We are all excited to say farewell to 2020. And while the new year does conjure a feeling of hope, sadly, swapping one digit for another doesn’t mean anything has actually changed for this year as it relates to the COVID pandemic and retail. At least for the first HALF of 2021.
We are still in the grips of a global pandemic. And while a vaccine will (hopefully) be making its way into the arms of many soon, roll-out could also fuel even greater unknowns for retailers, brands and manufacturers. Couple this with other economic unknowns, and the faster spread of new strains of the virus, and this year may be even less predictable than last.
How consumers will react to these changes is even less clear and unfortunately, we probably can’t expect a return to “former normalcy” until at least Q3 2021.