I think what is hardest to reconcile is that we could not have imagined the scenario that we are in, and if someone had said that the economy would shut down, and a worldwide pandemic would change every thing about our lives, we would not have believed it. It is unthinkable, and unfathomable.

We have learned that we are interconnected in a way that we did not understand. The good side is that while we may not all be in the same boat, we are in the same storm, and we understand at a new level what it means to be a human, how to care, how to be empathetic. Even with dogmatic differences that often hamper meaningful exchanges, it is easier to understand someone’s hardship because it has affected you too.

The hard realities that we have learned are how interconnected the social ecosystem is.
I know many people that rely on a daily routine to stay mentally and physically healthy, whether it be a gym, or an AA meeting to start their day. While we have all become creative in ways to get the human connection, we are missing touch, face-to-face empathy, and new ideas that come from the happenstance of accidental conversations.
But the ripple effect of the pandemic impact continues to surprise me, and even though it is logical, each confrontation of it is a bit of a shock. People going to work in office buildings support restaurants, transit, parking garages, gasoline supply, and a hundred other aspects of their day, and when that is gone, we are confronted with a broad downstream affect. Lack of holiday parties will dampen the need to have that special dress, the accessories that go with it, and the shopping trip with friends. In some ways, the interconnected system is too delicate, but also resilient because when it breaks, new shoots form to rebuild a different way.

We have new learnings and therefore new retail, and the way forward will take some twists and turns.

It takes 66 days to form a new habit and consumers and workers tried many new things (curbside pickup, grocery delivery, a different way to work with colleagues), and many of them will continue these new habits, even after life looks more like it did before. We were forced to change the way we shopped for things that were unavailable, and went outside of our normal buying patterns to obtain these items. This created a scarcity mindset, and that won’t go away for a long time.

So, what do retail companies and their partners need to do? We need to anticipate needs as opposed to model past behavior.

Mobile and a mobile first strategy becomes even more critical than it was before. Consumers shop in “micro-moments” from anywhere and during other activities, and friction-less takes on a whole new meaning. But aside from new habits, new priorities and a new way of looking at things, the customer experience and the community you represent must be the guiding principle for decisions you make as a business when determining how best to be meaningful to the customer.