《我的回忆录》01.10 | COVID-19 VS Online启动

English Version ⬇️

时间来到2020年3月。随着COVID-19在全球爆发，英国政府第一次宣布全国零售门店关闭。对于零售行业来说，这几乎是一场没有任何预警的急刹车。

⛔ 门店关了。

⛔ 顾客消失了。

⛔ 收入几乎归零。

而房租、库存和员工的问题却一个都没有消失。

👉 那段时间，我面临两个选择：放弃，或者寻找新的生路。

现在我还能坐在这里写这篇回忆录，也证明了我当时选择了后者。

说实话，当时我并不知道这个选择是不是正确的。我甚至不知道实体零售还能不能撑到下一个圣诞节。我开始思考很多以前从未想过的问题：

➡️ 需要关闭门店，并合法处理大部分员工的安排；

➡️ 如何和留下来的团队一起寻找新的销售渠道；

➡️ 如果实体店长期无法营业，我们还能依靠什么收入来源；

➡️ 圣诞节是否还会到来；

➡️ 是否还应该继续备货……

面对这种突如其来的危机，其实没有什么完美计划。也没有时间慢慢研究。很多决定都是边做边学。边走边调整。于是我们开始尝试把业务搬到线上。

📍 和原本服务实体零售的供应商协商线上销售授权；

📍 学习Amazon和eBay的规则；

📍 按照平台要求重新整理产品资料和库存；

📍 临时租下一个很小的办公室，作为线上订单处理中心。

现在回头看，这一切都显得有些仓促，甚至有些粗糙。但在当时，

👉 我始终相信一件事：一个不完美的开始，总比站在原地等待要好。因为很多时候，活下来的关键不是你准备得有多充分，而是你有没有勇气迈出第一步。

在零售这条路上，用我12年的真实经验，陪你少走一些弯路。—Lily

《My Memoirs》 01.10 | COVID-19 vs. The Beginning of Our Online Journey

It was March 2020. As COVID-19 spread across the world, the UK government announced the first nationwide lockdown, forcing all non-essential retail stores to close.

For retailers, it felt like hitting the emergency brakes without any warning.

⛔ Our stores were closed.

⛔ Customers disappeared overnight.

⛔ Revenue almost dropped to zero.

But the rent still had to be paid. The inventory was still sitting in the warehouse. And our responsibility to our employees hadn't gone away.

👉 At that moment, I had two choices: Give up, or find a way forward.

The fact that I'm still writing this memoir today tells you which path I chose.

To be honest, I had no idea whether it was the right decision.I didn't even know if physical retail would survive until Christmas.For the first time, I found myself asking questions I had never had to consider before:

➡️ How do we close our stores while handling staff redundancies properly and legally?

➡️ How can we create new sales channels with the small team that remains?

➡️ If our stores stay closed for months, where will our revenue come from?

➡️ Will there even be a Christmas trading season?

➡️ Should we continue buying stock?

There was no perfect plan.There was no time to analyse every option.

Most decisions were made as we moved forward：learning, adapting, and solving problems one step at a time.

That's when we decided to move part of the business online. We started by:

📍 Negotiating online selling rights with suppliers who had previously supported only our physical stores.

📍 Learning how Amazon and eBay actually worked.

📍 Reorganising product listings and inventory to meet marketplace requirements.

📍 Renting a small office to process and ship online orders.

Looking back, everything felt rushed. Some of it was far from perfect.

👉 Because more often than not, survival isn't about being perfectly prepared. It's about having the courage to take the first step.

If you’re on a similar journey in retail, you’re not alone — we’ve been through many of the same challenges. Always happy to connect. — Lily

#Lily零售复盘 #UKRetail #RetailOperations #RetailStrategy #RetailExpansion