Why the Pandemic Put Some Retailers Ahead of the Pack

If there’s one thing good that happened with the pandemic, it’s that it pushed retail and hospitality to work harder than they ever have before at innovating new concepts.

We’re not talking about putting tents and tables in a parking lot.

We’re talking about creating concepts that can deliver long-term value and customer conversion in unexpected ways.

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 To be innovative in this kind of crisis takes not only ingenuity but the ability to be nimble and have the liquidity to invest to a meaningful degree in a new concept.

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Take Dick’s Sporting Goods, which has already been enjoying robust sales thanks to an increase in consumers investing in home gym equipment. That increase led to a brief but critical stock surge up 170% in March and August of 2020.

The brand didn’t waste any time exploring new initiatives to keep that momentum going as their stocks tumbled once the vaccine had a release date.

Sporting equipment and apparel made a huge jump in revenue in 2020 as people sought ways to continue working out without a gym. Dick’s Sporting Goods developed monster experience centers and spread into 47 states.

Last month they launched a “House of Sport” in Victor, New York, chock-full of experiential store activities like a 17,000-square-foot turf field and track, a 32-foot rock-climbing wall, and golf pro shops that include simulator-equipped golf hitting bays and putting green.

It’s doubtful there’s any real profit for Dick’s with fixing a tennis racket, but it’s the investment in real, old-fashioned service that always makes a difference.

How about a batting cage? Check. Wellness services like yoga? Check. Add to that, things like baseball glove steaming, racquet stringing, and other maintenance services designed to get people back into the store. I love this kind of thinking. It’s doubtful there’s any real profit for Dick’s with fixing a tennis racket but it’s the investment in real, old-fashioned service that makes a difference with customers.

Dicks is going full throttle with other sports-focused retail, like new iterations of their Golf Galaxy stores with tech-enabled golf simulators and putting greens, as well as custom fittings and golf lessons.

How about hotels – what can they do when people are traveling way less for business, only slightly more for leisure (a trickle), and choosing an Airbnb over a traditional hotel?

While hotels were forced to remain open only for front-line workers, by late 2020 they were able to welcome people looking for someplace else to work but home. Courtesy: The Ace Hotel.

What many hospitality brands discovered is that everyone is looking for a “third place” that lets them get out of the house and into an inspiring, safe environment.

By late 2020 people who got sick of working from home relocated to outer-city resorts and vacation towns. In Lake Tahoe, Palm Springs, Jackson Hole, and Santa Fe, little communities of tech workers began springing up and turning hotels into quasi dormitories, where outside decks and pool areas became their offices.

Hyatt group has rolled out “Work from Hyatt” packages at more than two dozen properties across the U.S., Mexico, and the Caribbean.

In 2020 Stella Artois tapped creative agency This Is Lester to invent a virtual hotel experience, designed to placate a quarantined population of fans suffering from cabin fever.

Late last year, Anheuser-Busch’s Stella Artois found a way to target those suffering from cabin fever with a “virtual hotel” that allowed them to experience all the amenities of a fantasy hotel without leaving home. There was a  personalized itinerary, mini-bar with snacks, and a room service care package, along with a tablet that allowed them to interact with a hotel staff who catered to their whims.

How about a wake-up call from actor Liev Schreiber, or personalized experiences curated by basketball player Blake Griffin who stood in as the hotel’s concierge? Wo would say no to room service from Eva Longoria, who worked with local chefs to create meals, alongside virtual bartender Andy Cohen.

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How about hotels – what can they do when people are traveling way less for business, only slightly more for leisure (a trickle), and choosing an Airbnb over a traditional hotel?

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Despite being one of the hardest hit by the pandemic, several New York restaurants found ways to make “outdoor dining” feel more indoor, with private enclosed spaces that felt magical and helped distract from the fact that we can’t live life as usual. Ideas like this have long-term value because they’re fun and unique even without the threat of a pandemic.

Check out the rooftop of The Greens at Pier 17, Located within Manhattan’s Seaport District, which is home to  28 cozy cabins for your own private dining experience. Designed and built by experiential agency Relevent (who has also helped Marriott up their game with in-room services), each cabin can fit up to 10 people and is disinfected thoroughly between each 90-minute reservation slot.

These transparent greenhouse concepts feature banquette seating, a virtual fireplace, electric heating, and jaw-dropping views of the City. The effect is more one of a little village, and the concept clearly struck a chord with people feeling socially isolated.

Designed by experiential agency Relevent and developed by The Howard Hughes Corp., The Greens in New York is a rooftop Pop Up that is a great example of elevating outdoor dining to the highest level — literally.

Regrettably, there were many businesses that simply could not survive the months of being closed or only partially open.

To be innovative in this kind of crisis takes not only ingenuity but the ability to be nimble and have the liquidity to invest to a meaningful degree in a new concept. Smaller operations like Mom&Pop’s just couldn’t do that. But what we all can learn from this is to reimagine a business from more than one perspective. A restaurant is about dining in. Dining out. Taking out. But how can the experience be that much different from the norm?

Header Photo: Hotel Schani in Vienna.

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