What’s The New Normal For Retail Stores?

Although the world is attempting to return to a sort of normality, it is obvious that certain aspects might have irrevocably changed. The business world is no exception, so what’s the new standard for business?

The Covid pandemic is one of only a few times in history, before and after. When all can be set as ‘before Covid’ or ‘after Covid’ in context.

Physical retail around the world was forcefully modified during the lockout and customer behaviour adapted accordingly. Retailers that start up again work in a different environment.

We recently wrote a piece about how to safely run a store in a post-covid world (check it out here), so we’re going to talk about some of the longer-term impacts in this article and what distributors need to be mindful of in order to thrive.

Physical vs digital a thing of the past

A number of brick-and – mortar stores were suffering long before the pandemic. There are various and nuanced explanations for this, but it is fair to assume that much of it is responsible for the rise and growth of e-commerce.

Consumer behaviour was forcefully adjusted during the lockout. All had to turn to the digital world for their retail needs with physical stores closed, including sectors and consumer groups that previously opposed doing so. Now that these barriers have been demolished, things are unlikely to return to the way they were before. Out of the bottle is the genie.

What this means is that the relationship between offline and online is more critical than ever. Brands that are unable to combine the two will fight. Physical retail remains a very strong customer engagement tool, and the digital world can never compete with the value and experience that can be offered by a physical store.

This ‘phygital’ so-called solution is far from a modern notion. This process, however, will be an ongoing evolution, not a single transition. Are we going to see the virtual wardrobe that Cher Horowitz uses in Clueless to pick what to wear? What about runway shows with holographics? No idea, but those that succeed will be the brands who make the largest leaps and seamlessly merge both the physical and the digital to optimise the effect of each one.

Coping with a recession

It is no secret that the world is facing a possible recession of great severity. However, unlike previous recessions (2008, 1990s etc.), a sudden shutdown of consumer spending caused the Covid recession. Clear, obvious and instantaneous. Previous recessions have left durable imbalances that have taken years to sort out. Although many economists believe we can rebound rapidly, the fact that we’re in for a tough time is not secret.

How will shopping affect this? Well, to begin with , people are going to have less money and be less likely to invest what they have. This decreased spending on consumers would hit retail hard. Retailers will have to fight to build confidence and loyalty by providing outstanding experiences and being trustworthy, much as in previous lean times.

History tells us that recessions reveal internal vulnerabilities, speed up new patterns, and push companies to make quicker than initially expected systemic changes. Brands who adapt, alter their activities and focus on providing value to their customers will emerge at the top, and those that are earliest to do so will have a great chance to develop themselves.

Contactless shopping the new norm?

Contactless shopping refers to the idea of not actually selling something in your stores, another trend that will definitely become popular in the future. A shopping experience without touching items, no show replenishment, and no need for enormous customer numbers. In exhibits, goods are displayed and sales are either made there and there and generated from the back or delivered the next day directly to your home.

Although this is a style that has evolved due to the short-term limitations of working in a Covid environment, consumers are highly likely to tolerate it at first and then actually prefer it.

Appointment-only shopping?

With a range of design labels and fashion companies, we are already seeing this and it’s a trend that might hang around until Covid becomes a bad memory. In short,’ appointment only’ is when you book an appointment on your own or with a small number of other clients and get a time slot in the shop.

While this is very much about preserving social distancing protocols in the short term and making the consumer feel comfortable, it can persist in the long term as it offers a range of significant advantages. From the point of view of the retailer, consumers are more likely to make transactions on an appointment and thus encourage brands to concentrate more of their time and resources on their most important customers who have already made a commitment. An appointment is a far more customised experience from the customer’s point of view; everybody gets a personal shopper!

Experiential retail the differentiator

So far, if there is a common theme, the customer experience is and will continue to be relevant. Physical retail offers brands with opportunities to connect with consumers in ways that the internet does not. With consumers buying all sorts of products online becoming more and more relaxed, physical retail needs to wow and delight. People are looking to be amused, and to establish new connexions with consumers and build loyalty, brands must step up to the challenge.

As physical retail changes from transactional to dramatic, experiential retail would be the norm.

Flexible retail – fewer flagships, more theatre?

