Suhail Gupta and Syeda Shazia Bukhari
Covid -19 has done something which no amount of advertising by brands could do: it has made consumers change their preferences. Preferences have never been easy to change; they are stubborn and often impervious to marketing communication pleas. But a pandemic changed the game faster than what brands could have ever imagined. Almost overnight, hardwired mall shoppers and reluctant fence sitters were pushed into the deep end of the online commerce pool. And in a matter of days there is a high level of dexterity and comfort in online shopping across the board. Will this new found environmental change mutate the mall crawling gene which consumers have had ever since retailing started? Will this shift to a different channel be permanent? Will malls and high street stores be reduced to mere show windows? Admittedly, it is too early to claim that, but with new hygiene and contagiousness concerns, it is possible that people will reconsider venturing into public domains such as shopping malls and movie theatres with the same carefree and reckless gusto as before. Or at least not as unarmed as before now a bottle of sanitizer and a mask would be minimal essential weapons for anyone going anywhere outside of their homes. In addition there could be paranoia about the physical distance to be maintained with the nearest guy trying to be too social. Would retail sales persons need to pitch their voices louder and farther in times of physical distancing? Would there have to be teams to manage queues outside popular supermarkets as lines snake away? If demonetization jumpstarted the digital payments mindset in India, it may be safe to suggest that C-19 might change the way we behave as consumers.