Can temporary response in Retail Supply Chain be Permanent advantage to Traditional retail outlets?

A predominant feature being observed during Covid-19 is ingenious solutions being worked out to tide over the situation. A lot of Supply Chains from various sectors have found temporary ways to overcome the challenges. While solutions have been undertaken as a measure to respond to Covid-19, the history of Supply Chain responses to events like that tend to indicate that Temporary responses have a tendency to stay Permanent. I wish if that is thought through by the Traditional next door retailer outlet.

A case in point is consumer side of the Retail Supply Chain. The "Brick & Mortar" Supply Chain is back with the next door retail shop returning to be the primary (rather the only) place of buying stuff. In India, over the years while the "e" platforms or organized retail formats have been rolled out over the years, they have co-existed with the traditional retail shops. During Covid-19 situation this seems to be a blessing in disguise. The existence of the next door retailer has ensured consumers have buying touch points while the "e" or the mall formats are not available. Consumers have re-discovered their trusted friend - The traditional retail outlets, which till Covid-19 occurrence were shunned as points of major buying by the consumer.

Since the rollout of Organized Retail in India there have been multiple attempt by the Retail Organization representatives to convince the government & agencies like that to understand the pain of traditional retail outlets (of loosing their consumers to the new formats) & roll back the policies. Naturally, the consumer as well as the policymakers didn't pay much attention (except for some extremely sensitive cases). Due to Covid-19, a natural phenomenon has emerged with the consumer having returned back to the traditional retail outlets.  

A smart strategy, if deployed by these retail outlets, can convert a temporary response into a Permanent solution. The traditional retail outlets have already won the trust, offered out of the way service & in some cases, have a "mini e platform" kind of a system (like some retail outlets have accepted Whats app based orders, electronic payments, Home deliveries) which if they can capitalize then Covid-19 can be an important turning point for them. That's the temporary response to be capitalized for Permanent advantage.

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