Editor's Note: A Crisis Management Guide to Help Retailers Survive COVID-19

The retail industry has been especially hard hit by the global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Government stay-at-home orders have forced the closure of non-essential retail stores, leading to reduced revenues, employee layoffs, and bankruptcy filings (with many more likely to come). Retailers have been forced to evolve their businesses to survive this challenging period — from supply chain adjustments to launching curbside and in-store pickup, among other tactics — yet many are still in need of assistance.

As such, Total Retail wants to do its part to help its audience in their time of need. Retail and brand executives are in search of answers on how to manage their businesses during this unprecedented time. They want to hear what other businesses have done that have proved successful; they want to pick up tips on how to lead a team during a crisis; they want to know how to best communicate with customers and employees in this stressful time. In short, they want information to help them do their jobs more effectively.

To help answer those questions, Total Retail has created a new report, A Retailer's Guide to Managing Their Business During a Crisis. We have leveraged content published on Total Retail in the previous month-plus related to how retailers and brands can best manage various functions of their business, from marketing to supply chain to human resources, all of which have been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.

This guide provides retail and brand executives with valuable information on these subjects and more, all accessible in one easy-to-read PDF. We’ve compiled individual articles from leading retail industry experts to form a well-rounded asset that can be helpful to retailers not just during the COVID-19 pandemic, but future crises as well.

For example, the guide features insights on how to create effective COVID-19 customer and employee communications (and measure the impact of them), why now is the right time to foster a direct-to-consumer (D-to-C) mindset within your organization, how to use marketing automation tools during a time of crisis, how to develop an inventory strategy when supply chains are disrupted (like they are now), how to profitably ship an influx of online orders, and, perhaps most importantly, necessities for business survival in a crisis.

We hope you find value in this resource. While times may be tough right now for many retailers, remember that together as an industry we can overcome this crisis and come out the other side stronger. In fact, this guide can help prepare your business to hit the ground running once things get back to normal. During these seemingly dark days, keep this axiom in mind: Success is when preparation meets opportunity.

Download this complimentary guide, A Retailer's Guide to Managing Their Business During a Crisis, to not only help your business survive this pandemic, but other crises that may follow.