Further Insights: How to responsibly (and productively) reopen your bank branches

Matthias Spanke is a retail and visual merchandising expert with more than 25 years of experience working with international retailers. He is the founder and CEO of the visual merchandising agency BIG IDEAS. Qorus' Boris Plantier spoke with him about the long-term COVID-19 impact on bank branches and what they can do to ensure safe reopenings.


You recently published a book titled ‘Retail Isn't Dead’. Which strategies for a successful brick-and-mortar business does your book discuss?

Fundamental changes are defining the brick-and-mortar retail trade on a global scale. The COVID-19 crisis and its consequences are totally unprecedented for retailers. Notwithstanding the above, the e-commerce of the digitized age is changing the way customers shop. And those customers are carrying their expectations over to the brick-and-mortar retail trade.

Against this background, online trading is not only a competitor and challenge; it has also inspired and innovated the brick-and-mortar retail business.

This book presents 15 innovative strategies with which retailers are, and in the future will be, successful in our digitized era. These include the latest in-store technologies, methods for developing innovative brand experiences, sustainability as a physical retail strategy, and clever adaptations of the advantages of online shopping.