The Covid crisis served as a trigger, as we have seen, triggering many of the developments we have already seen. Phygital, contactless, experiential … these are all words that we have spoken of for years. There is nothing that is radically different and nothing that can surprise anyone excessively. But it is possible to get a glimpse of what the overall retail picture would look like when you take a step back and look at the bigger picture. This is a new standard.

Will the make-up of the high street and shopping centres look the same if a physical place is all about collecting marketing insight, evaluating new goods and interacting with new and existing customers?

When contemplating their physical retail plan, brands need versatility. We have called this ‘short-term retail’ in the past, everything from six-month pop-ups to one-day activities, but now this tactic is going to be even more common. We’re talking about ‘flexible shopping’ now, the blurring between long-term and short-term tracks.

Expect brands to scale back their flagship stores and create versatile, engaging short-term retail ventures that travel around and grow instead. Positioning their physical retail plans, both completely aligned with and powering ecommerce products, alongside their marketing programmes.

A thing of the past is long-term rentals. Pre-Covid, as brands sought to reduce their risk, we were already seeing a major shift from 5-10 year leases to shorter-term more flexible agreements, but now with an even greater need for flexibility, we expect the pendulum to swing further because more and more brands are seeking flexible terms.

With major retailers struggling and in the middle of a recession, if they want to continue filling their properties with products that attract customers and prove lucrative, landlords will need to reassess their choices and approaches.

Myrsa is a platform where you can find acces to the societies that are close to you and are looking for bulk deliveries.

You can book a different types space through them on a hourly or a daily basis. As this is going to stay for a while you must register on Myrsa now and connect with housing societies even after lockdown. This has now become a lifestyle change and you as a brand must keep up to it!

October 1, 2020 0

How has Coronavirus Impacted the Indian Real Estate Industry?

The outbreak of coronavirus in Wuhan, China, has affected market sentiment around the world. As allied companies such as steel, heavy machinery, and other raw materials are heavily dependent on Chinese imports, the Indian real estate industry would also be indirectly affected.

Coronavirus has infected more than 60,000 people worldwide and has claimed over 1,400 lives in China. Business sentiment is severely affected with it being declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO). The outbreak has created a lot of speculation regarding trade and imports, not just in China but around the world. Nor is the real estate industry spared. Traders are cautious about visiting mainland China and are sceptical about cutting production in the months ahead. This will have a direct bearing on the steel prices and other articles used in India’s construction industry.

Let us address in depth the possible impact of coronavirus on Indian immovable property and related industries.

Why would it affect the Indian Real Estate sector?

India imports extensively products used in Chinese construction activities. Some of them are-

Iron and steel goods
Industrial building equipment
Electronic equipment
Solar panels
Plastic and fibre materials

China remained the largest steel producer with a production capacity of 928.38 million tonnes (MT) in 2018. Although India is the second-largest producer, its production capacity, which stands at 106 million tonnes, lags severely. That heavy reliance on China for steel and steel products is an industry concern. With demand going down in China, prices in the allied industries are expected to increase, thus increasing costs and reducing the profit margins of Indian real estate developers. The slowdown in China’s construction industry will bring downward pressure on world metal prices.

More than 300 Fortune 500 firms worked in Wuhan, China, in 2019, according to a recent report by CBRE. The epidemic will force businesses to provide more flexible work arrangements like’ Work from home’ rather than co-working spaces. The companies could delay real estate decisions and limit new launches. The paper, however, points out that the outbreak would affect mainland China more, and neighbouring countries may have only a temporary dip in business activities.

One chance?

Looking from the Indian business perspective, the coronavirus outbreak could be an opportunity for Indian companies to increase their production capacity and give the “Make in India” campaign a boost.

The Indian government encourages steel companies to increase production capacity and grab a greater share of the market. In the current scenario, the Ministry of Steel, Government of India, is preparing a strategy paper to produce 10 million tons of special steel at the cost of 50,000 crore Rs with 50,000 job potential.

Given the skewing of the Chinese supply lines, the industry has an opportunity to explore other markets to procure raw material and reduce reliance on Chinese imports. That could be a veiled blessing for the indigenous manufacture of imported goods such as metal panels, steel bars, heavy machinery and coke.

In addition, the manufacturing companies of solar panels can also take advantage of the reduced supply and increase production to reduce long-term costs.

