KUALA LUMPUR: The Covid-19 pandemic has led to many shopping malls and retail companies downsizing operations in accordance with the government's Movement Control Order (MCO) directives.
Many popular malls and big retailers have also been tweaking the way they conduct business.
Even with strict adherence to standard operating procedures (SOP), a rising number of tenants have been reopening their business.
Some malls have focused their activities on delivery and online shopping options with some success.
For Sunway Malls, strict adherence to SOPs to safeguard both patrons and the staff has been vital to weather this challenging period.
Sunway Malls and Theme Parks chief executive officer H. C. Chan said the first MCO gave them the time to prepare their malls for the new normal.
Stringent health, hygiene and safety measures were put in place.
"The challenge has been enormous, especially for Sunway Malls as it has seven malls across the country.
"Under the promise of 'Your Safe Space, Our Safe Space', we introduced 82 safety measures and worked with our 12,000-strong employees. These practices remain in place until today," said Chan.
He lauded the government's move to allow more sectors to operate in the second round of the MCO this year, compared to the stricter one that was imposed last year.
He said that on the first day of MCO 2.0, 50 per cent of retailers across all Sunway malls opened, compared with only five per cent of them during last year's MCO.
Eventually, as more sectors are allowed to reopen, he said, that figure will increase.
The number of shops open has since climbed to over 80 per cent.
"Overall, mall traffic for MCO 2.0 was two to three times higher than the first MCO," he added.
Meanwhile, IKEA Malaysia also adopted a different business approach since the MCO was reimposed.
Its focus is currently more on online sales.
IKEA Southeast Asia country retail director (Malaysia) Gerard Jansen said the company accelerated digital development and turned their blue-box stores into large-scale fulfilment operations virtually overnight.
He said the company also took note of how customers were more mindful about their spending.
Customers also required more food delivery options nowadays, he said.
Therefore, the company has identified ways in which it could provide help, comfort, solutions, and value to meet customers' needs.
This has led to services such as flexible finance options, "IKEA Food Delivery" and "Next Day Delivery" for orders delivered via trucks.
"Though our stores were closed during the period, we raked in 28 million visits to the IKEA website in Malaysia, up 33 per cent from the previous year.
"Alongside that, the approval to reopen retail outlets certainly helped us to revitalise our in-store operations," said Jansen.
To boost the business, the company also introduced reduced prices on hundreds of items across store branches through its "Even Lower Price" products range.
He said all these were tailored to help Malaysians with more budget-friendly ideas, to enable them to make minor changes to their homes.
"The need for everyone to 'Make Home Count' resonates with millions.
"Many have had the time to reflect, reimagine and redefine a better life at home for themselves," he added.