Retail giant Unicomer opened the month of November announcing that instead of focusing on one day of deep savings for customers, it will commit the entire month of November to providing the best deals every day for customers. This is being done in honour of the most anticipated shopping day in retail—Black Friday. The decision to extend the days for customer savings throughout the month of November was taken to prevent over-crowding in the stores and mitigate against the community spread of COVID-19.
“COVID-19 has called upon us as retailers to be conscientious and more deliberate with our planning. While we are mindful that we must continue to provide the economic boosts through our operations, we are also conscious that we must do so in an environment that is safe for our customers and employees. The impact of the pandemic on the health and wellness of persons necessitated the need for us to go back to the drawing board and rethink our operations,” expressed Mr. Vincent Gordon, Managing Director of Unicomer (St. Lucia) Limited.
Unicomer’s response was to announce its latest campaign, “Every day is Black Friday” in all of its stores in the OECS. This year, customers will be treated to a deal every day with savings of up to 70% off in all of its retail stores. In addition, the retail shopping days have been extended to include Sunday shopping for patrons and a broader array of offers and discounts have been made available online to allow for ease of shopping and convenience. “We wanted to provide our customers with more choices. We have even added free next day delivery for customers that shop online via ShopCourts.com,” exclaimed Mr. Gordon. “With the new options and greater opportunities to access savings, we hope that this will be welcomed by our customers and encourage them to spend and stimulate the economy.”
In addition to reshaping its retail campaign to meet the needs of its customers, the Unicomer Group also strengthened its COVID-19 protocols in its retail operations to monitor crowds and closely manage public health measures. “While there are maximum capacity signs listed at all of our locations, to assist with crowd control and monitoring, traffic counters have also been installed in all of our branches to record the footfall of customers. Our systems have been preprogrammed with the mandatory government regulated thresholds for traffic at our facilities. The instant a store’s capacity reaches 90%, the Branch Manager is notified and takes action,” explained Mr. Linus Herelle, OECS Unicomer, Director of Property and Loss Prevention. “This coupled with our zero-tolerance policy that restricts the entry to our facilities by anyone who does not adhere to the policy of mask-wearing, temperature checks or hand sanitizing, helps to keep our retail environment safe for customers and staff.”