‘Retail doesn’t stand still’: Krispy Kreme on adapting to consumer needs post-pandemic

Australia & New Zealand retail director Nicola Steele joins QSR Media’s newest podcast episode.

With customers expected to make their return to stores, a focus for chains nowadays is how they can further utilise digital revenue streams—including ones they have bolstered during the height of lengthy lockdowns—to adapt.

For Krispy Kreme, this means finding new ways to elevate occasion-based transactions.

“You might start to have some drop down in the digital revenue streams as people return to the experience that they've been missing and craving. The convenience was there for customers and I think for us, it's super important that we continue to leverage that,” Australia & New Zealand retail director Nicola Steele revealed in a freshly-baked episode of the QSR Media podcast, done with Adyen.

“One thing we're going to be doing next year is thinking more about [our] Celebrations range. The fact that you can kind of get pre-orders in advance, we can probably add to the complexity of the doughnuts that we should make.” 

As for the most important lesson for brands in this post-lockdown world, Steele says it’s about sticking to the brand’s DNA regardless of the type of experience customers want.

“You've just got to continually listen to your customers and understand that they've changed, their needs are going to change. It's going to be really interesting to see, you know, what is it that consumers crave post pandemic,” she said.

“Retail doesn't stand still. So whether it's a pandemic or not, there's always going to be it's just something that we've got to go in hard for.”

Listen to the full episode below.