ATLANTA — As life beings returning to normal, many are wondering how Georgia's industries will rebound.
Throughout the pandemic, we've seen a big push for people to shop local and support small businesses, but for some areas of the retail industry, business has boomed during the pandemic, and that trend is expected to continue as conditions improve.
"It has been a whirlwind of epic proportions," said Phnewfula Frederiksen, owner of Happy Mango, her eco-friendly pregnancy and early childhood shop.
For her, the pandemic caused serious highs and lows. She had to furlough her employees while juggling homeschool and keeping her business going.
"At the beginning of the shutdown, sales plummeted about 60%. So, I’m looking at the numbers like how? How is this going to happen?” she said. “Then, we pivoted and really started going hard and then they popped back up; so, we ended the year better than we were last year so I am truly, truly grateful."
Shifting her focus to her already established online store and social media platforms, she stayed connected with her customers, who rallied others to help support the small, black-owned business, helping her to bounce back and end up better than before the pandemic. Her business isn’t the only one with this story.
The National Retail Federation (NRF) says 2020 saw record growth, with sales rising by 6.7%. The figure is higher than anything seen in the last 20 years.
Part of that growth was supported by the first rounds of stimulus checks and people adapting to the pandemic, said Mark Mathews, vice president of research development and industry analysis.
"There was a shift essentially from spending on services to spending on goods,” said Mathews. “You know, a lot of us were staying at home, we weren't going on holidays, we weren't going to school, we weren't commuting, we weren't going out to entertain ourselves or eat out and a lot of that money got channeled from the service economy into the retail economy."
The NRF now expects to see even more growth as more people get vaccinated and return to brick-and-mortar shopping, or continue their purchases online. The group is predicting an increase in retail sales between 6.5% and 8.2%.
Their forecast doesn't include spending at car dealerships, restaurants, or gas stations, and it does depend on the coronavirus; but, with the current number of vaccinations and cases, the group is optimistic that retail will see even more growth as the pandemic, hopefully, moves closer to an end.
"Consumers have saved over $1.5 trillion and that's excess savings during the pandemic, so there's a lot of fire power and you know as economies open up we expect a lot of people to begin to go to stores a little bit more and hopefully spend some of that money," said Mathews.
Now, as the returns to life and shopping continue, Frederiksen is hoping people will remember to do it at small local businesses like hers.
"Shop small wherever you can," said Fredericksen. "Support your local retailers."