{"id":1517,"date":"2020-11-12T09:38:49","date_gmt":"2020-11-12T09:38:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.uantwerpen.be\/business-economics\/?p=1517"},"modified":"2021-02-05T10:46:47","modified_gmt":"2021-02-05T10:46:47","slug":"the-local-shop-as-the-winner-of-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uantwerpen.be\/business-economics\/the-local-shop-as-the-winner-of-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"The local shop as the winner of COVID-19?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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The COVID-19 crisis offers a great opportunity for your local bakery, specialized retailer or grocery store. The obligatory closure of physical shops forced many of them to finally set up a webshop while consumers had to move online to purchase products. Social elements as solidarity, the shop local campaigns and the need for interaction at times of social distancing were the matchmakers on duty. The entrepreneurs should now benefit from the efforts made and professionalize their online channel.<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Joris Beckers<\/a> and Prof. Ann Verhetsel<\/a><\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

Belgium was not an e-commerce country before COVID-19<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Belgium possesses a relative traditional retail and hospitality landscape. Urban sprawl in our country resulted in a scattering of stores and bars with the infamous strip malls along our axes roads. Yet (larger) local retail centers managed to stay relevant as pleasant shopping areas for fun-shopping while peripheral locations hosted mostly run-shoppers. This dual shopping landscape remained largely intact in spite of the rise in online shopping.<\/p>\n

“Our dense urban network implied the majority of the products could be found relatively close to home, limiting the need to go online. Before COVID-19, we hence unsurprisingly displayed relative low e-commerce levels compared to our neighbors.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"eurostat\"<\/p>\n

Source: Eurostat 2020<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Digital shift provides opportunities for small retailers and horeca<\/strong><\/h2>\n

As a result, the lockdown measures for  the retail and hospitality sectors came as a shock. Few stores had an online presence, making these two of the sectors to be hit hardest by the pandemic. But they adapted quickly. Our survey in May among Flemish retailers and horeca showed that 50% of the entrepreneurs that did not have an online presence before the pandemic, opened a webshop in the beginning of the lockdown<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The ninth wave of the De grote Coronastudie<\/a> (May 12, 2020) captured the change in online shopping behavior by Belgian consumers, showing the digitalization in retail and horeca was both necessary and rewarding.<\/p>\n

\"coronastudie\"<\/p>\n

Source: Corona Studie 2020<\/a>, Universiteit Antwerpen, UHasselt, KU Leuven<\/em><\/p>\n

Big players (included in non-food \u2013 franchise) like Bol.com and Zalando are of course one of the few winners in this crisis. Nonetheless, we see that online purchases of local food and non-food rose with 110% and 66% respectively. The former is understandable given it does not make sense to order food from the other side of the country, but especially the latter is encouraging, showing that many shoppers choose the local webshops over giants like Coolblue or Amazon<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The deliberate choice for purchasing local products online can be attributed to a couple of social factors.<\/p>\n

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