Retail Will Never Go Back to Normal. That's a Good Thing.

“I can’t wait to get back to normal.”

This was a sentiment that we have often heard, and probably said ourselves at least once, since the pandemic began. Longing for the way things once were is how many of us spent a significant amount of time over the last year and a half, and hoping for a return to normalcy was widely used as a coping mechanism. However, there are a variety of aspects of our lives that will likely never "return to normal." The way that we shop is one of them.

Take where we most often shopped, for example. For many of us that changed, and a boom in ecommerce adoption followed. Especially at the beginning of the pandemic, as we all did our best to stay home and social distance, not only did the frequency of online ordering increase, but first-time online shoppers also showed up at an unprecedented rate.

At Bazaarvoice, we saw this reflected in our client network, which includes 1,750 retailers; online ordering increased by 39 percent year-over-year in 2020 globally. In our global survey, we found that three quarters (74 percent) of people have shopped in stores less regularly since the outbreak of Covid-19 — a habit that 32 percent of U.S. and 37 percent of European shoppers want to continue after the pandemic.

Read More at https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/374146