For retail businesses, creating a safe, appealing setting for shoppers has always been a top priority, but health and safety concerns have become even more important in recent months, with all the fears regarding the spread of COVID-19. While some businesses have closed because of “shelter at home” orders that affect non-essential businesses, others are still struggling to stay afloat.

Whether you’re in an area where you can remain open or you’re down to a skeleton crew that’s working to fulfill online orders, there’s a lot you can do to keep your employees and customers safe. Even better, implementing heightened health and safety policies now means you can easily continue when stores re-open and people emerge from self-isolation. Here are a few tips to ensure a safe retail environment and prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Disinfecting Surfaces

According to CDC Interim Guidance for Businesses, you need to step up your game when it comes to cleaning and disinfecting your facility. This starts by using approved disinfectants that meet EPA standards for use against SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), and you can refer to the list they provide, which includes information about product names, active ingredients, the surfaces each product is used on, and more.

From there, you have to implement more stringent cleaning practices. While you’re already used to dusting shelves, wiping down counters, and cleaning on-site bathroom facilities, protecting against the spread of COVID-19 demands more.

For starters, you need to routinely clean and disinfect surfaces that are touched often, including door handles, shelving and bins, counters, POS systems (keypads, touch screens, cash drawers, etc.), and even pens. You can clean bathroom facilities and surfaces throughout your space frequently, but to keep employees and customers safe, consider providing disposable tissues and wipes that people can use for cleaning and even touching/grabbing items, and place hand sanitizer pumps throughout your space.

Employee and Customer Hygiene

Encouraging good hygiene and social distancing is a major step in protecting the health and safety of anyone who enters your store. Providing wipes and hand sanitizer is a great start, but from there you’ll want to place markers on the floor anywhere customers line up (at the POS counter or outside the store, for example).

You should also post signs to encourage proper etiquette, including six feet of separation, coughing/sneezing into elbows, minimal touching of product, and wiping down frequently-touched items (shopping carts/baskets, door handles, bathroom surfaces, POS and counters, etc.) before and after use. Assign employees to certain areas of the store and mandate that they not enter or touch each other’s workspaces.

In Conclusion

With the right changes in place, retail spaces have the best opportunity to protect against health threats and keep employees and customers safe.

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