As the pandemic nears its end, in-store shopping has returned to its pre-pandemic state, which is evident in stores this year during the holiday season. According to studies, retailers witness 30-45% more sales during the holidays. Considering the importance of the holiday season in the retail industry, employee performance across business areas becomes critical for ecosystem players.
Labor shortages can have a big impact on small businesses
The role of the physical store is changing, but it is still important to the customer experience. According to research, consumer engagement across self-service solutions continues to increase globally as nearly half of consumers report using self-checkout, and nearly four in 10 use cashless payment methods. A similar trend is observed in India and other APAC markets where 47% of consumers use self-purchases, while 46% of those surveyed prefer cashless payment methods.
For a large retailer, the effects of short staffing may be minimal, limited to moving employees from the backroom to the front of the store for a few hours. However, for small businesses, the impact can be huge and detrimental to their bottom line, as a few employee complaints can result in staff absences – and full store closures – for the rest of the day.
Organize activities between the back and front of the store
There is often little delineation between store operations and the back room in a small retail business. The right technology can help ensure there is no disconnect between the two operations and increase efficiency when moving materials between the front and back of the store.
Equipping associates with enterprise-grade mobile devices can add significant mobility and transparency to the asset management process. This technology gives store associates on the sales floor an understanding of what products are available or scheduled to arrive to ensure they are available to receive and replenish items when trucks arrive, and better support customers. It also makes the overall inventory management process more time-consuming and accurate than previous processes, which relied on paper and pen to track item locations, sales, and more.
Offer mobile checkout and more
Small businesses can add automation and efficiency to inventory management, sales, and more by adopting point-of-sale technology solutions such as self-service kiosks or checkout lanes, tablets with additional point-of-sale (POS) modules or portable handheld computers with built-in barcode scanners and accessed via radio identification sleds. frequency identification (RFID).
Mobile technology enables a simpler and more seamless customer experience, giving employees more tools to help consumers in the moment, wherever they are. For example, with product information in the palm of their hand, sales associates can provide a better experience by answering questions correctly and providing more information about the product without leaving the customer’s side.
Kiosks can also act as a POS terminal to process transactions more efficiently, while rugged tablets and handheld computers can support collaboratively managed mobile POS. This can help avoid a situation where one employee is stuck behind the register while many customers in the store need attention.
To satisfy the needs of your friends
A way to overcome staffing shortages is to equip mobile devices with software that helps automate staff scheduling or allows staff to automatically request shifts when they can’t make a change. This will make it less likely that only one employee will be in the store at any given time.
In addition, technology acquisition can help engage and retain young workers, which is a long-term solution to the current workforce crisis. Millennials will soon make up nearly 75% of the workforcewhile Generation Z, born between the late 1990s and early 2010s, is expected to make up 30% of the workforce by 2030..
In the future, meeting the needs of young workers with workplace technology will be critical to improving performance and maintaining a stable and committed workforce. Fortunately, for many small businesses, marketing-ready technology is more accessible than ever. There are enterprise-class devices designed for the needs and budgets of small businesses, as well as cloud-based services that make both hardware and software easy and affordable to provision and manage.
Disclaimer
The views expressed above are the author’s own.
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