120 Days of Retail: Day 51 - The Covid Online Shopping Bump Was Temporary

There is the reality of the retail apocalypse, and there is the myth of the retail apocalypse. During Covid-19 stores were closed and many shoppers turned to online stores to fulfill their needs. Many thought these trends would be permanent, but they did not stick around.

As the National Retail Federation noted in a recent article, the behaviors people adopted during the pandemic were either "forced"- like stores actually closing to comply with local law- or "funded"- like stimulus checks putting more consumer dollars into peoples' pockets, making online shopping more appealing.

As we've settled back into the new post-pandemic normal, the share of retail shopping which is online has fallen, back to its pre-Covid level. In-store shopping is booming back. People want to shop in store. According to Affinity Solutions CEO Jonathan Silver, after the pandemic "once those behaviors changed, either because the restrictions were lifted [or] the money that we put away as a result of the stimulus checks started to get depleted somewhat, we started to go back to behavior that we were expecting anyway."

The trends that continue to be in-play are ones that were already happening before the pandemic. In particular the push of retail to online stores and omnichannel sales, where shoppers know a store both for its online presence, and its in-store presence.

Google research manager of retail Pashmeena Hilal noted at the recent National Retail Federation State of the Consumer talk, "...it’s true to say then that this omnichannel digital store is very much a concept that will continue to stay".

It's for these reasons that ListIt is working on behalf of small, independent retailers who don't have access to teams of software developers to implement these kinds of omnichannel tools. We make it easy to create an online omnichannel presence in seconds, and begin listing your products online for local shoppers to buy, and pickup later in-store.

ListIt is the Buy Online Pickup In-Store solution for local retailers. It’s free and takes only seconds to upload your first product. Reach out to me directly at james@listit.one