SMALL US RETAILERS TURN TO INTERNET TO KEEP AFLOAT

For small retailers across the country, the pandemic has turned an already challenging business environment into never-ending uncertainty. But for the enterprising ones, turning to the internet to boost sales has become a necessity, Joyce M. Rosenberg wrote for the Associated Press (AP) on August 24, 2020.

The internet has been a refuge for many retailers during the pandemic, says Carlos Castelan, managing director of The Navio Group, a retail consultancy based in Minneapolis. He noted that Shopify, a company that hosts e-commerce websites, had a 71% increase in new stores in the second quarter compared to a year earlier. “They’re urgently setting up these e-commerce models to serve their customers,” he says.

The most recent retail sales tallies from the government show sales at clothing sellers, which tend to have physical locations, fell nearly 36% from May through July. But online and other non-traditional retailers saw their sales soar 26%. Small retailers have also learned to be more customer-friendly. They’re using, for example, texts to communicate with shoppers and making pickups easier by setting aside dedicated parking spaces so people can grab and go, Castelan says. And stores are letting shoppers know they are trying to keep everyone safe.

“The primary driver has been as much about convenience and safety. That’s more the story rather than merchandising,” he says. The internet has been a lifeline for Antonelli’s Cheese Shop. The Austin, Texas, store remained open during the government-ordered shutdown, but many consumers stayed home, sharply reducing store traffic. The shop also sells to restaurants, which stopped ordering as they were forced to close. The shop’s business is still down 20%. Owners John and Kendall Antonelli say they’ve managed to survive by taking the events they normally run on their premises, like cheese tastings, and putting them online. They’ve had as many as 150 people take part in a tasting, with many people ordering cheese in advance and picking it up curbside. More recently, with fewer people sheltering at home, they’ve been more likely to get 50 people, but that is still about double the number of attendees they had pre-pandemic.