The New Normal Consumer in Retail: Adaptation to Change

The new normal for the consumer is ‘safety coupled with shopping experience’. While the safety guidelines are mandatory and the shopping malls are adhering to them to build ‘trust’ as an assurance of ‘safety’, they need to create ‘optimism’ as an assurance of a ‘good shopping experience’ within the constraints of safety guidelines…

- Dr Komal Chopra

The COVID-19 crisis has made shopping centre developers and retailers re-think the norms of business, which are more driven by safety rules rather than the freedom to do business. This has now become the new normal of business. While everyone is talking about this new normal and how they should go about conducting their businesses, a key issue to understand is how the consumers would adapt. Shopping in a retail mall is about giving the consumer complete shopping experience through recreation and entertainment. What will be the consumer reaction to this new normal? Will the consumer really enjoy shopping again and will it translate into sales? These are some of the questions which need to be addressed from a consumer perspective.