Echoing the same sentiments, KW Group Managing Director Pankaj Kumar Jain says, “The effect of coronavirus outbreak on Indian immovable industry will be indirect. Though China is directly affected, supply-side constraints offer an opportunity to explore other avenues for procurement of raw materials. The industry is already facing the headwinds of timid demand and global economic slowdown. While the outbreak in the Indian scenario is not yet a threat, the government must take tough steps to prevent the spread of infection so that the business feeling is not further affected.

To sum up, the planet has also faced similar outbreaks in the past, such as SARS virus, bird flu, etc., and has recovered successfully. Any calamity represents an opportunity to reach new heights. Indian real estate and related manufacturing industries have to find scenario positivity and benefit from increased production and indigenous innovation. In times of crisis, the government would do well to stop further virus proliferation and handle the industry.

February 27, 2020 0

Earn Extra By Giving Empty Retail Space For Rent!

In 2017, the retail business saw some huge changes. Publications were loaded up with doom and gloom headlines about the retail end of the world. And while brick and mortar continues to be a feasible deals channel, the shifting landscape has some industry players, especially business landowners, endeavouring to make sense of how to fill their empty retail spaces.

As traditional retailers screen, that space is left unoccupied — leaving the owners to locate another occupant. Finding another long-term tenant can take months or even years, yet that home loan on your space still should be paid. Rather than basically hunting down another, lasting occupant, you can monetize your unoccupied retail space meanwhile.

Depending upon the size, layout and area, you have choices to make some money off your space while waiting for the right occupant. Giving your retail space for rent can be a great idea. Here, we outline a couple of the best choices so you can settle on the correct choice for your space.

Utilize Your Space for Pop-Up Shops

Rather than picking just for long-haul retail occupants, business space proprietors can likewise investigate the alternative of short-term renters. Indeed, we’re looking at presenting your space for pop up shops.

Short-term opportunities, similar to pop up shops, can keep your space possessed with retail occupants and keep the foot traffic streaming. Yet, before you start with your choice to run with pop up shops in your space, there are assignments you’ll have to deal with to prep your space for short-term tenants.

Just like with private gatherings and occasions, you’ll need to accommodate tenants with the basics like bathrooms, Wi-Fi and climate control. To additionally speak to brands lurking here and there for the correct space for temporary activation, you’ll need to guarantee yours is impartial to effortlessly expect your renter’s visual identity.

Each renter will need a different aesthetic, so if you have a blank slate for brands to work with, you’ll likely pull in more bookings.

Rent Your Space for Private Events

If your space is especially in an urban centre, you can likewise rent your commercial space for private occasions. In many bustling cities, there’s a consistent demand for well-appointed venues for gatherings and occasions, and commercial space owners can take care of that demand.

From fundraisers to art sales to parties to corporate events, property owners can showcase their space for a variety of purposes. If you choose to go this route, ensure your space can suit organisations eager to have an event with things like:

Working restrooms

Wi-Fi

Heating and air conditioner

Light, particularly neutral light

As a space for occasions, you need your setting to be a clear canvas. Along these lines, consider painting your walls a shade of white and keeping any decor theme neutral. It’s additionally useful in the event that you can give catering or bar service suggestions to occupants.

Likewise strategize which kinds of occasions would work best in your space — intimate social events, large parties or something in between.

Myrsa helps you with renting out your spaces on a temporary renting basis to different brands. Just list your space on Myrsa and start earning instantly with the brands of your choice.

September 11, 2018 0

Match-Monetise-Myrsa!

That is what Myrsa does, in the simplest form.

Every day when we travel from our homes to our offices or take a long walk in the evenings (or morning, for the morning-people), there are certain locations that we have in our minds which denote either a turn or a stop. After reading this article, the next time you reach this location, I bet you will see a whole lot of imaginary events happening in there!

Whenever you are strolling around, there’s always at least one school that you come across. Talking of schools, they are highly functional from morning 7 till evening 7 and then equally vacant. That urges me to think of the variety of ways this vacancy can become an advantage!

Advantage #1: Assembly halls

Every school has an assembly hall used for school activities. After 7pm, this assembly hall can be a host to several other activities. Dance trainers, who cannot afford to buy a studio, can hold classes here on rent. Music teachers, too, can conduct classes without having to invest in buying any shop or rooms. Thinking further, how about weekly sessions of martial arts? In fact, there can be a timetable of the entire week having 2 dance classes, 2 music sessions and 2 martial arts sessions, all on per day rent basis. That makes 6 days. I leave the activities of the 7th day for you to think!

