Non-essential retailers in the UK are gearing up to reopen stores in two weeks’ time. What action should they be taking to make sure staff and customers are safe?  

  • “How retailers were thinking about reinventing stores has gone in the bin” due to pandemic, analyst predicts
  • Government advises one-way systems, cleaning stations and limits on people in stores if they are to reopen
  • Co-op director Mark Pettigrew says “controlling the density of shoppers in-store” is a crucial measure
  • Watches of Switzerland CEO Brian Duffy says ‘by appointment’ shopping will become more prevalent

Vast swathes of retail businesses were forced to close their doors in mid-March as the government put the nation into lockdown. However, the lockdown may soon be coming to an end as, with plenty of caveats and conditions in place, Boris Johnson signalled that a “phased reopening of shops” could start from June 1.

What should ‘non-essential’ retailers be doing in the next fortnight to prepare for reopening, and what will they see in terms of customer footfall and confidence if and when they do?

How stores should operate

The government has published guidance on how to run shops safely which will require significant shifts in how stores look and operate.

Measures advised by the government include a one-way system for customers, hand cleaning points at all store entrances and capping the number of shoppers allowed in at any one time based on a store’s size, as well as mandatory two-metre social distancing.

Boris Johnson May 2020 coronavirus

Boris Johnson wants a ‘phased reopening of shops’ as lockdown is lifted

The government has also advised that customers handling merchandise should be kept to an absolute minimum, changing rooms should be cleaned between uses or ideally closed entirely, and products that have been returned or handled by customers should be kept separate from display merchandise and stock.

Dalziel & Pow development director Alastair Kean says: “There will be some practical elements that brands need to consider in order to ease anxieties and safeguard the health of customers and staff, and this may mean a more ‘hands-off’ shopping experience.

”We may see contactless processes and technologies extended further, self-service wherever possible, the introduction of wider aisles, one-way systems and more curbside pick-up and return options. Touch-screen technology in stores is likely to be reconsidered, perhaps in favour of voice-activated experiences.

“Brands will need to innovate and remain agile in order to serve in a safe and secure way, while still delivering the convenience and magic that consumers are after.”

“This crisis will do away with all the cosmetics of retail, and any metaphoric and even literal window dressing”

Retail analyst

Measures like this will be important – but there is no avoiding the fact that measures advised by the government will have severe operational implications for retail formats that have previously relied on service propositions and longer dwell times to drive custom.

As one retail analyst observes: “Coronavirus has totally reversed the direction of travel for retail. Six months ago at John Lewis, all the talk was of social, experience, dwell time and all of that seems deeply unwelcome at the moment. You want people in and out and you want them to make a very quick purchase. How retailers were thinking about reinventing stores has gone in the bin, at least for the foreseeable future.

“It’s going to force businesses re-evaluate what is and isn’t necessary: do you want the limited number of staff members you have in-store dressing up mannequins or doing nice pyramids of folded jumpers, or do you want them expediting the shopping process and ensuring safety for shoppers? This crisis will do away with all the cosmetics of retail, and any metaphoric and even literal window dressing.”

Covid-19 roadmap diagram

The government’s ‘roadmap’ for easing lockdown restrictions

Protecting and preparing staff

One of the biggest challenges to reopening amid a pandemic also lies in motivating your staff and ensuring they feel safe at work. There are a number of measures suggested by the government to drive this such as clustering workers by shift so they work with the same team consistently, staggering breaks and creating additional space in break areas so employees can be socially distanced while they are not working.

Poundland

Floor markings to enforce social distancing in Poundland

One grocery executive explains the changes that his business has made to working patterns, such as carrying out tasks that require staff to move around the store outside of shopping hours. The staff also pick online orders, which are fulfilled in-store overnight, two or three hours earlier to get them done before the store reopens.

“We have looked at stock inventory processes and only doing those that are absolutely essential, so we don’t have too many people in the same place,” he adds.

To make the store environment safe, retailers have been introducing new measures in-store. Poundland has introduced a ‘lay-by’ system to manage customer traffic on the shop floor, using tape to denote areas where shoppers that want to pause and browse items can stand while other shoppers ‘overtake’ them.

Lush is also trialling a raft of initiatives to limit the number of shoppers that enter its reopened stores at any given time. In its stores that have reopened in Germany, the retailer has set up kiosks at the front of the store where shoppers can be served without needing to enter but retaining face-to-face interaction with a store consultant. 

Co-op director of retail support Mark Pettigrew says ensuring staff feel safe is absolutely essential and was the primary motivator for the business installing plastic screens at the tills of its 2,500 UK stores in just three weeks.

“The minute we put the screens in, our colleagues felt much safer straightaway,” he says.

“You can’t mandate as a business that your colleagues wear PPE but doing what you can to demonstrate you are treating their safety as a priority is really important.”

Pettigrew says regularly updating signage to provide shoppers and staff with guidance on any changes to how they need to shop and communicating clearly to employees which jobs you are – and aren’t – expecting them to do in this new reality is very important.

“There are some jobs we used to do once a week that we now only expect to be done monthly, and others which we didn’t do as regularly which are now done on a daily basis,” he says – with logging out of stocks becoming a less regular occurrence while cleaning procedures have been stepped up.

He adds that there are three fundamentals that retailers should follow when preparing to reopen stores.

“Think about your colleagues and how to make them feel safe; keep stores as simple as you can possibly can, take away clutter or anything that might interrupt the flow of walking through the store in a guided way and make it really clear through markings; and control the density of shoppers in-store – if you do the last one, the other two become much easier.”

Pettigrew says that having some form of control on the number of people entering the store is important for all retailers preparing to reopen – whether that’s a member of staff manning the shop entrance or deploying technology which indicates to queuing shoppers when it is safe for them to enter the shop.

