Question

During this Coronavirus pandemic,

Why do you think consumers may or may not buy impulsively at this time?

How do you think stores should adjust their purchasing and supply chain to accommodate these shifts?

Answer 1

Consumers may not buy impulsively at this time because there is shortage of food, government have placed restrictions on store opening and closing time, demand for some products are very high while some products have no demand and as per government instructions these products (which has no demand) stopped by government. There is proper supply of essential things but some consumers buy impulsively and stock these items in their houses. Impulsive buying in most of products is not there because there are no malls or stores are open to shop.

Challenges for stores have arisen in global retail supply chains, where the pandemic’s effects have weighted heavily on the well-being of employees and jeopardized livelihoods and economic lifelines in many communities. Retailers are now taking extraordinary measures to keep goods moving. Supple chain leaders are creating transparency and building rapid response capabilities to mitigate short term fallout from the crisis. Retailers’ supply chain difficulties have largely arisen as big shifts in consumer behavior. Sales of nondiscretionary products, such as food, medicines and household have increased while sales of discretionary items, such as furniture and apparel have decreased. There is a increase in online spending on groceries and household items. To adjust in this pandemic situation retailers are retooling every aspect of their supply chain. Some actions retailers are taking are as follows-

1. Reduce varieties and boost quantities.

2. Retailers are easing payment terms, widening delivery-appointment windows, and relaxing on-time, in-full requirements

3. Redirecting staff from non-essential to essential categories

4. Holding daily “stand-up” meetings with regional grocer to foster transparency and open communication

5. Redirecting inventories where needed

6. Taking added and necessary precautions to keep staff safe like staggering shifts by short intervals, installing partitions, maintaining good workplace hygiene and health screening

7. Widening on-line delivery windows from immediate or same day to two or three days

Reference-

Article- “Five actions retail supply chains can take to navigate the corona virus pandemic” by Manik Aryapadi, Vishwa Chandra, Ashutosh Dekhne, Kenza Haddioui, Tim Lange and Kumar Venkataraman, published in McKinsey & Company, April 2020.