Advantage #2: Classrooms

Almost all of us had taken extra classes during our school times. Be it UCMAS or Vedic math. The teachers of these subjects find buying a space to be one of their biggest challenges. They can easily utilize the classrooms of schools for this purpose! Their students usually are the kids of nearby areas and their lectures are on weekends when the schools are not functional. Everything fits perfectly. myrsa.in makes it super easy for schools to list themselves on the website and the teachers to find the schools. One teacher can book multiple slots in multiple schools and maintain his/her dashboard too. This can be a great way to earn while spreading the knowledge!

Advantage #3: Grounds

Not all, but a lot of schools have huge grounds for sports and cultural events. How often are these grounds used other than the sports days, cultural festivals and such certain events? That’s one question. Here is another. How much can these grounds be used? The first one has a fixed answer. The second one, well, has unlimited answers the more you think. All kinds of events spanning from marriages to exhibitions to Sunday morning yoga sessions or promotional Zumba workshop can be held on these grounds. There are a lot of sports clubs and local clubs that organize outdoor games for their members and school grounds can be the best choice!

A little tweak to the standard image of a 7am to 7pm school opens up a host of business opportunities! This is about only those people or groups who have been a part of almost all of our lives at some or the other point of time. There are so many newer startups bubbling up every single day, a lot of them being individual entrepreneurs. So many of them are searching for a suitable place to experiment with their ideas for a day or a week or as you read this. Rental spaces can ease out their way a little.

Related Post: Mobile Payments accelerating Pop-ups

Mind blown? Very much. So tomorrow when you are taking a stroll around your home or office, watch the usual surroundings but see the bunch of possibilities that are in front of us yet hidden behind the old set perceptions of ours! By the time you are done counting all of them, it’ll probably be the time for you to return. Next time, I’ll give you something to think about when you’re stuck in traffic! Stay tuned!

February 22, 2018 0

It’s a win-win!

Long gone are the days when labour and hard work were the only sources of generating income. This is an era of Smart Earning. When I say Smart Earning, I don’t just mean online investments and dealing with cryptocurrencies. That involves too much risk to be called Smart. What should, ideally, be called a Smart Earning Method would have a minimum gamble, minimum hand-effort and, of course, maximum profitability. We have created this platform keeping in mind the “Win” of all our customers and users.

To give you a better idea of what I mean to say, let me give you a few cases in the Before-After format.

Start with the place you visit at least twice every day – the atrium of your society.

Before – Generally an empty space with a few persons crossing it while going in and out of the building.

After – Here there is a variety of Afters that I can list! What if a Dance teacher would hold dance classes once or twice a week in your lobby/clubhouse? The kids of your society will not require stepping out of the premises, the classes they usually visit will reach them instead. Besides, the trainer will make a contribution to the society which will be an extra income for the social fund. The parents, the children, the society and the trainer, everyone benefits. Win-Win!

What if there is a shop in your area that have recently opened and wants to publicise itself? If you list the lobby/clubhouse of your building on Myrsa, the shop owner can find it and connect with you to publicise their offering. Again the society will have a way of making extra income while the residents can try whatever the shop has to offer and the shop gets great publicity! Win-Win!

Think of any parking lot around you that remains vacant often.

Any mall’s parking lot during weekdays, mornings and afternoons.

Before – A lot of space lying unused except for weekends or late evenings.

After – If this is listed on Myrsa as space, NGOs can find and connect with the owner to, say, hold a free health check-up for senior citizens. Come to think of it, the animal care organizations can hold small events for pets as parking lots are similar to huge, closed halls safe for the little paws. One free parking lot can have numerous uses cases the more you think of them!

Making the best use of an area is what Myrsa facilitates. Everything is hassle-free and as smooth as booking a movie ticket or a hotel room. All an owner has to do is list a space they own on Myrsa, then sit back and relax. Brands can find the locations that suit them the best and connect with the owners.

Related Post: Your space is your leverage!

All kinds of artists, trainers, chefs, groups, and individuals can look for their perfect spaces and connect with the owners of those spaces on the website and close the deal!

