What: Shopping malls from France to Indonesia asked customers to show digital vaccination records in order to enter as governments imposed new rules designed to slow the spread of the Delta variant.

Why is it important: Are vaccine mandates good for retailers? Vaccine mandates come with pros and cons.

Retailers are eager to get shoppers back to physical stores where consumers typically spend more per visit than online, often at better margins. And anything that makes shoppers feel safer is likely to help. But despite the benefits, vaccine mandates come with plenty of complications.

For a start, there’s the logistical challenge: many major markets still lack the technology infrastructure for retailers to efficiently check vaccination status.

Vaccines are also highly polarizing, like in the United States (or in France), where the population is deeply divided. The country’s federal and state governments have yet to impose mandates, leaving retailers to contend with the issue alone. This presents a thorny problem for large retail chains with customers on both sides of the political line.

What if consumers resist? With contentious mask mandates, enforcement typically falls to sales associates who lack sufficient training and suffer abuse when asking customers to comply, driving them to quit at a time when retail workers are already in short supply. Vaccine mandates come with similar liabilities.

No Vaccine, No Entry The Pros and Cons for Retailers