by anand ramanathanour way of life as common consumers and businesses across industries has undergone transformation in view of covid19facts from our ongoing deloitte consumer tracker survey show the intension to purchase goods across categories of essentials and nonessentials by indian consumers largely leans towards online shopping vis vis purchasing instore for instance while 40 of consumers want to buy groceries online only 29 would like to buy them instorehealth concern about being in public gatherings crowded stores and indulging in inperson interactions have drastically reduced thanks to the anxiousness and scare of the pandemic consumers are consciously gravitating towards less crowded areas venturing only within their own neighbourhoods and choosing direct virtual and online experiences through digital mediums and ecommerce naturally purchase intent on online channels for consumer goods has increased advt business opportunities presented by this pandemic are not new historically southeast asian consumer businesses from ecommerce to personal care to food have reinvented operating models during pandemics such as sars mers and the avian flu covid19 presents yet another opportunity for forwardthinking businesses to leverage exponential technologies and achieve explosive growth as a result golden rules for businesses leaders can find opportunities in adversity to drive a competitive edge through business transformation this pandemic has provided businesses a chance to transform their approach to customers by integrating online and offline channels and achieve a phygital strategy one that balances physical and virtual worlds this will be key for stemming leakages and accelerating sales while online retail provides actionable data to enhance productivity and boost growth physical retail offers crucial differentiators local trust faster availability and staff to influence purchases frontend transformation involves six core dimensionssales customer experience product marketing stores and digital catalogues a phygital transformation addresses all six dimensions by reimagining how customers relate to physical spaces and salespeople minimising instore traffic and reconciling online and offline inventory sales reinvent the relationship between customers and sales associateschatbots powered by artificial intelligence ai can be used for sales marketing and customer relationships ai can also be leveraged for recommendation algorithms and semantic searches to make online shopping as convenientif not morethan an instore experience advt customer experience recreate instore experiences onlineengaging experiences can be reproduced online an asian luxury brand recreated their instore experience virtually for customers to avail promotions and sales consultations all through social media in lieu of personalised assistance in physical stores remote realtime video shopping has been adopted by global national and regional indian brands product replace the touchandfeel factor virtuallybiometric fittings provide apparel companies with personalised fit predictions digital reality for virtual tryons can be of value in apparel jewellery eyewear and furniture marketing simplify selling through advertising and social mediaomnichannel marketing can capture leads across channels run targeted campaigns and help in crossselling and upselling an indian ecommerce provider enabled customers to shop for apparel directly from video advertisements by simply clicking on the shopping cart icon whenever an item of their choice appeared