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22 Inside Outdoor | FALL 2020 holiday season, simply will demand dark store-type fulfilment options. “These service elements will be key to winning the upcoming holiday season,” said retail consultant Deep- ak Agarwal One of the biggest adjustment re- tailers might have to make in reaction to the events of 2020 is a shifting of holiday hiring from sales floors and restocking duties to pick-and-pack activities, curbside fulfilment, online shopping advisors and same-day delivery drivers, as well as in-store cleaning and disinfecting. “A lot of holiday preparation used to be around building sales staff, warehouse staff and staff to deal with traffic,” said Daniel Binder, partner at Columbus Consulting. “Now it’s more about how stores are going to be used in addition to what traffic circulates the fulfillment center. A lot of staff in-store will be fulfilling orders very differently than they were 12 months ago.” Dick’s Sporting Goods certainly benefited from its choices to boost BOPIS capabilities and focus on fulfil- ment when in-store operations were limited or forced to shut down back in the spring, as e-commerce sales sky- rocketed for the Pennsylvania-based retailer during the period April to June. Online sales, including curbside pick- up, grew 194 percent year-over-year, while Dick’s digital sales accounted for about 30 percent of total revenue dur- ing the quarter, the company reported. And while 15 percent of Dick’s brick- and-mortar stores were closed during the quarter, sales at stores that have been open at least 12 months rose 20.7 percent from a year ago. Overall, net sales increased 20.1 percent year- over-year, to $2.71 billion. The Creep Continues As another means to countering in-store traffic restrictions and online crunches, many retail consultants and experts are suggesting retailers “spread out the holiday season,” such as starting early, planning for post- holiday shopping activity and spacing out promotions. “It can’t be a blitz of every single product you have online. Let’s pick and choose,” warned Scott Sured- din, DHL supply chain CEO for North America. Retailers that go too heavily too early run the risk of holiday fatigue, but spreading things out might be necessary for drawing some shop- pers back. As of August, footfall in retail spaces remained at just a quar- ter of last year’s levels, data gath- ered by analytics firm Springboard showed, increasing only 5 percent since June. Major brands such as Kohls, Target and Best Buy have moved winter holiday promotions up to as early as October. Michael Brown, partner in the consumer prac- tice at Kearney, pointed to “orange Sunday,” or the day after Halloween, as a type of new Black Friday. “You can spread that demand out over a two-month period, and that will give you a chance to capture demand,” Brown advised. “It also will give you a chance to fulfill consumers’ orders for a much longer period and react if and when there are break- downs in your system.” To sustain engagement and inter- est over the longer season, research- ers at RetailMeNot suggest, retailers will need to maintain an always-on yet flexible promotional calendar and continually monitor the pulse of gift shoppers, ready with flash sales and deep discounts to hook consumers searching for deals early and late. Recent RetailMeNot surveys found that 36 percent of shoppers plan to spread purchases out this gift-giving season, and 31 percent said they plan to shop early to avoid shipping delays or inventory concerns. Similar to previous years of its survey, about a third of shoppers told Shopkick they plan to start shopping this holiday before Thanksgiving. “Retailers and service providers should clearly communicate the im- portance of consumers acting early, using the online channel, and mak- ing sure goods are shipped early, as there will be an obvious strain on fulfillment,” said Marie Driscoll, man- aging director of luxury and fashion at Coresight Research, during an August interview. “Retailers can plant the idea that while socializing might need to be virtual, gift giving can be solidly three-dimensional, with sufficient planning ahead.” If it seems like it was just a year ago when brick-and-mortar retail- ers were being advised to advan- tageously leverage their floorspace through “experiential holiday activa- tions” that encouraged shoppers to gather, admire and hopefully buy something, it was. Indeed, the events of 2020 have literally flipped the switch toward more virtual and crowd-controlled holiday shopping experiences. m Millennial Shopping by Channel, 2019 Source: CivicScience, June 2019; Excluding grocery and pharmacy T S Young millennials (25-29) All or almost all online Majority in-store Half online and half in-store Older millennials (30-34) 27% 23% 50% 29% 24% 47% How often have you revised operational procedures since reopening? Sourc : Multimedia Plus COVID Impact Su vey Once Two times Three times More than three times Have not revised 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% What are your (2) highest priority training initiatives for 2021? Product knowledge Safety Diversity & Inclusion S Red