Getting 'smarter' to survive

'Fewer outlets'

Settles said many physical retailers probably won't see their post-pandemic heyday return. "There'll be fewer outlets. People will be more likely to purchase online. Shoppers may only patronize physical stores for product demonstrations on things like clothing and furniture. But once you've ordered your purchases, they'll all be sent to you," he said.

There's no sophisticated digital life without logistics, a field in which Hong Kong is lagging behind compared to the Chinese mainland and the United States. "The way retailers are organized makes home delivery relatively limited", said Settles. "We (people in Hong Kong) don't really have a distribution of technology. What we have is real estate, so if anybody wants to sell something, space is indispensable." However, he said the pandemic has begun changing this. "Home deliveries involving online retail will start building up," he added.

SF Express — the mainland's largest express courier services group — has proved not only resilient amid the pandemic. It has benefited hugely from the virus-induced acceleration of e-commerce. The group recorded a nearly 50 percent surge in net profit year-on-year in the first half of 2020, compared with an 11.5 percent increase for the same period in 2019. In Hong Kong, SF Express teamed up with five new partners last month to join its delivery network.

The demand for food deliveries is also growing as more people order food from home or offices amid tighter social distancing measures imposed on restaurants and prolonged work-from-home arrangements. Delivery platforms such as Deliveroo, Foodpanda and Uber Eats have seen increases in orders and more eateries are turning to them, including top-end restaurants and hotels. By June last year, Deliveroo had teamed up with about 6,500 restaurants in Hong Kong, accounting for nearly 40 percent of all licensed eateries in the city.

"Hopefully, the pandemic will create so much demand for virtual purchasing, e-commerce and delivery services that it will dramatically alter consumption behavior," said Settles.

Looking ahead to a post-pandemic world, Anjum said he is pretty confident of taking to the skies again. "It'll take time, but things will get back to normal eventually."

He is also taking a course in cloud computing. "I don't want to stop pursuing flying, but I would like to supplement it with other things after I realized that being a pilot now won't be as secure as it was because another pandemic could come, and the first to get hit will be the aviation business."