For a long time, the focus on continuity was not a priority for many retailers. Expansion, turnover, cash flow, and profit were considered more critical. Continuity seemed "almost guaranteed". Now in the middle of the COVID crisis, companies are struggling to survive and fear for continuity. The goal of a company is not making a profit but continuity! The crisis has brought back that awareness.

Retailers operate in a competitive market where customer loyalties are becoming harder to maintain. It is neither intelligent nor even possible to compete with online brands that enter the market without stores' overhead and have rapid product development capabilities. Now is the challenge for bricks-and-mortar stores to think about the added value that consumers want. The future after COVID will look different. It requires resilience, enabling organisations to adopt a new working way better suited to the new environmental conditions.

After the crisis, it seems logical to focus again on turnover, cash flow, and profit to repair the damage as quickly as possible. But just making a profit is no guarantee for continuity. A company aims to create and retain customers by adding value through being better and different. Successful retailers learn from this crisis and the competition by adjusting (not imitating) the positive contributions, expanding digital channels, and developing an innovative bricks-and-mortar concept to increase the customer experience's perceived value strengthen customer loyalty and create the path to restore continuity.