How Has Singapore’s Retail Industry Changed in The Past Two Years?

Brick and mortar retail stores are feeling the pinch of rising overheads and the drop in walk-in sales. Ecommerce, on the other hand, has gained popularity due to the convenience of doorstep delivery and lower prices offered on ecommerce platforms. 

On top of that, strict measures and the threat of recurring waves of infections during the circuit breaker period, made shopping not as convenient as before and some retail operators were forced to shut temporarily. 

Even as the economy began to open up, strict restrictions would continue to disrupt the flow of business. Thus, driving more consumers to shop on ecommerce platforms, making it an uphill task for retail operators to recover from the pandemic.

How can retail operators adapt to the new retail scene

Our Minister of Trade & Industry has highlighted that Singapore will not be returning to a pre-Covid19 world, and has to chart a new direction. Resilient retail businesses are doing just that to adapt to the new retail environment. 

How can retail operators adapt to the new retail environment?

• Manage your operation cost to remain profitable
• 
  Find additional streams of revenue for your retail business
• 
  Improve employee morale

Manage operation cost to remain profitable

The global shortage of essential materials has caused a ripple effect across the supply chain, pushing up the cost of your retail items. It is more important now than ever to forecast your stock levels and the demands for each product you sell in order to secure stock and prevent over restocking.

Apart from that, take a look into your peak and lull business hours or days. This will help you in reorganizing your shop’s opening and closing hours to reduce running operational costs during the periods where few or no one is coming to your retail store.

These are just examples of aspects of your retail business that you could look into in order to save operational cost. There could be more, depending on your retail business model. 

To be able to perform effective and accurate analytics, you will require past data to perform analysis on trends. This is where an enhanced cloud based POS system like MEGAPOS comes into play. A cloud based POS features a back end portal which allows you to make sense of your business data through analytical charts and meaningful reports of almost every aspect of your business at your fingertips.

This will allow you to make informed decisions based on your past business data to reduce your restocking cost and operational costs.

Find additional revenue streams for your retail business

As the number of walk in customers decreases you may think that it may be time to close your retail business down. But wait! It is not the end of the line, customers still have to  find ways to get what they want and need one way or another. You just need to know where your customers are most likely to shop and meet them there with your products!

In order to do that, you need to know your customer demographics and understand the products you sell.

Take for example, if you are selling fashion and accessories, the best ways to reach your younger customers would be through social media, where you could sell directly on Instagram through its new eCommerce feature. 

You could also consider setting up your own eCommerce website, sell on an eCommerce platform or even better, do both. There are pros and cons of both and you should weigh them before making a decision. We have listed some below.

What are the benefits of selling on an eCommerce platform?

• Easy to set up and maintain your virtual shop.
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  There is a ready pool of consumers who shop on the eCommerce platform.

What are the downsides of selling on an eCommerce platform?

• Many brands are competing on the eCommerce platform.
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  You have no way to build your own customer base as the consumers that buy from you are customers of the eCommerce platform.
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  People who buy from you may never know about your retail brand existence as most people buy based on reviews and price on these platforms.

What are the benefits of selling on your own eCommerce website?

• You have full control over your branding and create a brand identity that is relatable to your target customers.
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  You can do retargeting to attract buyers to buy from you again, or send reminders to shoppers who abandoned their carts before check out, encouraging them to complete their purchase.

What are the downsides of selling on your own eCommerce Website?

• It is tedious and may require some technical knowledge to maintain.
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  You have to pay for ads or work hard to rank high on google for organic search in order to get a substantial amount of customers. 

Improve employee morale

The pandemic has affected everyones’ morale in one way or another. Your employees may be starting to feel insecure about job stability, or they could be getting unmotivated by performing the same tasks day in and out. 

You could do things like switching up their tasks by allowing them to manage your other streams of revenue, giving them some fresh tasks which will boost their morale. This may seem unimportant at first, but employees with high morale will strive to do better and provide better service for your customers, which creates a great reputation for your retail brand, thus, attracting more customers.

Getting a POS system to manage your retail business

Any retail business will require a POS system to manage its operations. An enhanced cloud based POS system has given many retail operators a centralized operations management solution, allowing them to manage multiple outlets with ease, streamlining their operations for maximum productivity and perform forecasting through meaningful reports to quickly adapt and keep up with the times.

If that is what you wish to enjoy, simply drop us your contact details below and we will be happy to arrange a free demo with you!