Hailey Richman Richman 1

English 1010

26 September 2022

A Rhetorical Analysis on “7 Predictions For How COVID-19 Will Change Retail In The Future”

Michelle Evans’ article “7 Predictions For How COVID-19 Will Change Retail In The

Future” published May 19, 2020, informs consumers on how the retail industry is changing

miraculously because of the recent pandemic. This article brings attention to in-store businesses

struggling and online businesses having an advantage to flourish in this social-distancing era.

Michelle Evans researched and showed, in many ways, that the online industry was reborn again

and is here to stay.

Michelle Evans started the article off explaining the impact China had on the world, in

terms of manufacturing and being the largest exporter. This means that businesses had to close a

lot of factories and shipping from China, which broke down supply chains. Businesses started to

shut down because they couldn’t carry the product they needed to sell. Now this is where the

online world grew, meaning contactless payments, delivery, and technology in general.

Considering the growth in technology in retail businesses, in-store businesses began to struggle

while small online business grew, or even already existing businesses (like Amazon) grew even

bigger. Talking about the growth of technology has always been a topic for discussion for the

last few years but this article explains how it’s here to stay with the recent pandemic.

Michelle Evans was very strong in using all the rhetorical strategies when writing this

article. First, Michelle showed credibility by sourcing multiple times where she had gotten her

information. For example, on paragraph 15, she states “The growing role of tech will be one of

the most pronounced long-term impacts from the global pandemic. While the length of the
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outbreaks and the potential pace of recovery are still unknown and will differ across markets,

technology is here to stay. Half of industry respondents agreed that having a digital presence was

an important part of their company’s value proposition, according to Euromonitor International’s

Voice of the Industry: Digital Consumer Survey (November 2019).” (Evans). She further proved

her point using Ethos and being credible with her sources, even though she does have more than

10 years of experience in Global Lead of Retail and Digital Consumer Insights at Euromonitor

International. She was named a top 100 retail influencer by RETHINK Retail in 2021. This

article is not the only time she has shared her knowledge from this field, she has at many events

all over, including, National Retail Federation’s Big Show, Money 20/20, Finovate, etc.

Second, Michelle’s writing in this article also showed compassion with the situation at

hand, seeing how consumers had to go contactless because of the pandemic. She then showed

how the consumers’ needs were met/how it was fixed in the end. She showed this in paragraph 7,

“Given safety concerns, consumers are opting for contactless card and mobile payments over

handling cash or touching POS terminal keypads. As of late March, 22% of connected

consumers globally used a digital wallet to buy at least one product in a physical store, according

to Euromonitor International’s 2020 Digital Consumer Survey.” (Evans). This showed that she

was very strong in the Pathos category because she does reference the struggle consumers had to

go through and how those needs were met in the end multiple times.

Third, Michelle also used deductive reasoning when writing using Logos. This is seen in

paragraph 11, when Michelle wrote, “Retailers that rely on in-person interactions could face a

prolonged dip in store traffic as public officials continue to promote social distancing. As such,

the boom in online shopping will continue, putting greater spotlight on last-mile delivery

options. Curbside pickup could become a mainstay option. More retailers could even move to a
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drive-thru model to better facilitate in-store collection.” (Evans). She explained that in-person

stores could lose business (which would be your general idea) but then she went into detail and

gave specific options that the businesses might have to rely on, such as curbside delivery.

Lastly, Michelle understood great timing with this article, which her writing skill for

Kairos. She clearly explained the problem at hand and seamlessly described the toll it had on

everyone, which is the point of her article. This was in paragraph 4, “The coronavirus outbreak

closed factories, leading to a record low in manufacturing, and, ultimately, broke supply chains,

making it difficult for manufacturers to obtain components and retailers to obtain finished

products. Such challenges underscored the world’s dependence on China, showing the need for

greater diversification. Japan has already committed to spending upward of $2 billion to help

Japanese multinationals shift their manufacturing operations out of China.” (Evans). This shows

that Michelle knew how to explain her argument using all the rhetorical strategies; Ethos, Logos,

Pathos, and Kairos, which made the article very easy to understand and follow.

Though it’s not a very proven subject quite yet, Michelle went into great detail about how

she could be correct for her predictions for how COVID-19 will change the retail industry. She

explained this by using specific statistics of how online businesses started to grow and in-store

ones began to shrink. Michelle explained how the devastation of what the world went through in

2020 will forever change how the retail industry now does things and how the online world

grew.
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Citation

Evans, Michelle. “7 Predictions For How COVID-19 Will Change Retail In The Future” Forbes,
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michelleevans1/2020/05/19/7-predictions-for-how-covid-19-will-
change-retail-in-the-future/?sh=7e3cafff5be3