White Paper

Adapting To The Next Normal In Retail: The Customer Experience Imperative

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This whitepaper explains how COVID-19 changed retail customer behavior and why customer experience has become a critical driver of retail resilience. It shows how retailers can respond to rising digital demand, safer shopping expectations, omnichannel adoption, and changing store roles. The guide helps businesses rethink digital channels, store operations, fulfillment models, physical networks, and agile ways of working to stay relevant and build stronger customer relationships.

Retailers are facing a major customer experience reset. The report highlights that CX leaders achieved 3x higher total shareholder returns than laggards after the 2008 crisis, while COVID-19 accelerated behaviors such as BOPIS, grocery delivery, digital engagement, and store switching. It also notes that BOPIS grew 28% year over year, grocery delivery increased 57%, and many customers intended to keep using these models after the pandemic. This whitepaper provides five practical actions for retailers: double down on digital, innovate omnichannel, transform store operations, reimagine the physical network, and adopt an agile operating model. Download the full whitepaper to explore how retailers can adapt customer experience for the next normal.

What’s Inside

Customer Experience as a Retail Resilience Imperative: Why retailers with stronger CX capabilities can recover faster, build loyalty, and perform better during disruption.
How Retailers Can Meet New Customer Expectations: A practical overview of how changing consumer behavior is reshaping digital engagement, omnichannel journeys, and physical retail.
Double Down on Digital: How retailers can increase digital acquisition, improve mobile engagement, and create a zero-friction online shopping experience.
Inject Innovation Into Omnichannel: How brands can bring the in-store experience online through virtual appointments, livestreaming, AR try-ons, delivery options, and strategic partnerships.
Transform Store Operations and Win on “SafeX”: Why safe, fast, and contactless shopping experiences are now essential for rebuilding customer confidence in physical retail.
Reimagine the Physical Network: How retailers can rethink store formats, optimize footprints, use stores as fulfillment nodes, and define the future role of physical locations.
Embrace an Agile Operating Model: How real-time customer insights, faster decision-making, and test-and-learn execution help retailers adapt quickly to changing demand.
Set a Customer Experience North Star: Why retailers need clear CX priorities across digital, omnichannel, store operations, network strategy, and agile execution.