retail, commerce, grocery, COVID, COVID19, coronavirus
Gary E. Hawkins
Retail Response to COVID19: Innovation in ...

During my many years as a supermarket retailer I saw my share of panic buying related to natural disasters like blizzards and hurricanes. Like many, I lived through the 9/11 crisis and its impact. But I have never experienced anything like what we are currently going through.

I’ve talked with many people across the supply chain these past few days, from brand manufacturers to distributors to retailers. I have been in our local stores seeking supplies but also watching how retailers are responding to a never-before environment.

While healthcare workers are always thought of as the front lines in a pandemic like we are experiencing, it is just as true that the workers in supermarkets and drug stores are equally on the front lines. The commitment by people across the massive grocery industry to serve the people in their communities during this crisis is to be commended. They don’t have to be there - they can stay home like many others, taking care of their families, and self-quarantining. But these store workers are unselfishly putting themselves on the front line of the coronavirus battle, realizing that feeding and providing needed supplies for their communities is as important as the doctors and nurses caring for the ill.

When the current crisis abates - and it will - I believe the retail industry can step back to realize what it has accomplished….

Retail Response to COVID19: Innovation in Realtime

Conversational Commerce

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In Sixty-Six Days the World Can Change. (Can You Hear it Coming?)

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In Sixty-Six Days the World Can Change. (Can You Hear it Coming?)

Sixty-six days. About nine-and-half weeks.

That’s how long – on average – it takes to form a new habit, according to a highly-cited 2009 behavioral study.¹

Let that sink in. Especially as pandemic-driven shelter-in-place mandates are extended. And especially as we consider the present and future of new technologies, and especially voice assistance.

It was 23 January when the city of Wuhan was locked down in response to COVID-19.²

Nearly ten weeks later – 67 days, to exact, on 30 March – stores in Wuhan began to open. Nearly eleven weeks later – 76 days, on 8 April -- Wuhan residents are being allowed to leave the city if their smartphones show “green” on a special health app.³

Ask yourself what this may mean….

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Smart Speakers and commerce? It’s time to reframe the question (and to grasp the implications of 18% growth YoY).

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Smart Speakers and commerce? It’s time to reframe the question (and to grasp the implications of 18% growth YoY).

In early February eMarketer released a study on the state of conversational commerce through smart speakers.

Their headline: "Purchases via Smart Speakers Are Not Taking Off."

Hmm.

Those who delved into the details of the report found that purchase activity via smart speakers had actually grown by 18 percent year over year, to a user community of 21.6 million US consumers.

And, with this growth, smart speaker purchase activity should pass an important milestone in 2020: more than 10 percent of all digital buyers will make a purchase using a smart speaker.

Actually, that’s reasonably impressive. But the overall numbers did not meet eMarketer’s original forecast. And thus, the headline.

The tone of the headline led several days later to an interesting discussion among the industry experts of RetailWire….