive. Also, these social networks thrive on visual content. Therefore, it is essential to create vivid photos and videos to promote your items and win your customers’ attention.

Offer contactless delivery

With the onset of COVID-19, many consumers and businesses are using options such as curbside pickup, Click-and-Collect (buy online, pick up in-store) to avoid contact within physical stores. Customers then can choose a convenient time slot for delivery, which will certainly boost their satisfaction. By enabling customers to purchase online and then visit the store for pickups, businesses stand a better chance of competing with other brands.

Add self-service kiosks & checkouts

Having self-service kiosks and checkouts is another retail strategy that you can consider adding to your offline store. This innovation allows consumers to easily scan products, place online orders, and check out themselves. This will help lessen human interaction during the pandemic and ease the burden falling on your staff when your store is understaffed. More and more businesses are moving to modern POS systems offering these features. With only a mobile-based POS system, shoppers can check out from anywhere in-store without waiting long checkout lines.

Take precautions for both staff and customers

The health and safety of customers and store staff is now the top priority for merchants. You must ensure they feel safe and secure while in your store. To keep your business safely open, there are a few things you need to do as follows:

• Conduct temperature checks pre-shift
• Place alcohol-based hand rubs in-store for disinfection
• Attain masks and gloves for staff
• Install plexiglass at checkouts to create a tangible barrier between customers and cashiers
• Have social distancing floor decals like “Please keep a distance of 6 feet”

To sum up

People are now dealing with a lot of uncertainty in today’s world, and so are retailers. Maintaining your health and the health of those around you can be quite overwhelming. However, know that there are alternative options that can keep your business survive through the pandemic. With these retail strategies, you will be able to boost sales as well as take your business to a whole new level.ConnectPOS is one of the best cloud-based POS systems in the ecosystem. Our feature-rich software is compatible with both PC and mobile devices, making it the momentum for your ideal omnichannel business. Ring us up for a free consultation!