Temperature checks for staff and customers, mandatory staff Covid-19 testing and no price promotions are among measures being considered by retailers as they plan for eventual re-opening of non-essential stores.
Retail Excellence says shops should also consider barring shopping baskets and insist on card payments for a period.
They are also considering banning price promotions to prevent a rush of customers.
The CEO of Retail Excellence Ireland David Fitzsimons said they are looking at a number of options.
"We're looking across Europe in terms of re-opening protocols in the likes of Austria and Germany and seeing what they're up to," he said.
"Our greatest concern is colleagues in smaller format stores able to get on with their daily business with the two-metre spacing protocols.
"Potentially smaller stores are going to have to have different counter space for different colleagues which will have to be sanitised after every shift."
Meanwhile, It may be possible for construction sites to begin reopening, according to an infectious disease expert.
The current restrictions are set to expire on May 5th, but a major relaxation of the rules is not anticipated.
The RCSI's professor Sam McConkey is urging all businesses to start thinking about how they could reopen, while adhering to social distancing.
He said it may be feasible for the building trade to get back to work.
Professor McConkey said: "The small scale building projects, where people are doing sort of in a series, where one day it's a fella digging the foundation, next day it's pouring the concrete, next day it's builders for a couple of days who can stay two metres away."
"That's all very feasible."
