Inflection Points and Discontinuities? Pandemic Recovery, Experiential Consumption, and the Emergence of Circular Economy Retail Business Models

COVID-19 has been an inflection point, and a discontinuity. As an inflection point the pandemic challenged existing systems and processes as well as accelerating pre-pandemic trends. As a discontinuity, the pandemic forced governments and companies to focus on pandemic related improvisations and recovery processes. One consequence was the temporary displacement of existing strategies. This chapter explores retailing in the context of pandemic recovery by exploring three on-going process changes. First, it explores the on-going shift towards e-commence with important implications for urban logistics and environmental pollution and last mile deliveries. Second, alterations in the geography of consumer demand have forced retailers, and urban shopping districts, to focus on transforming in-store retailing and shopping areas into experiences. Third, consumption makes an important negative contribution to climate change as every moment of consumption is associated with pollution. Retailers are experimenting with reducing their climate footprints by reducing waste, shifting towards more eco-sustainable products, as well as introducing post-consumer recycling including reselling products. This represents the application of circular economy approaches to retailing that will become increasingly important but have implications for reverse logistics.