Will appointment retail hurt brick and mortar sales this holiday season?

By Mark Verone

Today is the day after Thanksgiving. It is also known as Black Friday. Historically, today is supposed to be one of the busiest shopping days of the holiday season. The day after Thanksgiving is the official start of the Christmas Holiday shopping season. It is where most retailers introduced concepts like "door busters" for the early birds and "hourly" deals or "one day only" sales or "special limited supply" deals. It is the day where people wake-up early to stand in line or in some cases storm or trample into stores to get that special deal of the day.

It is the entire basis for why Seinfeld's George Constanza invented the fictional holiday of Festivus. However, this year is much different, and retailers have closed their store on Thanksgiving evening instead of opening early for those midnight specials. Instead, retailers extended the sales and deals beyond today to prevent large gatherings of frantic shoppers crowding stores and malls. This is an effort designed to discourage those deal hungry crowds from turning into super spreader events.

Black Friday during a global pandemic doesn't look the same as last year or years past. This year retailers have offered so called "Black Friday" deals earlier in the week or as early as October in and effort to reduce the volume of people lining up on the Friday after Thanksgiving. In some cases, local restrictions limit the number of people who can enter a store at the same time. This caused some retailers to get creative earlier this year with online reservation systems to schedule appointment times to enter the store and shop.

I first noticed this appointment retail concept a few weeks ago when my wife say's "I need to run to Lululemon to pick something up - wanna join me?" Normally, this would be a great excuse for me to visit some of my favorite stores including the Apple Store, William-Sonoma or Crate & Barrel. However, this whole pandemic has made shopping in a store a whole ordeal where you have to plan ahead. I hadn't been to a "mall" in a while and I was curious about the experience. I agreed to join her on this excursion to an outdoor "town center" which is one of those open-air style malls where you park and enter each store from the exterior versus the traditional old school enclosed malls. She darts into her store and I wander over to the Apple store where there is a line outside the door. I see there is a bunch of people inside and figured the line was either crowd control or they had an event going on.

When I arrive at Apple store, I am greeted by a sign with QR codes and options for pick up, genius bar tech support and appointments to meet with a retail specialist. No options for "just browsing" and as I am fidgeting with my iPhone and the QR code, a hipster "genius" pops over to help. I explain that I just wanted to walk into the store and check out a few things and he responds that they are "appointment only" and tells me I need an appointment and he can help. It's 12:30pm and I asked when the next available appointment was, and he says "3:25pm" -- three hours from I walked up to the store? Seriously, No thank you not waiting for 3hrs to browse the Apple store.

A similar thing happened to me a few weeks ago when I needed to pick up an HMDI cable at Best Buy. I ran over to the store only to be asked at the front door whether I had booked an "appointment" time. I said "no - I just need a cable" and was told "normally you need an appointment to enter the store but since it is not too crowded, you can come inside." This was despite Best Buy announcing in June they were cutting back on appointments.

I understand the reasoning given local and state mandates along with emergency orders regarding the number of people allowed into an enclosed space. I know the numbers cannot exceed a certain formula based on square footage, etc. We are also now in the middle of the "2nd wave" and more restrictions have been enacted in the past few weeks as COVID-19 cases continue to rise. I have stood in shorter lines waiting to get into a grocery store or Costco or Home Depot but I have never made an appointment to shop. When I went to the DMV recently to renew my driver's license, I stood outside in a line. I was given a number and slowly socially distanced my way inside to get my picture taken, pay the fee and get my temporary license. I expected that at the DMV and it was fairly painless during the pandemic. Most people are used to waiting in a line at the DMV but not to enter a store or to plan ahead to book an appointment to shop.

Personally, I find this new normal of in-person retail shopping a complete and total hassle. I generally detest going to the mall and shopping in general. I prefer online shopping for most items but sometimes you need to see and touch the merchandise in-person. After my experience with Apple, there is no reason to browse the Apple store in-person. You can ask a genius online through chat the same questions you would ask in person. In fact, I am perfectly OK, not ever having to step into a crowded retail store or a mall ever again as long as there is an online purchasing option where I can have items shipped for free or I can do a curbside pickup. The one major exception to all of this is the small mom & pop retailers who might lack any sort of online or ecommerce presence. Small business struggle here.

While the major retailers have been scrambling to staff up and upgrade their online systems for fulfillment efforts, the small, local retailers have to start from scratch. Some of these small businesses are savvy enough to open online stores and offer alternate options. Shopify is having an amazing year by powering small, local retailers enabling online storefronts, transactions and fulfillment option. I worry that appointment retail will push more people to shop online which is still a win for most retailers because they're getting a sale whether you buy in-store or online. My fear is this trend will hurt the adjacent small businesses that lack a robust online option. It will mean less foot traffic which many small businesses rely upon.

Today, I don't plan to make any appointments to shop in-person. The Today show reported that Black Friday will look a lot different this year and this report offers suggestions and tips for staying safe if you choose to shop in-person.

If I cannot find it online or a curbside pickup option, then it's not meant to be. Instead, I will join 75% of Americans who say they will spend online this year. I will try to make an effort to support as many small businesses whenever possible. I encourage you to do the same. While today is Black Friday, tomorrow is Small Business Saturday and you should support local retailers now more than ever. Happy Shopping!

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Mark Verone is an experienced multimedia marketing operations executive. He has built successful global teams in digital media, advertising, video-on-demand, and content management. He is actively seeking his next opportunity: mark@markverone.com