On the 6^th of May we concluded the third session of our ‘The New Normal For Retail’ digital event series with Bilyana Geogieva.

After outlining the current state of play for retail since the coronavirus pandemic knocked the sector off kilter, and looking into what needs to happen in the short term to get retail back on its feet, Bilyana used Wednesday’s session to discuss with other retail experts what the sector can do to not just survive, but thrive in the next 18 months.

Together we looked into the tactics we’d need to adopt in order to evolve the sector to fit with new demands, such as an increased need for online sales and social distancing in stores.

From cross-collaboration of sectors such as the intermingling of fashion and technology retail to deliver innovative solutions like experiential showrooms, to exploring a decreased reliance on influencers to target the youth generation – there’s a lot of work to be done to adapt retail as we know it for the post-COVID19 market.

Bilyana recommended that everyone in the retail space take a look at the Business of Fashion and McKinsey report, The State of Fashion 2020, to take a deeper dive into how exactly we should go about “rewiring the fashion industry”.

To learn more about the youth generation and their unique shopping habits and trends, she shared excerpts from the Highsnobiety report on how quarantine is impacting generations Y & Z. Interestingly, the over-saturation of “hype” and bombardment of these generations with sales messaging has already incited a change in their buying behaviours. Now more than ever this is something retailers should be keenly aware of and constantly adapting to.

Additionally Bilyana raised some interesting points around the innovations Silicon Valley’s executives and business owners are focusing right now, despite COVID-19. You can access their interesting piece on the ‘2 steps further future’ on Highsnobiety.

If you’d like to read through Bilyana’s slides, you can access them here.

We're looking forward to Bilyana's next Open Q&A sessions on the 15th of May for business change and transformation professionals in the retail space. To find out more about this series and to sign up for the next sessions, head over to our New Normal For Retail page.