Study of change in consumer behaviour and preferences towards in-store hygiene practices in apparel stores in post-pandemic times

Abstract

The apparel industry is one of the hardest-hit sectors during the Pandemic. It not only contributes 2.3% to the national GDP but also employs 4.5 crore workers indirectly. The government has always protected the industries and has come up with schemes and programs to support the growth. On the other hand, regulators sometimes ignored the later part of the value chain consisting of retailers. The policies are sometimes skewed, and regulators always wanted the middle man gone from the value chain. This is reflected in the earlier policies, and traditionally the retailers remained unprotected. On top of it, the retailers were asked to shut shops due to the Pandemic. It not only broke the backbone of the retailers but turned a blind eye to the welfare of all the dependents and ancillary activities. It forced the retailers to innovate, adapt and invigorate their existing businesses. This report aims to answer if retailers have to fend for themselves, how they need to maneuver this Pandemic, and the changes they need to make to thrive in the postpandemic world. This report also explores the change in consumer behavior due to the Pandemic, shift in demand pattern, preference of mode of purchase, and its implications for the businesses. After studying the demand side, we also understood the suppliers’ plight during the Pandemic and what they can do to attract customers. For this research, we have conducted secondary research for both supply and demand sides. Based on the insights, we have developed the hypothesis and conducted primary research to further analyze the results quantitatively. From the analysis, we are able to conclusively conclude that 1) Strict in-store hygienic practices positively impact consumer buying preference. 2) There is no significant difference in consumer preference for buying from retail stores and from eCommerce platforms. Hence, hybrid mode of both offline and online is relevant for customers. Similarly, from the supply-side’s primary research, we can argue that offline retailers are also implementing low-cost hygiene measures like temperature scanning, mandatory use of masks, handwash dispense, etc. They also increased their online presence to interact with customers and gradually shifting towards hybrid-mode for order generation, fulfillment, and delivery. The Pandemic has accelerated the tech adoption process among the retailers. It will always remain a challenge for the brick-and-mortar retailers to take the business online, but they have taken the hybrid route for the business in the interim time. Though we can’t predict that whether the business will be perfectly online or offline or what channel will digitally native segments prefer? But we can speculate that offline retailers need to provide more value to customers to remain competitive against the eCommerce giants in the long run.