Hair salons, nail salons, gyms and many more businesses recently opened as part of Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Stage Three Plan. With the nonstop rise of confirmed COVID-19 cases, however, Californians may face a second quarantine.
Simultaneously, the national and local economies have plummeted, particularly retail foot traffic. In-store customer traffic decreased with COVID-19, yes, but California faces two unique problems of its own.
For California, the number one travel destination in the country, travel has, well, decreased with fears and regulations brought by the coronavirus. Additionally, the state has two main ports, but with decreased international shipments comes difficulty stocking our shelves.
Zenreach is a company that’s designed to bridge the gap between the online and offline world… and the way we do this is by putting a software layer that sits on top of the local WiFi.
John Kelly, CEO Zenreach
This local wifi is present even in mainstream coffee shops, such as the Starbucks free guest WiFi. Once we input our names, email addresses and more, companies like Zenreach can collect information about us consumers, ultimately marketing on behalf of the merchant.
However, it is no surprise that the coronavirus has killed the U.S. economy as well.
“What we’ve seen is dramatic decreases in retail foot traffic, up to 75 percent decreases at one point in May nationwide,” said John Kelly, CEO of Zenreach.
While California’s retail foot traffic decreased by 8 percent from the start of May to the start of June, the country’s increased by six percent.
California retail will hit the high shopping levels of last year by September 9th, according to Zenreach’s data.
There may be no reassurance for local and mainstream companies in California, but in the meantime, business owners can learn and prepare.
And Zenreach offers various webinars and guides for merchants, whether focused on business during a pandemic or not. Its very own Walk-Through Rate calculator allows one to “see real results walk in the door.”