{"id":133090,"date":"2021-02-16T14:10:11","date_gmt":"2021-02-16T14:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/uk\/?p=133090"},"modified":"2023-09-27T15:17:57","modified_gmt":"2023-09-27T14:17:57","slug":"covid-and-brexit-the-perfect-storm-but-how-does-retail-survive-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/uk\/2021\/02\/covid-and-brexit-the-perfect-storm-but-how-does-retail-survive-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Covid And Brexit – The Perfect Storm. But How Does Retail Survive It?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been an incredibly hard time for both retail businesses and customers alike. Forced lockdowns, combined with health anxieties and economic worries do not encourage consumer spend.<\/p>\n

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) reported that 2020 was the worst year for retail since records began in 1995, with a 0.3% fall in total sales, while sales of non-food in physical shops fell 24% year-on-year as we were all told to stay at home.<\/p>\n

Shoppers who are spending in lockdown are mostly doing so online \u2013 as the digital convenience trend paved by pureplay titans like Amazon, Uber and Deliveroo has been adopted at speed due to Covid-19 restrictions. These online habits forged during lockdown are here to stay as customers realise how easy and convenient it is to shop from around the world, while sat on their sofa.<\/p>\n

But selling purely online comes at a cost to most high-street retailers, not to mention the additional logistics of social distancing at warehouses, combined with stores standing empty for months on end making zero sales. There have already been a few casualties, but our ever-resilient retailers have rose to the challenge and kept our country going through one of the toughest periods in living memory.<\/p>\n

And just when we were all getting used to this new way of pandemic life, a little word with the ability to stir up an ever-contentious debate comes barrelling back into our lives at the tail end of last year. Brexit.<\/p>\n

The Double Blow<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Of course, Brexit never went away. But with a global pandemic to contend with, you\u2019d be forgiven if the transition deadline of 31 January 2020 crept up on us all a little too quickly. Quite simply, the double blow of Covid and Brexit was the perfect storm.<\/p>\n

We breathed a sigh of relief as Boris secured a free-trade deal moments before Christmas, but now we\u2019re officially out of the single market there are still many hurdles to jump through with\u00a0UK customers already complaining about unexpected charges on EU-imported goods.<\/a>\u00a0These tariffs also apply to EU customers shopping with UK companies, with\u00a0headlines suggesting UK products could be abandoned on the continent and burnt<\/a>\u00a0if shoppers refuse to pay the tariffs as it is too costly for retailers to facilitate returns.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s before we even touch on M&S favourite Percy Pig being held hostage on the Irish border\u00a0as the sweets are impacted by the \u2018rules of origin\u2019.<\/a>\u00a0Even Covid-19 vaccines have been dragged into the Brexit argument.<\/p>\n

The increase in eCommerce which helped retailers stay afloat over the last year, will be the centre of many of these Brexit-related changes. But what exactly should retailers be keeping an eye on?<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the Impact on Retail?<\/strong><\/h2>\n