Digital strategies: How retailers are flexing between local and global
Brands planning for an uncertain future need to find the right balance between online and offline if they want to retain consumer confidence and trust.
The former heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson once famously explained to an interviewer that “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” The coronavirus pandemic hasn’t been a total knockout blow for the UK retail sector, but at times over the past few months it’s been looking a little dazed and confused.
Trying to strategise and prepare for the future can be a tricky business at the best of times, never mind when everything’s in such turmoil. The only thing we know for certain is that Christmas is coming, a time when the whole notion of shopping as leisure activity really comes into its own.
Black Friday is still scheduled to go ahead on 27 November, but how it will play out against social distancing rules remains unclear. Cyber Monday and Amazon Prime Day were already stealing a significant amount of the physical event’s thunder.
As Kyle Monk, director of retail insights and analytics at the British Retail Council explains, even the most entrenched technophobes among us are becoming more at ease with ordering online.
