LEISURE & RETAIL
HOW TO TEMPT PEOPLE BACK TO THE SHOPS
As online shopping continues to boom, Lee Radzki from Tork manufacturer Essity considers how a clean and comfortable retail experience could help to tempt people back to the shops.
Online shopping is claimed to have accounted for more than 19% of retail sales worldwide in 2023, and according to a 2024 Statista report, this figure is predicted to rise to nearly 25% by 2027.
The pandemic has played a pivotal role in changing how we do our shopping. Many people have fallen out of the habit of visiting the precinct and have become accustomed to shopping from the comfort of their own homes instead.
Physical stores are working overtime to tempt people back to the shops for the lucrative festive season. John Lewis is offering a Quality Street pick and mix along with Lego ‘Make and Take’ workshops at some of its Christmas shops, for example.
Blue Diamond – which operates 44 garden centres across the UK – is inviting families to join Santa for breakfast or afternoon tea in a bid to make festive shopping more magical, whilst the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent is hosting a new Elf on the Shelf Christmas Adventure, described as being an interactive theatrical experience.
But many people remain wary of heading to a busy shopping centre for fear of picking up an infection or virus that would lay them low over Christmas.
Today’s growing trend for using touch-screen self-service tills is only serving to increase the risk of us picking up a bug in a retail centre. Whilst hand washing is known to be a highly effective method of removing the transient bacteria and viruses from the hands, shoppers will only have the opportunity to practise good hand hygiene when visiting a washroom.
However, shopping centre toilets tend to become particularly crowded at this time of year which means they are not without their own risks.
Congested washrooms can become a breeding ground for infections. They can also lead to messy, dirty and unhygienic conditions which will be a turn-off for customers. Shoppers with a previous bad experience of a retail centre’s toilets might then deliberately cut short their visit to avoid having to use the washrooms – a practice that will have a negative impact on the venue’s sales.
Washrooms need to be cleaned and restocked regularly in high-traffic venues. Poorly-serviced washrooms could all too easily facilitate the spread of illnesses which could be transmitted by touching a surface that an infected person has previously touched. So if a shopper leaves a retail centre washroom without having washed and dried their hands – either because the queues were too long or because the supply of soap or hand towels has run
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out – they will go on to touch other surfaces outside the washroom and risk infecting others.
Shopping centre chiefs should therefore ensure that their washrooms are up to scratch and that they provide a sufficient number of cubicles and wash basins plus a plentiful supply of soap and paper products.
Hygiene and efficiency are the all-important requirements of a retail centre washroom. Facilities should be clean and pleasant to use while allowing a quick customer throughput. And all soap and paper dispensers should provide a long-lasting supply to prevent the risk of frustrating run-outs.
No-one likes to leave a washroom with wet hands, but queues will often form around the air dryers in a busy washroom. Roller towels shave seconds off the task of hand-drying, but again the dispenser only accommodates one user at a time. Paper hand towel dispensers are therefore a good option because they allow the user to take a towel and move aside, freeing up space for the next person and reducing the risk of logjams.
A paper hand towel in a well-designed system can help to improve traffic flow because washroom visitors can quickly take a towel and move away from the dispenser, freeing it up for the next person.
A high-capacity hand towel dispenser such as the Tork PeakServe Continuous Hand Towel Dispenser is a good option for shopping centres. The unit caters for more than 1,000 guests between refills and delivers each towel in just three seconds, reducing the user’s waiting time. And the towels are delivered in a continuous lop from the top of the unit which prevents the risk of jamming.
Tork Foam Soaps also work well because each long- lasting refill serves up to 1,650 visitors per cartridge to ensure that it will not run out during busy periods. The unit also requires a particularly low push-force which makes accessing the soap both quick and easy.
A toilet paper dispenser such as the Tork SmartOne is ideal for a shopping centre because it naturally limits the amount of paper taken out by each user. The system helps to avoid run-outs because paper is delivered one sheet at a time, reducing consumption by up to 40%.
Digital technology can further help to ensure that the dispensers in a retail washroom are kept topped up at all times. For example, Tork Vision Cleaning uses sensors and people-counters to monitor washroom usage and check on dispenser refill levels. Cleaners can check remotely via a smartphone or tablet on which washroom
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