Shopping centres are to remove public seating and may turn off their wi-fi when they re-open, to stop people congregating.
There will also be limited lift capacity due to social distancing guidelines when centres re-open next Monday.
These are just some of the guidelines published by the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI).
Spokesperson Paul Turner told Newstalk Breakfast: "The shopping centres were initially due to open in the later phases - [what] we were expecting to see in phase two was only retailers with street access, but the minister has decided to bring it forward now for shopping centres to re-open next week."
"It's not going to be a place for people to hang out with friends or spend the day - the days of leisurely browsing have come to an end.
"It's going to replaced really by purposeful shopping - people going, buying what they need and then returning home straight away.
"So very different from what people were used to pre-COVID."
"The public seating is going to be removed really to stop people congregating, we're looking at switching off the likes of public wi-fi - again to stop people hanging around checking phones.
"It's going to be a similar experience to what people have seen in supermarkets.
"You're going to see people, depending on how busy it is, queuing outside to get access to the shopping centre, there will be queues going into the retail stores themselves.
"The shopping centres will obviously try to control the numbers going in - it's all about maintain the physical distancing while you're queuing, while you're inside.
"You're going to see things like one-way systems, a lot of signage and... you're going to see a lot of reduced capacity as well - particularly around the likes of toilets and around lifts.
"The majority of lifts with the size they can only take one person or a small family group".
On the wearing of face coverings in shopping centres, he said: "The shopping centres are following the public health advice, which is for people to wear face coverings while they're going in to carry out their shopping".
But he said while it is "very strong advice", people would not be refused entry for not wearing one.
Read the guidelines in full here
