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Businesses are reinventing the wheel in a post-Covid world ruled by social distancing

- Lola Nayar, Jyotika Sood & Lachmi Deb roy

Imagine a visit to a mall where you are the only person within a 10ft x 10ft space. Think about the situation that when you enter a PVR theatre with your husband and child to watch a first­day, first­show blockbuster, you confront “staggered seating arrangement”, empty seats on both sides, and floor stickers to indicate the one­metre social­distancing gap. Visualise a logistics company that offers you the option to not just work­from­home, but work­from­anywhere.

COVID­19 has changed the professional and social atmosphere in offices and factories, transformed business models across sectors, and altered the mindset of consumers. This is especially true of segments such as tourism, travel, and hospitality, where physical proximity and person­to­person politeness was considered inevitable, and an intimate part of businesses. No longer can owners, employees, and customers feel the same, or behave in the same manner, as they did yesterday.

We look at three sectors—physical retail, logistics, and entertainment —where the hus­ tle­and­bustle and congregation of crowds was considered a norm. In the future, footfalls may fall in the malls, but per­capita spending will go up. A simplified model of “click, ship, done” may be adopted in logistics. Amusement will largely be in the form of home­entertainment, without live audience or restricted one, and with a focus on how to curate con­ tent, rather than merely to create it.

Physical Retail: A slow-and-steady approach