The Covid-19 crisis accelerated the migration of consumer goods sales to digital platforms. Retailers around the world are responding by closing stores that are no longer profitable amidst falling customer traffic, writes Pattern Global Head of Marketing Joanna Perry.
The Covid-19 pandemic had an obvious and immediate effect on the retail industry. Stores around the world closed during lockdown. However, the longer-term impact is just as interesting, causing an acceleration in the migration of retail sales to digital online channels. Even highly successful retailers are questioning how many physical stores they need now, and in the future.
In the West, this trend was already clear. Famous retail names in Europe and the U.S.A. faced bankruptcy as their business models, incorporating high cost for property and staff, no longer returned a profit in whilst losing customers to online sales platforms.
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