How Learnings From the Great Recession Can Prepare Brands for COVID-19

It is no surprise that the uncertainty of COVID-19 poses a series of unprecedented obstacles and business challenges that all industries will have to face in the months to come. While many of us have not dealt with a situation quite like this before, there are learnings we can pull from the past to inform the best path forward. More specifically, the Great Recession of 2008 poses economic similarities that retailers and brands across the industry can learn from to successfully overcome a COVID-19-driven economic downturn. There are three key learnings from the Great Recession that brands can lean on to prepare for a post-COVID world: 1. During the Great Recession, off-price retailers not only survived but eventually thrived. The economic downturn forced consumers to turn to value-based shopping, and despite growing unemployment rates, large off-price retailers, such as T.J. Maxx and Ross Stores, experienced same-store sales increases in 2009. Off-price outlets became a “new norm” for purchasing goods, and this time period enabled these key players to emerge as retail industry powerhouses. While the current shutdowns are impacting all retailers equally, a post-COVID recession period could show a fast rebound and similar strong sales growth period for off-price retailers as consumers once

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