The beginning of the year 2020 marked a significant change in our lives, as we all were hit by the deadly COVID-19 virus. This pandemic led to a sudden shutdown of the world and everything stood still. Due to the pandemic, the priority of the world shifted to health and safety. The new social norms of health and safety made the economy of many countries crash and businesses were shut down. The retail industry in India also observed an instant collapse. Retail industry India

Retail Sector Coping With COVID-19

During the first few months, it was quite challenging to deal with the new social distancing norms and only limited stores could open which mostly included food, medical and necessary goods. With a lot of stores shut down, the retail sector industry saw very low customer base and at time zero. But with the progression of time, every sector picked up new ways to deal with the new challenge.

New Norms Adapted By The Retail Sector

• All retail stores, even the smallest ones, tried hard to deliver products at doorsteps. This not only ensured safety, but also helped them cope up financial losses.
• The second-best measure that almost every retail sector be it electronics, interiors, furniture and fashion industry adapted was allowing online availability of their goods.
• The retail stores used digital platforms for payments to follow health safety measures.
• Initially the retail stores had a hard time managing the demands of people, but with time ample supplies were made available and things were delivered on time.
• As the new norms of social distancing came in, a lot of retail stores provided customer support solutions via calls and mails. This made the job easy for both manufacturers and customers.
• The Retail sector did see a staff scarcity, but things went to normal soon as lockdowns and restrictions were uplifted.
• Most of the industries across the globe like India promoted Vocal For Local since a lot of people lost jobs in this pandemic and finances were hit badly.

Future Of Furniture Retails

In the current crisis, a lot of brands and leaders in the industry believe that the key driving force is eco-friendly furniture. The workplaces and stores have now started adapting to cost-effective furniture. These trends came into being after watchful learning of the market size, inclinations and business analysis. Some of these trends include:

• Reassuring flexible furniture that can fit in easily and allow easy movements.
• Furnitures that occupy less space and are multipurpose.
• With current trends of human safety, the staff across all retail sectors are being trained on how to deal with consumers physically, on call or via mail.
• The retail sector is trying to cope up with finances themselves. They have helped their customers by allowing easy payment schemes like finance and EMI. This has allowed returns of invested money by retail stores.

The pandemic might have slowed the pace of life and brought new guidelines, but the world has adapted to new norms of pandemic and has found new ways to deal with challenges. And the retail industry is not behind in getting accustomed with the new normal.

Future of Retail Market

With the growing needs of the customers and new trends, it has become extremely important to understand the future of retail. We no longer live in an era of being continuously brand loyal. Let us find out the new challenges the retail industry in Indian sector is handling and prospects of the same. Retail Industry in India

What Does the Retail Market Offer?

It is not that easy for any manufacturer to have a wide reach out to their buyers/ consumers. The retail market offers this opportunity to both manufacturers and customers on a common platform for better options. Another added advantage of the retail market is that it allows them to stock goods from various manufacturers and distributors at different price ranges. This also helps the customers to decide what is the best available choice, depending on their budget.

Do You Know Your Customers?

These days, more and more consumers value affordability over robustness. People prefer that instead of buying high-priced things, which would last roughly 15- 20 years or more they want more cost-effective furniture which can be used for a few years. This allows them to stay updated with trends.

Furniture builders have inclined their businesses and consumers towards green products and an augmented attention on sustainability. Retail areas prefer selling products obtained from manufacturers which decreases the environmental impact. Looking at furniture trades there is a variety of equipment that are being made with recycled resources or more maintainable wood such as reclaimed wood, bamboo and acacia etc.

Paradigm Shift – Futuristic Approach To Retail Furniture

Organizations are also moving towards more people friendly and flexible workspaces. Accordingly, cubicles or isolated spaces have become outdated and flexible offices where teams can work in assemblies of diverse sizes is becoming a preferred choice. In some cases, workstations are also shared for better communication. This type of planning helps to accommodate a shifting workforce, especially remote workers, which has become a new normal in this Covid-19 world.

Post pandemic the norms for shopping at stores have also changed a lot of things. The social distancing and sanitization have become mandatory and consumers are getting accustomed to this new normal. With this paradigm shift, the manufacturers are coming up with creative furniture designs and retail showrooms are coming up with new showroom interior ideas that are suitable for this new normal.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) – How Is It A Boon To Retail?

Most of us are already aware of this technology, wherein robots are being used to make things easier. The huge investments and risk to human life has been minimized by robots through AI, which is a one-time investment for industries. These can be seen in many stores, wherein people are guided. AI robots are being widely used in the medical industry. This is saving much manual effort in nutshell and almost every industry has welcomed this change.

The future of the retail industry seemed challenging in the early pandemic days, but COVID safety features and Artificial Intelligence will surely ease the process. This will empower them to reach out to populations across the globes and make their sales go higher.