It turns out that all commerce is local commerce after a year of global pandemic.

By now, it shouldn’t surprise anyone who follows retail trends that “omnichannel” was the biggest buzzword of 2020, largely due to the fallout from COVID-19. Why did omnichannel retail suddenly come to the fore? Because last year’s rogue virus made everything about our everyday lives harder, so we appreciated and rewarded any business that made it easier to keep buying things we still needed and wanted.

What once made malls a favorite shopping destination is holding them back in the age of buy-online-pickup-in-store 

For people who love to browse the racks of their favorite retailers, there’s no place more exciting than a mall. Social time with family and friends, and easy access to physical stores with actual merchandise you can see, touch, or smell — these are the experiences that make the heart of a true shopper beat a little faster.

3 Valuable Lessons About Customer Service During Covid-19

Looking back, no one could have known what awaited the retail industry and our economy in the first half of this year, just as no one can accurately predict what will happen next. We can, however, pause to reflect on some of the more obvious ways COVID-19 has impacted multi-level marketers (MLMs) and other direct-to-consumer businesses over the past six months.

Think about any direct selling business and a digital-first approach is probably not what comes to mind. But young entrepreneurs joining the ranks of direct sales distributors have been changing how today’s direct selling brands operate.

Shaped by the needs of Generation Y, more direct sales companies are leveraging digital tools in all aspects of their businesses — from sales collateral to how their independent business owners (IBOs) or distributors operate.

Contactless pickup is here to stay

Social distancing and contactless pickup are here to stay for the foreseeable future. At Cura Resource Group we’re not surprised that a recent survey by Ipsos and USA Today concluded “more online, less in-store” is the clearest shopping trend so far since the COVID-19 pandemic rocked the world in early Spring. It turns out that most consumers aren’t in a hurry to go back to the way things were.

Our Thoughts on the Future of Last-Mile Delivery

Cura Resource Group is in the business of helping companies distribute their goods in complex, hard-to-navigate, urban markets, so we’re well aware that last-mile logistics have never been more important than they are right now. With social distancing in full force due to COVID-19, people are depending on home deliveries for everything from food to pet supplies to paper goods (yes, even toilet paper.) We have never lived through such a significant disruption of “normal” shopping routines — even in years when our country was at war and supplies were scarce, people could still leave their homes to buy what they needed from local stores.

Think about your last e-commerce purchase experience. What’s one of the first things you think of? If you said the delivery of the product, you’re not alone.

Regardless of the experience of the actual purchase, the perception of the business — rightly, or wrongly — is often shaped by the circumstances surrounding the delivery.

The average value for an online purchase in the U.S. is just over $85. Would you leave $85 lying out in the open for anyone to take? Probably not. Yet we do this on an almost daily basis with packages that have equal and sometimes greater value, as they are left unattended on porches and front steps.

Recent studies show that 58% of men and 50% of women enjoy making their purchases online, but going in store to pick up their item. Reasons range from convenience, to cost savings, to security.