If you’re like us, you’ve watched the world shift retail online with a wistful ambivalence. From wealthy but conservative Switzerland, we look over the metaphorical walls of import taxes and delivery restrictions at countries like France and UK with their huge variety of options, 2-day shipping, and generous return policies with envy. We have the resources but not the means.
And yet, we told ourselves that in the physical world of retail, local life and human interaction thrive. We accepted our exclusion and focused instead on the benefits of knowing our shopkeepers, pharmacists, and cashiers.
How and why so many Swiss businesses have resisted a digital transformation is a question might as well stop trying to answer. Because the truth is now, in the age of coronavirus, they may no longer have a choice.
Getting your products and services online and rethinking your business model to better serve a digital customer has become a matter of survival.
Life must go on. The economy MUST go on. We need to shop to keep money flowing through our system, but we cannot go into stores until at least the end of April. And who knows how long the psychological impacts of social distancing will impact consumption habits?
Below you’ll find a list of the lucky retailers who got ahead of this problem and already have fully functioning online businesses. It may feel like life has come to a standstill, but it doesn’t have to. Thanks to these companies, we’re going to continue decorating our apartments, refreshing our wardrobes, and entertaining our kids from the comfort of our yoga pants.
We hope – for small businesses’ sake – that this list can grow in the coming weeks.
Have we missed a favorite site of yours? Please leave us a note in the comments, and we’ll update the post.
Furniture and Home Goods
Women’s Fashion
Men’s Fashion
Baby and Children’s Fashion
- Stadtlandkind Concept Store
- Baby Coeur Lausanne
- Cherry Baby
- Hygge
- Etsy
- Mango
- Zara
- Cyrillus
- Verbaudet
- Piccu Ticca
- Asteraki
- Goldig
Toys
Books
Garden and Balcony
Health and Wellness
For Everything
Full disclosure: some of these are affiliate links which means that if you make a purchase, a percentage comes to The Lausanne Guide. As a small business, we rely on sources of income like this to keep our site running.
