“There is no question that transactional shopping will continue to be done online,” he says. “If you want to buy a screwdriver or some other one-off purchase you might turn to the internet for that. But what we will see is more retailers really focusing on the physical experience people so clearly missed at the height of the crisis.”
Local shopping is here to stay, though: “We have discovered things in our neighbourhoods that we didn’t know existed and it will take us a while to tear us away from that. The thing that will tear us away will be price, but we won’t lose the connection very quickly.” “While retail lockdown is unlikely for 2022, this ‘learned consumer behaviour’ likely won’t retract, meaning every €40 out of every €100 spent by consumers will be through digital channels in 2022 and beyond,” the report says.The Core research suggests that 77 per cent of people will shop in store as the world moves through the pandemic, while 64 per cent of the public will shop online – a figure, it says “that was not imagined in pre-pandemic times.
“Hybrid shopping is the future and, more specifically, experiences that connect from the physical store to digital platform. Retailers who understand the full journey of a customer will succeed the most – and this journey begins before the store or website/app and often on media platforms,” the report goes on.
Clothes will see a big bounce as people return to offices and start socialising more, while the return of big spending overseas visitors will also see sales increasing.