Has COVID-19 changed the way we communicate with each other forever?

As doors were forced to close around the world due to the devastating COVID-19, technology allowed for digital doors to open. How did people around the world respond to the ability to communicate and work virtually for so many months? Has it provided a new way of business and daily activities? Many experts say this could be the new switch to an even more digital era. 

Here’s what they have to say:

As physical doors close, new digital doors swing open:

Even as stores reopen, consumers will also have changed. Retail environments and experiences have been built over generations to encourage consumers to forget time or why they came, to stay longer, to bring friends, to see the experience as a product in itself. This relies on the expectation that consumers will be leisurely, distractible, relaxed, playful, and communal—which may all easily be overridden by a more focused, task-oriented, and cautious shopper.

Match all of this with that uptick in familiarity with many things digital during the lockdown—as well as the relatively high satisfaction levels—and the long-held advantage of brick-and-mortar stores may be diminished.

The situation at hand evokes five key questions:

1. Are established e-retailers fundamentally advantaged to go after growth with this new digital uptake? Will producers of fast-moving consumer goods and of consumer packaged goods go after more direct-to-consumer pathways? How much market share is at stake by category?
2. Will any local or international retailers step up to fully invest in new first-mile capabilities that offer consumers an experience better than or rivalling the in-store experience?
3. Will native brick-and-mortar players be able to build efficient online supply chains to match online and offline margins?
4. Will there be much-needed innovation in delivery (such as Uber, crowdsourcing, and new tech) or in players to close the last-mile gap?
5. Will governments strategically support and encourage investment in Australia’s digital infrastructure and economy?

There is a big chance that the post-COVID-19 “resilients”—businesses that will drive a disproportionate amount of market growth after the reopening, as happened after the global financial crisis—will be the innovators, the disruptors, the ones that take bold action to embrace consumers where they are.

The offline and online battle won’t have a binary outcome. The players that can use the best of both channels to deliver a new, inspired, and meaningful experience will be the ones that win the hearts (and pocketbooks) of the post-COVID-19 consumer.

Author(s)Jenny Child is a partner in McKinsey’s Sydney office, where Rod Farmer is a senior expert, Thomas Rüdiger Smith is an associate partner, and Joseph Tesvic is a senior partner.The authors wish to thank Karthikeyan Swaminathan and Daniel Zipser for their contributions to this article.