For the past decades, the mantra of retailers and shopping malls has been experiencing will save us.
Give shoppers something they can’t get online—in-person, hands-on, face-to-face.
Then came the coronavirus crisis.
The strategy of turning stores and malls into social gathering failed in the social distancing scenario when shoppers are told that the safest thing they can do is stay in the homes.Impact of COVID-19 on Brick-and-Mortar StoresThe resulting shocks from the crisis triggered a retail reset, as retailers pivot from planning giant flagships with in-store experiences, to invest in better online experiences to be prepared for the next pandemic.
The risk in betting on experiences hit last Friday when the American Dream Mall in the New Jersey Meadowlands, the first U.S. mall designed with more square feet devoted to experiences than retail, announced it was shutting down for at least the rest of March.
Apart from this, large department stores, such as Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s have shut down their New York City locations to avoid the large congregations of people usually inside their large spaces spreading the deadly coronavirus.