The phrase “We’re all in this together” has been over-used during 2020, but it certainly applies when assessing the bond between retailers and consumers. Shoppers can identify with the challenges these organizations are facing in putting their frontline employees into potentially hazardous environments and they appreciate the extra lengths retailers have gone to in order to implement curbside pickup or expedited product delivery. Retailers are doing their part to help make our shopping experience safer, and that’s going to resonate with consumers. The ones who are succeeding will see increased loyalty carry over post-pandemic.

Consumers are looking for safety and predictability from their preferred retailers, whether they are shopping online, curbside or in-store. Stores like Target are filling these needs, and gaining market share in the process.

The trust factor, which was already high at companies like Target, Walmart and Amazon, will continue to drive these stores’ sales long after the pandemic is in the rear-view mirror. The evolution of consumer behavior (and retailers’ responses to it) has become a revolution in 2020.

Demonstrated, visible measures to keep guests and employees safe and protected should be a cornerstone for retailers. This genuine interest and caring attitude will go far to strengthen relationships and build loyalty. Retailers MUST follow through and make the commitment to safety as they continue to reopen and return to whatever the new normal may look like.

Sure, we can talk about how brands can connect with consumers by using COVID-19 specific “right now” messaging. The truth is, I think most of the public has recognized what we’ve long known: that retail workers — from grocery clerks to the delivery person, fulfillment center workers to the person who answers the phone — are everyday heroes. As consumers reflect on how important a brand’s products are, they realize how important the people are who help us obtain them. The people are what make us more intimately connected to the brand.

Trust is often an underestimated part of the loyalty equation, but the pandemic has brought it to the forefront. People have always preferred to shop for brands they trust at retailers they trust. The pandemic may have changed some trust criteria, but it has only increased the importance of earning shopper trust throughout the entire customer lifecycle: protect their data, respect their privacy, provide quality products, stand behind those products and, now, provide a safe shopping environment with options that reflect the customer’s needs.

Engaging with customers by keeping them informed of stock levels, implementing safety protocols and ensuring fairness (by limiting people from over-buying) strengthened the bond between the retailer and customer during the pandemic, by showing them they are working in their best interests and not just for profit. Going beyond these practices by giving back to the community and ensuring employees are well-treated can also build loyalty by aligning to a customer’s value system.

It’s impossible to imagine that any kind of status quo thinking will work these days, at either the retailer or customer level. Shopper expectations have changed and the retailers who rise to, or above, those expectations will do well. Certainly there are opportunities to surprise and delight, but there are also opportunities to frustrate and disappoint. COVID-19 will be viewed as a tilt-of-the-earth’s-axis event a year or two from now. It will have permanently shifted and raised expectations for how retailers treat their employees and customers.

I think we have a false choice here. “Is establishing in-store safety protocols or meeting online delivery times more important to consumers at this moment?” Whoever the retailer is better deliver on both counts to stay viable with me.

With regard to building customer relationships, it should not, but it did, take COVID-19 to wake some retailers up. Sadly, many will lapse back into old habits when the pandemic challenge disappears.

Yesterday’s discussions regarding Amazon and Tony Hsieh are all about the value of what is really a one-on-one relationship.

COVID-19 has helped agile retailers earn consumer loyalty with subscriptions, private label and strategic assortments.

Subscriptions like Walmart+ and Prime offer convenient delivery and value-add offerings that make loyalty mutually beneficial. Retailers also gain data insights for relevant marketing that can make shoppers feel understood and willing to buy.

Private labels like Target’s Good & Plenty and Kroger’s Simple Truth boost loyalty because these quality lines are exclusive to the retailer.

Offering an in-stock, in-demand assortment matters most this year. Retailers earn consumer trust and devotion by consistently ensuring the availability of bestsellers.

Blue Goose Market is a family owned grocer that has been in our community for over four generations. The store is beautiful and offers superior products. In late 2019 sales started to slip as consumers moved to the big super grocery stores. When COVID-19 hit the owner went to work, and I mean to WORK finding items you couldn’t find anywhere else, keeping the store safe, and keeping customers informed. He upped his grassroots outreach with videos on social media, took customers along virtually on visits to markets and vendors, and it worked. Blue Goose reconnected with the community.

So yes, COVID-19 has opened up opportunities for retailers to nurture greater consumer loyalty.

On the whole, retail has performed very well in bonding with customers through the great care they take in sanitary promises and efforts. This has to remain a constant. When we shop grocers we ask, what was the one point of difference that we enjoyed most? It always comes down to staff relationships with customers producing trust. I remember a few years ago the powerful story of a young bagger in a grocery store that inserted small notes featuring wonderful, inspirational messages in the bags. It got to the point that customers would wait in his line just to get their lift of the day. Sometimes our staff members have the winning ideas. Has management asked them for their thoughts lately? That’s something to think about.

Every touchpoint between a retailer and a customer is an opportunity to build trust and affinity or destroy it. Each individual touchpoint may not affect the customer´s overall feeling in a dramatic way, but over time this is how relationships develop.

For that reason, retailers that have reacted well to the COVID-19 situation have built appreciation – and not just via their marketing efforts, but with the hundreds of things they’ve done (often behind the scenes) to make the customer feel safe and valued.

Next year, we may have a different situation. Next week, something great or terrible could happen in any community. Retailers should have scenarios developed for how they would respond in many situations to continue building loyalty across all their segments.

There are several ways retailers were able to capture more loyalty with their customers. The rock stars did three things well. First, they were there for them emotionally. Somehow they made the connection to their customers to let them know “they were there for them.” Second, they made their customers feel safe. Safety and health protocols made customers comfortable going into an in-store environment. Third, they were convenient to their customers. The ability to deliver, order online, etc. created a level of convenience that made it easy for customers to do business with them. At one point, these conveniences were an option or even a luxury. Today they are an expectation.

The pandemic has shifted the focus from a transactional relationship to an emotional one to connect consumers with brands. Consumers are looking to be associated with brands that share similar values and beliefs which goes a long way toward making people remain loyal to a brand.

COVID-19 risk, in-store, on the floor, whether Target, Costco, Home Depot, etc., the relationship between each individual customer and each individual store associate he/she meets along their in-store journey is the key physical-world opportunity to build greater loyalty with each customer. Retailers who leave it up to consumers to decide to wear a mask, or social distance, or other COVID-19 safety protocols put their customers in the role of protecting their own safety or simply leaving the store.

One of the top aspects of retail customer relationship building during the pandemic is safety leadership along the entire chain of command, which then in turn is executed on the retail floor by associates who believe in the humanity of their leadership. Leadership who pays their associates essential pay as an acknowledgment of the personal health risk each associate faces while working on the sales floor. Thus, associates assisting each customer in a thoughtful and kind manner. A special opportunity for retailers to build trust and loyalty within their own ranks and with each customer.

Retailers have always been focused on labor savings and less so on customer experience. The pandemic is forcing retailers to focus on customer convenience to match the new customer journey. It is no longer good enough just to focus on product, price, place and promotion but a fifth “P” must be added as in patron, purchaser. The customer has changed and we need to morph with them to keep their loyalty.

This report provides an interesting perspective to the question: “Over the long run, which retailers will win or lose from COVID?” Between 2019 and 2020 the brand intimacy quotient of big retailers like Target, Costco, Whole Foods, and even Amazon, slightly declined. The big exception is Walmart, which saw its score increase by 29%! Who would have thought, 5 years ago, that Walmart would teach Amazon a lesson during a boost in online purchasing?