How to tackle customer service

Customer service is still as important as ever and retailers will have to be inventive to offer solutions that adhere to social distancing measures.

Kean says: “Consumers are likely to still want some element of personal experience to contrast the loneliness of lockdown. Having a friendly face to discuss requirements with will arguably be more important than ever, and experiences driven by some form of human connection – perhaps on an emotional, rather than a physical level – will be key.

“With fewer shoppers in-store due to distancing restrictions, we’re likely to see higher emphasis placed on service, with more ‘by appointment’, personal and assisted shopping, shaking up the recognised role of the store assistant.”

Retailers such as John Lewis and Currys PC World have turned to technology to offer customers virtual service during the lockdown and tech-based service solutions will be a feature of post-lockdown retail.

“We are trying to minimise the time people have to spend in-store so we are doing much more by appointment – it’s always been a proportion of our business but it’s going to be a much bigger proportion now”

Brian Duffy, Watches of Switzerland

Watches of Switzerland, which has opened some stores in the US, is using technology to set up video chat appointments with customers.

Chief executive Brian Duffy says: “We are trying to minimise the time people have to spend in-store so we are doing much more by appointment – it’s always been a proportion of our business but it’s going to be a much bigger proportion now.”

The retailer has invested in technology that allows staff to contact former customers to set up appointments and showcase products via video chat, all of which will mean that “when a customer does come in it is a short, quick transaction, provided that is what the customer wants”.

Ethical beauty retailer Lush, famous for its experiential store formats and product demonstrations, has taken a similar approach to selling during the pandemic.

UK retail director Kat Hannible says staff in shuttered stores such as Lush’s Oxford Street branch have done video consultations with shoppers who then buy products online during the lockdown. When stores reopen, she says the retailer will rely on content on its mobile app Lush Labs, which allows shoppers to identify products without touching them but instead scanning them with their mobile phones, to demonstrate how products work and other information.

Shoppers will then be able to tell a member of staff what products they want to buy, and the Lush worker will collect that product from their storage area off of the shop floor.

Cleanliness

Store cleanliness will be of utmost priority for businesses preparing to reopen. Retail Remedy managing partner Phil Dorrell says businesses will likely get staff back on-site to do a deep clean prior to reopening, after which additional cleaning will not only take place when stores close for the evening but on an hourly basis in places that have been regularly touched by shoppers.

Tesco staff coronavirus

Tesco staff are wiping down baskets and trolleys after they are used by each customer

This process is likely to mirror the cleaning processes adopted by grocers during the pandemic. Retailers such as Tesco are wiping down baskets and trolleys after they are used by each customer before they are put back into circulation and have dedicated areas on the shop floor where shoppers can wipe down their trolley themselves and use hand sanitiser if they so choose.

Pettigrew says The Co-op’s shopfloor staff have to factor regularly cleaning areas that are frequently touched by customers, such as keypads on card machines or door handles, into their daily duties, alongside washing their own hands regularly. The government advises that shopfloor staff wash their hands with soap and water hourly, but Poundland trading director Tim Bettley says it has asked staff to wash their hands every 20 minutes. Poundland staff also disinfect work areas such as checkout tills before they leave their shift to ensure it is clean for the next person.

Superdry is taking clothes that have been tried on by customers off the shop floor for 48 hours to ensure they do not cross-contaminate other items in stores it has reopened in Germany.

Waterstones boss James Daunt says the retailer is also planning on asking shoppers that put books they have browsed but not bought in trolleys around the store, which will then be removed from the shop floor for three days.

Watches of Switzerland is using technology to ensure cleanliness. It is using UV light to clean products that have been handled by customers. The retailer also has cleaners on staff to clean the store throughout the day, which Duffy says reassures shoppers that hygiene is being treated as an utmost priority. 

Customer appetite

Stores being able to open does not necessarily mean that shoppers, some of which are still gripped by fear, will head to the high street in their droves – so what can businesses expect as they prepare to reopen their doors after a period of hibernation?

Duffy says that signs from other territories where Watches of Switzerland operate such as the US, as well as other jewellery operators in China give him cause to be optimistic.

“What the grocers have demonstrated is you can learn as you go and still do an incredible job, so I don’t think the experience is going to be anywhere near as negative as people might think it will be at first”

Kat Hannible, Lush

“There is clearly a big reduction in traffic but a big increase in conversion. People are not coming to shopping centres to socialise or browse or spend time, they are going to shop, particularly in our category. It’s a destination shop and the demand for what we sell is still there – it seems we’ve not seen a drop in demand but instead there is pent-up demand,” he says.

Superdry and Primark have reported similar findings from overseas reopenings. Superdry’s boss Julian Dunkerton says in Germany, footfall was down about 70% immediately after lockdown but that decline has improved to 30% over the course of a week, with the bulk of traffic coming from local stores rather than tourist destinations.

Primark said that reopened stores in Austria and the Netherlands have experienced a steady flow of traffic without the normal spikes in trading at certain times of the day and average basket sizes have been bigger due to an uplift in demand for nightwear, health and beauty, and childrenswear.

Hannible says Lush will be giving over space in stores to the product lines it anticipates will be hot-sellers in the current climate rather than showcasing its full range in larger format stores.

Hannible, who plans to put in shifts on the shop floor of her local Bournemouth branch when stores reopen, is optimistic about what trading after lockdown will look like.

“We don’t know how to run a business in a pandemic yet, so the best way to learn how and to raise the spirit of our colleagues is to be there with them. This will be a learning curve for all retailers and what the grocers have demonstrated is that you can take an iterative approach to how you operate, learn as you go and still do an incredible job, so I don’t think the experience is going to be anywhere near as negative as people might think it will be at first.”

Retailers are facing into a strange new world and preparation is needed to make sense of it all.