So next time you see your property, parking, garden, clubhouse, college computer laboratory or society lobby/clubhouse, see the various invisible sources of income they are and make them a reality. List them on Myrsa and make the most of your spaces!

February 7, 2018 0

The many talents of the space you own!

You read that right. With Myrsa, you will gain irrespective of whether you are a Space Owner or a Space Seeker.

You are a Space Owner when you have an empty space listed on Myrsa and a Space Seeker when you are a brand looking for a temporary space or location.

For a Space Owner, Myrsa has a lot of ways of monetizing your space. Space can be any kind of area or location that is usually vacant. Your unused parking, unsold shop, open garden or lawn of your farmhouse, the lobby of your office complex and the list goes on.

The stilt parking that you don’t use when you’re at the office, can let multiple bikers park their bikes/cycles safely and pay rent for that many hours to you. Sounds easy? It is even easier in practice. Upload some pictures of your parking with the details on Myrsa and open the time slot according to availability. When you go out for a trip of multiple days, you can simply extend the time of availability and keep earning without any extra processor heavy paperwork!

If your school/college has an auditorium, think how many days a year it is used? I’m sure not more than 100 out of 365 days. This auditorium is the best low-cost theatre for budding artists who cannot afford to book famous theatres. A smaller ticket size attracts an audience! The same plan works for assembly halls and classrooms as well. Extracurricular activities and competitive exams require extra lectures. Once you have listed your rooms on Myrsa, teachers can book the classrooms after academic hours and hold their classes there. The school environment and equipped classrooms are the best for children to concentrate on their lessons. The teachers find it pocket-friendly to rent classrooms for required hours rather than paying big sums of yearly money.

The atrium or quadrangle of your office complex can let a food truck be there for few hours a day during lunchtime or evening. You will earn rent out of the otherwise unused space while the food truck owner has his parking problem solved! The people working, too, get great food at their office-doorstep!

A lot more spaces are available around you and Myrsa enables you to make the most of it! Stay tuned for more ideas!

February 5, 2018 0

Temporary Retail and Service Spaces

Myrsa matches potential short-term tenants with landlords sitting on vacant/unoccupied real estate spaces.

In an age of seasonal and cyclical in-store sales and poor prospects for long-term tenants, Myrsa could be a blessing for commercial real estate!!

Starting a business can cost you your lifetime of savings if you are a small business — INR 18 to 20 Lacs on an average based on industry standards and yet not even half of them will survive beyond 2 years.

How many more businesses could succeed if entrepreneurs could test out their concepts by slashing one of the major costs of starting a small business: securing a retail/service space.

Yet connecting space users and providers for short-term leases remains cumbersome. If we are successful, renting a temporary store will be almost as easy as booking a hotel room.

Myrsa offers a marketplace for short-term retail or service/workspace that makes renting temporary space feel like booking a hotel on MMT or any travel portal.

Myrsa is focusing on allowing renters and sellers to find each other and exchange inquiries and proposals. We locate and curate vacant spaces on our platform.

If online is about convenience, then offline is about getting your product and service in front of real people and being where your customers are. We see the future of retail and last mile service/web-stores going towards temporary leasing and targeted outreach!

Signing up with Myrsa is super easy, theoretically, it is as convenient as booking a flight or a room, with some additional steps to finalize the booking.

The trend of large retailers using temporary spaces to feature or test new products is moving toward small business owners as well who want to try out ideas without committing to conventional three- to five-year leases.

Related Post: The many talents of the space you own

It’s great news for property owners as well who once coveted big retailers and long-term tenants, but see temporary businesses and exhibitions drawing record crowds, filling up vacancies and even making temporary clients into long-term customers within no time if space works for the tenant.

We believe this model will let landlords generate additional income with unused space while opening up the possibility of a retail store to far more brands, entrepreneurs, service providers, artists, designers and who could not (or would not) sign long-term contracts in the past.

Potentially, temporary stores could also help give physical retailers some of the low-cost agility enjoyed by online sellers such as Flipkart & Amazon (who have led to predictions of the imminent demise of brick-and-mortar businesses).

Retail in India always had roots in short-term retail; it’s coming a full circle.

The urban shopping hubs of India and especially the metros are transforming. We see temporary shops on all our footpaths, don’t we? They are everywhere!!

March 14, 2017 0

Category: Temporary Retail and Service Spaces