As non-essential retail businesses reopen, their biggest priority is making sure staff and customers are well-protected against the virus. One of the major ways to do this is via the implementation of effective Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
More than just safety, PPE plays an important role in quelling the anxieties of customers, which will be high as we endure the first few stages of lockdown relaxation. As customers look for the lengths that retailers have gone to, in order to ensure their safety.
As retail businesses re-open it will be necessary for all staff (with some exemptions) to wear masks that cover the mouth and nose, as dictated by UK law. Additionally, sanitising stations should be installed at the entrance and exits of the premises to prevent coronavirus particles being transmitted via contact from the customers to the merchandise and vice versa.
However, past these preventative measures, retail businesses need to consider how they can integrate effective long-term precautions against the virus in-store – and PPE plays a huge role in this, as the equipment can prevent transmission of COVID-19 in the premises.
How do you make the right choices about PPE for your retail business?
When choosing PPE, retail businesses need to ask what they need the equipment for: to put barriers between staff and customers to prevent transmission between the groups? To separate customers or to establish a one-way system? After figuring out the potential risk areas which could lead to transmission of the virus, businesses can look for specific PPE that reduces these risks.
As essential businesses have stayed open throughout this period they’ve got a head start on implementing PPE to protect both customers and staff from the virus, installing screens at the tills – for example – to prevent the transmission of airborne COVID-19 particles.
Likewise, retail businesses will need to make choices regarding PPE which reflect the continued role that the coronavirus will have in our lives and especially on the way we conduct in-person business.
When retailers purchase PPE, one of the things to consider is how durable they are, items such as partitions and screens must stand the test of time, as social distancing may need to be introduced at numerous points in the future as the virus may never go away completely.
For this reason, too, retailers should take into account the ease of the equipment’s storage when making PPE purchases, as PPE may need to be stored and brought out frequently further down the post-pandemic timeline.
In summary:
Frequent hand-sanitising and having staff and customers wear masks, are essential baseline measures to prevent the spread of the virus, whilst also installing long term durable PPE, such as screens, to provide double protection and a more permanent solution to, what is likely to be, a long-term problem.