It's Time to Re-open! How Do You Approach it?
States are reopening, and so are your retail stores! While it’s exciting to see things begin to shift, it’s important to recognize that there will need to be necessary changes to your experience. Balancing the publics fear and their desire for things to go back to normal will be necessary components in your approach to reopening.
The first step that any business will need to do before reopening is make a plan. This plan should outline the steps you as a business are taking to prevent virus transmission and increase hygiene. For a retail store, the main worry will be the amount of different people touching and trying on clothes. It’s going to be hard to garner attraction to your physical location, and risk possible interaction with the virus, when online shopping is so easy. Make it clear the steps you will be taking to make your store as clean as possible. Masks necessary, only a certain amount of people in the store at once, and consistent cleaning of high frequency areas, are all possible ideas to ease worry and keep your store going. One of the main points of discussion will be dressing rooms: will they be open? Nordstrom and Macys released their plans so far which will involve closing some fittings rooms and quarantining items that were tried on and will not be purchased for a period of time before returning them to the floor. Whatever your plan may be, make sure it is clear and effective in voicing that you understand the risks of the virus and want to take every measure possible to keep your customers safe and comfortable.
Once you develop your plan, it’s time to bring it to your social media platforms. All of your customers will be flooding social media accounts in the days approaching reopening’s to see whether stores will be opening, when, and how. Be bold and clear. Provide them with your plan and show them you care about their experience and their health. Encourage online shopping (if it is a possibility) as social distancing is still very important but emphasize that visits to the physical location will be much safer with your enhanced cleaning protocol. Aside from the emphasis on your new plan, connect with your customers! Tell them how excited you are to see them again, and all the new items you will have in stock. Lighten the mood and make your experience as vibrant as possible after very dark days!
Photo Credits: LIT Boutique
Report: Jordyn Kelley
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The cost of opening up a physical store can be great. If you’re going to do so, we highly recommend keeping these three things in mind. They’re not the most obvious costs to account for, but before your first week of business gets underway, you’ll need to see about them.