How much time does a person spend inside grocery stores? The numbers vary. Time Use Institute once said that a shopping trip could take about 41 minutes. A 2011 data, meanwhile, revealed that Australians could have travelled 800 kilometres from Sydney to Melbourne.
Supermarkets may want customers to linger in the aisles. This way, they may end up buying more. Australia, however, is under strange times like the rest of the world because of the coronavirus pandemic. Allowing shoppers to spend even 20 minutes may already be risky for everyone, staff included.
For those operating retail food stores, the business cannot shut down. The government deems them to be essential services. Owners, though, can exercise more caution and hasten the shopping experience with these ideas:
1. Invest in Standing Chillers
Chillers with a reliable glass door refrigerator allow customers to do two things. First, they do not need to bend and scour through bottles to find what they want. Second, they can already decide what to buy before they even touch the goods.
The best glass doors are those that swing open. Sliding doors can cover the other items in the chiller. Swinging doors also provide more space for quick grabbing. The right chillers may also be those that use fingerprint technology. In the process, there is less interaction between the staff, the goods, and those who already touched them.
2. Provide a Special Shopping Hour for Specific Groups
Some types of people may need their own shopping hours. Take, for example, senior citizens, who may move slower than the younger ones. They may have to spend more time in between aisles. Giving them a different time to shop also significantly reduces their risk of contracting the virus.
Another group includes the front-liners. These include health workers, police, cargo drivers, and other people who need to report at their jobs despite the stay-at-home orders. These schedules may be before or after regular operating hours.
3. Give a Map of the Aisles
Many people get lost in shopping aisles, and it is one of the reasons why they spend a lot of time inside. Usually, shops use hanging labels or assign aisle numbers. When shoppers are in a rush, though, they may not have the time to look up.
Food retail shops may then consider publishing a map of their aisles. Even better, they can make this interactive using the shoppers’ GPS.
4. Allow Online Shopping
With Australians spending more time indoors, they are using the Internet for almost everything. That includes buying their food and drinks. Retail shops can support this by launching or improving their e-commerce site.
The business can then offer two options to customers: delivery or pickup. For pickup, the staff may be the ones to gather the items from the shelves. All the customer needs to do is to pick up the bags—simple, fast, and easy!
To further entice customers to buy online, the store can offer incentives. These may be a discount upon first purchase or free delivery for a minimum shopping amount.
Right now, health experts agree that one of the best defences against coronavirus spread is distance. The lesser time people spend inside a space like a shopping centre, the better. Food retail shops may support this beginning with the ideas above.