The challenges that have come hand in hand with COVID have shown us just how important resilience is for success. Things within retail are ever changing, even outside of pandemic-related struggles, and how you recover from these changes reflects your strength and integrity as a business.
At our recent Residential Exchange, we hosted a roundtable on resilience with members who had shown an interest in discussing the importance of bouncing back even stronger. The ability to change quickly and efficiently seems to be so important to maintaining a successful business model in completely unpredictable times.
Key Takeaways
- Re-selling is the future
- Sustainability as an opportunity
- Opportunity for resale
- 70% of luxury retail is resell
- Outlet, omnichannel, re-use secondhand manufacturing
- Flexibility, creativity
- People first, hope, resolution
- Tracking where sustainability messages have moved in last year in a hierarchy
- Outlets, omnichannel, re-use second-hand marketplaces
- Are our operating models fit for the future?
- Demonstrate your profit focus
- B2B brands have been forced to go D2C. Are they at risk of over-committing?
- Temper your expectations of growth!
- You need the buy-in of your staff!
- Invest in the right people to remain resilient
- Supply chain challenges = forecasting + pressure
- Difficult to maintain agility post-COVID lockdown
- Flexibility is key. Continue to be brave post-COVID
- Be more focused, with faster action plans
- Flexibility of planning and execution… In spite of constant changes, you must stay true to your brand
- Keeping up the pace of innovation will be a challenge after COVID
- Is there a new normal?
- Question everything
- Transformation into the new ways of working are essential
- Focus on flexibility and culture
- Use COVID as a chance to question everything
- Keep the habit of fast decision-making; be ruthless with what is important
- Growth planning and budgeting are very complicated post-COVID
- Building resilience means investing in your teams and in new, more flexible operating models
- Ability to change fast is key to long-term resilience
- Beta businesses/supply chain/D2C/experimental retail
