This year has been one of the most turbulent and challenging ever for the UK retail industry, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Having recently entered what is dubbed within the retail industry as the Golden Quarter, retailers the length and breadth of the country will be anxious to make the most of what is the most profitable period on the retail calendar.
A Christmas with a Difference
This year’s Christmas will be markedly different to the ones of previous years, as the pandemic has created a challenging set of circumstances for both retailers and shoppers. These include the Rule of Six which limits family or social gatherings, regulations preventing customers entering stores in large numbers and trying on clothes and local lockdowns, which mean that people are unable to travel outside of their own area or visit other households.
On top of that, with the threat of mass redundancies and ongoing economic uncertainty, 70% of shoppers are now planning on spending less this Christmas.
Unfortunately, it looks set to be one of the most challenging festive periods in recent memory and for many retailers it’s likely to be make or break and will determine their long-term survival.
We’ve come up with 5 key ways in which retailers need to prepare in order to give themselves the best chance of maximising sales:
1. Create and Communicate a Safe Environment
It goes without saying that competition will be fierce as retailers compete to win customers and increase sales. Brick and mortar retailers will be competing more than ever with online as many customers choose to shop from home.
In order to attract customers to venture into stores, retailers must not only ensure that they are following all of the regulations and standards for COVID-19, but they must also communicate this to their customers as often as possible using all of the media channels available to them. This will encourage store visits from those who may be nervous about venturing out to shop and help to increase footfall.
Here at RMS, we understand that the pandemic has caused the traditional role of customer assistant to develop over the last few months, and we have reacted by extending the services we offer to our retail partners. We are now providing marshals to stores to monitor entrances and exits to the store and car park, in order to ensure that capacity is not exceeded. As well as managing the flow of customers they also ensure that everyone is wearing a face mask before entering the store and are on hand to answer any questions that customers may have.
2. Encourage Customers to Order Early
With less than three months to go before Christmas Day, the retail industry is anticipating a huge surge in demand for online products. Retailers are likely to struggle if consumers leave their Christmas shopping to the last minute.
Andy Mulcachy, Strategy & Insight Director for IMRG (Interactive Media in Retail Group) believes the “volumes (of online orders) are going to be really very excessive this year”. According to IMRG, online sales have grown by 40-50% since Covid-19 hit, and we can expect a further increase of at least 30% for the peak trading season. If stores have to close, this may even push to 50%.
The prospect of ongoing local lockdowns will mean that people are unable to travel into major shopping areas. Many customers will also choose to avoid visits to physical stores if they can help it, which will place more pressure on online delivery services. It is therefore a good idea to encourage your customers to order their Christmas shopping sooner rather than later, in an attempt to spread the workload over the next couple of months, rather than ending up with an extremely busy and chaotic December and to ensure that all orders are delivered before 25th December.
Once again, RMS is supporting several of our retail partners as online grocery shopping is set to boom this quarter. Our teams are supporting across all areas, including picking products from the shelves, packing products so that they can be delivered to customers’ homes, and assisting customers at the Click-and-Collect bay.
3. Ensure a Ready Supply of Local Staff
With local lockdowns already in place across many areas of the country and the rate of COVID-19 infections rising, this means that more lockdowns are likely to come into force over the coming months, so retailers must be prepared.
They need to be able to call on a flexible, local workforce which is easily accessible. This will avoid staff having to travel long distances or stay overnight in hotels which may not be able to remain open. With the need to ensure that shelves, displays and fridges are constantly stocked in the run up to the festive period in order to maximise sales, it is imperative that retailers can quickly access the right kind of staff to deal with demand.
Through our investment in recruitment, training, and flex, our resource scheduling and management technology, RMS is able to quickly deploy trained, local merchandising and retail support staff to stores across the UK including Northern Ireland.
4. Adjust Your Product Offering
This year’s drastically changed circumstances mean that the products retailers offer will have to differ, in order to appeal to customers’ altered requirements. With the Rule of Six limiting the ability for large family gatherings, Christmas is going to be a much smaller, intimate affair.
It has already been reported that many turkey farmers are rearing smaller birds because the Rule of Six will mean a reduced number of relatives for Christmas dinner. While still offering larger dessert options, Waitrose have also made adjustments to cater for smaller gatherings, while Aldi is offering a bigger mix of small or single-portion festive food, shifting away from large turkeys and the type of party food that would have sold well in previous years. Marks & Spencer is focusing its efforts on frozen food, and John Lewis is betting that homeware sales will be strong as shoppers spend more time at home this year.
With the country having been through a challenging year, there will no doubt be many people who will be looking to push the boat out at Christmas time by spending a bit more money on Christmas lunch. Indeed, retailers will be relying on the wealthiest and those who have saved money by not going on holiday, to splurge this year, to make up for the many shoppers who will be tightening their belts. Butchers are already reporting a surge in pre-order for premium options such as goose and duck.
5. Be Prepared for Last Minute Demand and Orders
With the rules around COVID-19 changing on a weekly and sometimes daily basis, it means that it is difficult for people to plan ahead with any certainty. Those who are hoping to travel to be with family over the Christmas period may find that they are forced to change their plans at the last minute.
This is likely to lead to a rush to the shops and online ordering for food and drink that many customers didn’t think they would need. One of the tips we have already mentioned is to encourage your customers to order early however, retailers in particular supermarkets, need to be prepared to deal with and capitalise on an unexpected and last-minute surge in demand. This is also likely to require the ability to quickly scale up staff numbers to ensure that shelves are quickly restocked and online orders picked, something which RMS are able to help with.
Plan Ahead to Succeed
Never before has a Golden Quarter been so important for the health of the retail industry and the future survival of many retail brands. Christmas this year will be very different to what we’re used to, in terms of how we do our Christmas shopping, and how we celebrate with loved ones. Retailers must adapt now to these differing requirements and prepare for any eventuality. A successful Christmas will put retailers in a much stronger position going into 2021, so it is imperative that they get it right.
RMS is a leading supplier of retail support services, and have a wealth of experience in supporting big brands at seasonal peak times. Read how we helped Tesco deliver last Christmas, here.
