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The Post-COVID Consumer: The Future of Brick and Mortar Stores
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Brick and mortar stores play a critical role in 7 out of the 9
ways a retailer can process, source, and fulfill an order.
This is the trajectory innovative retailers have been exploring,
and it's the future COVID-19 sent the world barreling toward.
Walmart is beginning to remodel their stores to place
a greater emphasis on this omnichannel model, adding
space to facilitate local deliveries. Target now uses their
app to simplify drive up service. An entire product category
has emerged around "retail pickup lockers" to help stores
replicate Home Depot's BOSS model.
Retailers have heavily invested in the omnichannel
commerce solutions COVID-19 helped normalize. It's involved
a seismic shift in the way businesses use their space and
how they think about their locations. With an omnichannel
model, you can't simply focus on the traditional trade area
anymore. The best site for your store has to account for
delivery and pickup, too.
In the future, retailers will need sales forecasting and
modeling tools that account for a wider range of store uses.
But even if you've spent years (or the entire pandemic)
testing models and researching what it would take to
facilitate omnichannel commerce, retailers should be
cautious about overreacting to the post-COVID consumer.
