Home Industry News FEATURE: the foreseeable future for adult retail

FEATURE: the foreseeable future for adult retail

FEATURE: the foreseeable future for adult retail

With non-essential physical retail still shut down, Paul Smith looks at how this down-time can be put to good use and how retailers can best prepare for a return to something close to normal…

A rising tide when you’re trapped in a cave will focus the mind and exploring escape options suddenly becomes top priority. Few will go down without a fight when there’s any hope of rescue. It’s not enough to sit passively by; proactivity at the time of crisis is often what separates survivors from statistics. There’s a stark simile for the times and I’m sorry to start this article on a downbeat note, but I wanted to impress upon readers that while it might feel like we’re cornered or being swept along by a torrent, it is still possible to shape our own fates.

Exactly how best to ‘get through this’ is open to debate but protecting yourselves, your families, and your customers has to top of everyone’s wish list. Beyond that there’s a wealth of opinions and I’ve done my best to gather reliable info to pass on. I hope some of the following is of more practical help than me metaphorically shouting “swim towards the light.”

Renovate and rejuvenate

Been thinking of replacing your flooring or just having a big move around? New displays in anticipation of the glorious reopening (albeit a low-key one with no drinks celebration) or even just a deep clean? Now would be a good time. A spring clean of your shop’s exterior might be timely too, with repainting to refresh a faded image as well as sun-faded paintwork being an option. People like familiarity at a time of great change – it is comforting, after all – but it feels weird not to acknowledge the ‘new normal’ somehow. Bright colours, as seen in rainbows in windows, seems like an appropriate response to dark times.

Covid19-themed window displays – add home-made paper masks to the mannequins? Rainbow makeover? Poster with 20% discount for NHS staff and a big ‘Thank You NHS’ in a heart-shaped lightbox? – can all be done tastefully. ‘Lockdown’ opens up a world of in-store bondage puns and with invigorating trips to the beach off the books for a while, pushing the positive mental health and emotional wellbeing aspects of an active sex life is a must.

Masturbation is not just for wankers. Solo sex is the safest sex. Dildos are a Girl’s Best Friend. Perhaps ‘Hold your loved-ones extra close’ might send the wrong message, but you get the slogan idea. The dating scene is also going to be very different until there’s a vaccine, so don’t hesitate to capitalise on the opportunities afforded by what’s obviously a situation no one wanted or asked for. It’s not cynical profiteering (unless you suddenly doubled your prices), it’s accepting the Darwinian truth of ‘adapt to thrive’. Personally I hope he’s usually misquoted and it’s all about survival of the fattest…

Online is the new offline

Lots of physical shops have switched focus to web sales and it’s possible to follow suit without your own website. I don’t mean getting a ‘white label’ site, although that’s also an option. I mean publicising how folks can buy from you without ever stepping inside. Some adult stores are offing a local delivery service, or ‘click and collect’, taking orders by email, Facebook Messenger, Twitter Direct Message, or phone. Better still is offering a ‘Shop by Skype’ (or FaceTime, Zoom etc) service, where you can show your full range of stock and help customers make direct comparisons while answering questions in real-time. That’s perhaps as close to an authentic retail experience, complete with human interaction, customer service and salescraft that it’s possible to get at the moment. A responsive, visual interaction is not just for cam girls…

Getting the word out to your customers – via mailing lists, pre-existing website (if that’s an option), leafleting/direct mail and most importantly, social media – is vital. It’s possible to be open to sales while physically closed, and for those who are licensed, it’s still ok as long as the ‘sale’ is done at your licensed premises. You are allowed to conduct business – I’ve seen enough tradesperson vans while out for my daily exercise – and I’d argue the police deciding what is and isn’t essential travel when it’d done for work is now a thing of the past after some embarrassing overreactions. Popping a ‘Retail Delivery Service for Those in Need’ sign in your car window might also deflect questions. Behaving as if you have symptomless Covid-19 is the best way to protect others, behaving as if everyone else does is the best way to protect yourself.

Meanwhile…

Commercial landlords expect to be paid, even when the business in their property isn’t operating. This is perhaps the biggest threat to bricks-and-mortar retail and you may have to have conversations about slow-moving schemes to keep businesses afloat to use in your favour. Mainstream retail chains going into receivership and several gym chains in trouble as direct debits are cancelled and monthly rent payments are demanded is a worry. The logic of creating lots of out-of-business-businesses and a glut of empty retail and commercial units to drive their rental value down is a bit lost on me, but then I’m a simple country boy.

There are business rate schemes, bank loan programmes, and other help to stay in the dry side of the Sink or Swim equation available. How quickly that becomes cash in bank accounts is another matter but checking with your local authority’s website would be a good starting point. The slow gears of officialdom aren’t encouraging, but you work with what you have I guess? Certainly joining any queue sooner rather than later gets you closer to the front.

Many of these concerns will mean little to online retailers enjoying a lift in sales, but there are still questions about supply chain reliability – a lot of stuff normally made in China didn’t get made in China for three months – and dealing with returns. Minimising handling and giving a ‘viral dying off period’ of a couple of days is probably for the best. By all accounts it doesn’t last long on cardboard and is limited to about 72hrs/3 days on plastic and metal. The economy taking a big hit, potentially pushing pleasure products further down consumers’ hierarchy of needs, is good for no one though. Again, you play the hand you’re dealt. The feel-good bounce-back better be more tangible than another ‘bounce’ promised in recent years…

It won’t always be like this

Looking forward to a time when non-essential shops are allowed to reopen, it seems likely this will come with many provisos. Taking lessons from supermarkets and takeaways, I predict restrictions on numbers to manage risk and maintain social distancing with many measures I’ve seen taken by mainstream retail in those ‘key’ areas still operating being applied to adult retail.

