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Social distancing will probably be the “new normal” in the world of retail even after the coronavirus outbreak is contained and, sooner or later, customers in the UAE might be required to book an appointment before they can do their shopping, an industry source said.
Business owners anticipate that, despite the easing of mobility restrictions, it will take some time for people to start visiting the physical shops again, as they want to feel safe while they’re outside their homes. To lure foot traffic back, retailers are looking for ways to restore consumer confidence.
According to Piyush Kumar Chowhan, group CIO at LuLu Group International, one of the options the industry stakeholders are exploring is the introduction of an online appointment system, where shoppers are required to secure slots online prior to visiting a mall.
“[WIth the system], people have to pre-book their slots and the mall will be open for only a particular set of customers every day, and before you enter, you have to basically say that yes, I’ve done the booking and this is my valid booking for that and I will enter after that,” Chowhan explained.
“You’re allowed to be in the mall only for three hours. After three hours, there will be automated SMS saying that your time is up [and you have to leave]. This is the reality we’re working with. We are trying to experiment this in the UAE. Let’s see how the regulation works along with that,” Chowhan said during a recent webinar hosted by the Retail Summit.
Retailers in other markets, including the U.S., have recently introduced online appointment systems to ensure social distancing is maintained within the shop premises.
Businesses in many parts of the globe are gradually reopening after several weeks of lockdown. In the UAE, retail outlets, including cafes and restaurants, are back in business under tight safety guidelines and sanitation controls.
Since the coronavirus outbreak started a few months ago, a lot has changed in the way people shop. Consumers have refrained from visiting the brick-and-mortar stores for fear of contracting the virus. What consumers buy and how much money they spend have changed, too.
A lot of these changes are here to stay, even after the infections are flattened, especially if it takes about a year for the industry to come out of the crisis, according to Chowhan. And the best retailers can do is identify these changes and quickly adapt to them.
“There are things, which we may like or not like, which will become part and parcel of the way we do shopping in the future,” said Chowhan.
“If somebody has been doing appointment-based mall visits for one year, I’m pretty sure that he or she will be so accustomed to that and telling them not to do it after one year is going to be much more difficult,” he added.
Chieh Huang, CEO of Boxed, an American online and mobile wholesale retailer, said they’ve also noticed new customer behavior over the last few months or since the start of the pandemic.
“We’re getting folks that are stocking up because of uncertainty. There are also some who make smaller orders, especially when [high-demand] stocks like masks, sanitizers become available,” Huang said.
Private consumption in the UAE has dwindled since commercial stores and shopping malls shut their doors in March and consumers were ordered to stay home.
However, Colliers International had said that the retail sector will be one of the first to recover from the economic impact of the pandemic.
(Reporting by Cleofe Maceda; Editing by Mily Chakrabarty)
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