Applying Social Distancing to Your Retail Store
We cannot ignore the fact that social distancing is going to be a part of our life for a long time. After the pandemic broke the most effective way to keep the COVID virus at bay is using the social distancing technique. It is also referred to as physical distancing which means keeping space between yourself and the other individual when outside your home. The current guidance issued by WHO is to have a minimum distance of 1.5 meters between two people. This ensures proper safety and reduces chances of virus transmission.
If you are a retail store owner then you must be acquainted with this and concerned about how to encourage people to enjoy shopping at your store by adhering to social distancing guidelines. It is also important for the customer to feel safe just following the guidelines will not help you in retaining customers. So now the question is how you can apply social distancing in your retail store without negatively impacting the customer experience. Below are a few steps that you can take to keep your business up and running :
1. Health
The first thing that you need to focus on is the health of your employees and customers who are working or visiting your store. Social distancing will not help if someone is not well or showing signs of a cold. First of all make sure that your staff is healthy and supply them with protective gear so that they feel safe while working. Also remind your team to come to work only if no one in their household is sick.
Make sure you follow social distancing guidelines and make marks 2m apart where your customers can stand while billing, Keep a sanitiser in the entry area and also on the cash counter and ask your employees to sanitise after every purchase. Also, if you see any of your customers unwell or not in the right condition respectfully ask them to leave and maintain distance by staying at home. You can put the signs or check the temperature of your customers at the entry avoiding any situations that could impact the health of your team or customers.
2. Limit the number of people entering your store
Although every store owner wants to have more people coming in and out of their store, it is strongly advised to limit the number of people while adhering to social distancing. You have to make sure that there are not too many people in a small space so accordingly you can identify how many people can enter at a time.
The current recommendation is no more than a single person per square metres of your floor space. You can use this vertical in identifying how many people can enter the store at a given time.
3. Payments
One of the main reasons why your employee will come in contact with the customer is at the billing counter. You need to opt for contact less transactions in order to avoid any physical contact. There are a lot of apps available online that allow you to transfer money via scanning barcodes. Try using one of these methods to limit the contact during billings.
Encourage your customers to pay via such apps as it will reduce the risk of transmissions of any sort of harmful bacteria in general. . Remember your priority is the safety of your customers and team, they should all feel safe while visiting your store.
4. Online orders
Encourage your customers to order online. Even if you are not an online store you can still encourage your customers to make an order via WhatsApp or other apps. They can share their requirements and you can send delivery at their place. This is the best way to reduce any contact between two individuals. A lot of POS softwares is available in the market that has made this process easier.
A lot of retail stores are diving into implementing this software solution as it keeps your business going while adhering to social distancing guidelines. Give your customers to opt for contactless delivery wherein the delivery boy places the order and leaves you customers can then sanitize and collect the order without even stepping out of their homes. A lot of retail stores have opted for this and are doing wonders for their business.
The Pandemic did hit us hard and social distancing has changed the retail landscape, you have to adapt to these changes to stay in the game. An all in one POS software can help you maintain your business while adhering the covid guidelines.
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