Limiting customer numbers instore, based on the size of the floor area, is likely to be a factor in being allowed to reopen. Stores operating via doorbell entry are at an immediate advantage here, but if you’ve the more conventional ‘double door’ system with a hallway it’s harder to manage. You’d almost want a traffic light system you can operate from your counter area so you can regulate numbers. You can buy a literal traffic light with remote control for £99.99 on Amazon, but for much less (£21.99) you could get USB-powered self-adhesive LED light strips intended for in-car use, which also have a wireless remote. With a little careful cable extending and routing you could have a strip either side of the outer door and one on the inside of the inner door to act as an indicator. Just keep the receiver somewhere the remote will reach. Once things return to normal(lite) it can be repurposed into a window or instore display with some fresh double-sided tape. As well as manually changing colours, you can leave it to cycle through a rainbow, which might be in keeping with a theme.

You’re unlikely to need to introduce a queuing system outside your shop, but if it becomes necessary you’ll want a plan on how to make 2m divisions, and where people will need to queue. Tape dividers on pavement, wall and/or window are popular. If your shop is lucky enough to have a rear entrance that would probably be the smarter place to ask folks to stand.

Taking demo units off the shelves is a given, and you’ll have to actively discourage anyone in the most vulnerable categories from coming to the store. Same too with anyone showing symptoms. I doubt you’ll need to show you’ve looked at temperature sensing methods, but if it ever comes up with ‘the authorities’ then there are smartphones from CAT with built-in IR sensors, or plug-in modules for other phones. Hand sanitiser you can operate without touching with hands might be useful too, if anyone does have to handle anything.

How to get a frivolous ‘sex shop’ on the list of approved stores in the first place? Hopefully the blanket shutdown will become a blanket lifting of restrictions but it’s not impossible national government might kick this over to local government for a gradual, staggered reopening. In which case pushing the pros to the decision makers – all the wellbeing arguments – might not be enough, but being able to show you’ve a workable plan which reduces the risk of transmission way down can only help. Hopefully you won’t be left arguing morality when e-cig and betting shops are given the green light.

As a final fall-back position, I was especially impressed with my local branch of Halford’s, which is allowed to open because cars and pushbikes both still need parts and servicing. They’ve gone the route of removing self-service and holding customers at the door. There’s a temporary counter area complete with Perspex screens where the public get to ask for what they need, and then a member of staff fetches it for them. It harks back to the days before the self-service revolution but this ‘open but not open open’ approach looks to be very low risk, both for staff and customers.

Keep it clean

The high-risk surfaces in your store are the ones which people habitually touch. Obviously that includes door handles, push plates (I still see people pushing doors with their hands rather than elbow, foot, arm or shoulder), and card machine keypads (I carry a pen to press buttons with), but I’d add anywhere one might casually rest a hand without thinking (corner of a display island, edge of the counter).

Stock appears to be lower risk, but discouraging unnecessary contact with a parental-style ‘please look with your eyes, not with your hands’ sign might hammer the point home. You’re going to have to do a lot of cleaning, and be seen to be doing lots of cleaning, to maintain consumer confidence.

Also consider your letterbox flap – as handled by your postie – and light switches touched by staff. The whole till area is a hotspot that needs regular cleaning, with any touchscreens or other interfaces being top priority. While shopping I’ve noted a rise in the popularity of the self-service tills, and I’ve taken to holding up items for staff to scan to avoid handing it to them and being handed it back. I’ve become hyper aware of unnecessarily risky behaviour since March and now cringe when people stand too close, touch stuff other people obviously touched recently, and I predict I’ll soon add ‘aren’t wearing a mask’ to that list. Requiring them to be worn in public is almost certainly days away and that’s another sign to put up because for too many people ‘in public’ means ‘outside’. Reminding them it doesn’t might be important, especially if the shop they’re in is quiet.

Until there’s a vaccine, reducing transmission is going to be everyone’s duty. The ‘cashless society’ which has been discussed for some years is likely to take a big step forward. I’ve not paid for anything in cash since ‘all this’ began and would think twice about handling change. The criticism that operating ‘cashless shops’ discriminates against those without a bank account is still there, but there’s a really solid counter-argument now. The legalities are you’re within your rights not to accept cash if you don’t want to and I wouldn’t see HM Government moving to change this. With contactless payments being extended from £30 to £45 in March and handheld barcode scanners which can be used by staff to zap products held by customers, there’s very little need for physical contact between the triumvirate of consumer, shop environment/stock, and staff. With the expectation of masks becoming mandatory this might be a condition of reopening too; full face visors and masks to contain cough and sneeze particles for staff.

Positivity

I’m aware some of the people reading this will have lost friends and even family to Covid-19. I’ve been moved by news reports of dying medics who came out of retirement to help, and of youngsters taken far too soon. Talk of positivity will seem pretty hollow to you, I know. I don’t want to suggest this isn’t a thoroughly horrible time – it is – but I do think remaining optimistic helps. Whether that’s clapping for the NHS, marvelling at a 99-year-old doing laps of his garden, or appreciating the other good news stories the crisis has produced, I have to be all about the positive at the moment and I hope you can be too. Fear is useful as a motivator and if worries can be channelled into practical measures then even they can be a good thing.

Good choices at a time of desperation produce better outcomes and I hope I’ve suggested some sensible reactions to what’s still a pretty fluid, unreal situation. Surreal even. That sense of unreality is a danger if it leads to not taking the Coronavirus seriously (men are at more danger from Covid-19 than women, because we’re not good at evaluating risk), or allowing it to freeze you like a rabbit in the headlights.

Things will take a long time to return to ‘normal’ and since we can’t change this we must make a success out of a shitty situation, like Captain Tom and his Zimmer frame.