Following the UK’s lockdown review on Sunday, retail stores could begin reopening their doors next month as part of the second stage of the lockdown exit strategy.

In light of this, Samuel Mueller, CEO at Scandit, made the following comment: 

Nothing forces change like a crisis. Retailers that have been slow to complete their digital transformation are now being forced into it by the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 has shone a spotlight on the need for rapid digital transformation in these uncertain times. Retailers that are quick to adapt to the new demand for ‘contactless retail’, will be better positioned to succeed, whatever the new normal is.

Brick-and-mortar retailers will have to accelerate their digital transformations to compete with online shopping and meet the new demand for safety. Get ready for ‘contactless retail’ to maintain distance from others and feel confident about walking into a store.

Clean and contactless is the focus. This means customers using their own smartphone to select, learn about and buy products, and employees doing their everyday tasks with a smartphone app. It’s up to retailers to safeguard the health of customers and employees when they’re shopping, collecting or working.

Consumer demand for ‘contactless retail’ is the new reason for grocery retailers to deploy self-scanning and Scan-and-Go services. We’re helping retailers bring forward existing plans and accelerate rollouts for this technology. Ultimately, the need to blend the physical and digital remains stronger than ever.

Employees do not want to touch and share devices with colleagues. Safeguarding responsibility is yet another strong driver for retailers to use smartphones in their operations. BYOD (bring your own device) and COPE (corporate owned personally enabled) policies are highly cost-effective strategies that also deliver flexibility and employee satisfaction.

The enormous increase in demand for online grocery services during COVID-19 will not stop anytime soon (Mintel forecasts YoY 2020 growth of 33%). To add capacity to Click & Collect operations, grocers use barcode-scanning software on smartphones to do quick and easy order picking. BYOD (bring your own device) and COPE (corporate owned personally enabled) policies are highly cost-effective strategies to quickly scale-up workforce numbers.