What Retailers Can Do to Protect Customers From COVID19 This Holiday Season
With the festive season upon us, 2020 is looking a little different from normal – we’re experiencing a worldwide pandemic. And getting the balance right between enjoying the holidays and staying safe from the coronavirus can be tricky. Understandably, people want to celebrate their traditions as normal, which involves Christmas shopping, but many are worried about the potential health implications of heading to the stores and being around crowds of people. If you’re a business owner and expect to be busy this holiday season, here’s what you can do to keep your customers and employees safe over the festive period.
Sneeze Guards:
Your retail business needs employees to survive, but the people who are serving customers at the checkout and helping out on the shop floor are the ones who are at the most risk of COVID19 right now. Sneeze guards at the checkout and any other areas where they are appropriate will create a safety barrier that offers extra protection to both your employees and your customers. These clear barriers make it easy for customers and employees to communicate in close range without the risk of contact with droplets that could be carrying the coronavirus. Get them at sneezeguardez.com.
Restrict Customer Numbers:
The holidays are here, and people are still going out in droves to get gifts and decorations, albeit with extra precautions in place. But it can often be difficult to judge just how much personal space you’re going to have when browsing and shopping in a store, which could lead to crowds at this time of year. As a store owner, you can help avoid this situation by taking responsibility for customer numbers and restricting how many people are allowed in at any one time. A member of staff at the door to control the flow of customers will ensure that there’s enough space indoors at any given time to safely social distance while browsing.
Hygiene:
The CDC and the WHO are still promoting good hand hygiene as the best way to reduce your risk of catching COVID19, so help your customers out with this. Providing hand sanitizer at the entrance and exit of the store has become common practice in 2020. Ask customers to sanitize their hands before entering and avoid touching anything that they do not intend to purchase, to keep the risk of contamination low.
Offer Contact-Free Shopping:
More and more people are set to take advantage of online shopping this holiday season as a safer alternative to going to the store and being around strangers. As a retailer, you can take advantage of the massive boom in online shopping that we have seen this year. A click and collect service, for example, is an ideal alternative to regular online shopping since it often allows customers to get their goods immediately by ordering them online and collecting from the store without the need to come in and browse first.
The holidays are looking a little different this year as the world continues to battle COVID19. As a retailer, you can help your customers and employees by providing extra safety measures during the busiest period of the year.
