favoring online ordering, citing a survey by research firmFirst Insight.
That survey “showed that only about half of consumersfelt safe or very safe shopping in grocery stores, drug stores,and big-box retailers, and much less safe with other storeformats,” Kelly said. “Fearful shoppers equal more onlineshopping. But there is no one single-channel shopper. Andit takes at least 60 days of good experiences to permanentlychange habits. Time will tell how much consumer behaviorchanges,” he notes.
Going forward, Kelly recommends that businesses thatexperimented with curbside pickup and “buy online/pickup in store” (BOPIS) service during the pandemic consider making those permanent additions to their custom-er-service mix. Contactless payment methods will becomemore important as well. And if a business only self-fulfills,it should consider complementing its supply chain witha third-party provider in key geographic areas to buildbackup capacity and resiliency, improve transit times, andreduce costs.
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE CONSUMER
The speed and intensity with which the economy rebounds
and where, and the rate at which unemployment decreases
will dictate how quickly consumer spending recovers and
how rapidly shoppers return to brick-and-mortar stores.
“My view is that the impact of the pandemic response
[by government] is going to be many times greater and
longer than with 9/11 or the 2009 recession,” observes
Satish Jindel, principal of research and analytics firm SJ
Consulting and Associates, based in Pittsburgh. “What’s
different this time is that [Covid- 19] has instilled a sense of
fear in the hearts and minds of the general public. If you are
careless, you can die from this,” he says.
Transportation firms can expect an uneven recovery,
Jindel believes, the result of a ripple effect as industries,
whether manufacturing, electronics, retail, consumer, elec-
tronics, wholesale, agricultural, or other industrial seg-
ments, all recover at different paces.
Some businesses will change forever, and some willnever come back. “This is a long, enduring trend that willtake a while to play out,” Jindel says. For instance, work-at-home employee arrangements may find more tractionas businesses have learned how to manage and operateremotely. However, he warns that home-based workersshould not get too comfortable. Employees working fromhome “should be reminded that if their work can be donefrom home in your town, then it can be done by someoneat home in another, lower-cost part of the country or forthat matter in Romania, the Philippines, or India at an
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