As Pandemic Continues, Retailers Need to Meet Shopper Expectations

Following a better-than-expected holiday shopping season driven by robust online sales, retailers and brands are trying to figure out how to keep the momentum going. Here, Nikki Baird, vice president of retail innovation at Aptos, discusses trends that emerged during the pandemic, and what brands and retailers should consider in the year ahead. WWD: How has the customer’s shopping journey changed this past year? Nikki Baird: It has been a rough ride for shoppers, between safety and health, economic uncertainty, and changing restrictions and rules to follow. Consumers went online in unprecedented numbers this past year as nonessential stores closed for lockdowns and essential retailers ran out of everything. Consumers have stayed for the convenience. They broke loyalty with longtime brands that they could no longer find and tried new retailers that offered them contactless conveniences. To say it has been disruptive would be an understatement. But there are bright spots to be found: consumers might’ve shifted from work clothes to sweatpants, but [they continue to need and buy sweatpants]. And while they couldn’t go out into the world the way they wanted to, they haven’t done too badly in bringing the world home to them through home cooking and investments in home goods. The

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