Shopping's Evident Turn

Online spending has gone up during the circuit breaker — not just on groceries or essentials like food, but on other items as well, like beauty products.

- Wendy Long

Most people are stuck at home and have no access to their usual beauty routines. Many people have also bought fitness equipment as they feel like they need to maintain some form of physical activity while they’re stuck at home. Ironically, they have never felt the need to ‘maintain activity levels’ before lock-down and have never so much as cycled a mile in the previous year.

Retailers had reported an increase in online sales when they slashed prices to move inventories. It merely goes to show that people will continue to spend, even when held in virtual captivity, or rather, shopping is perhaps all that they can do while being held captive between four walls and a screen. It also shows that when the price is right, there will be a market. The question is, will this lead to fewer impulse purchases and create more bargain hunters? Does this mean retailers will have smaller margins, with offering discounts becoming a necessary evil to at least maintain some revenue inflow?