With more employees reassessing career goals and looking beyond traditional job choices, independent retailers need effective solutions to manage increasing labor shortages. Recently, 45% of small businesses cited difficulty finding and keeping qualified employees as their most significant issue, ahead of inflation and supply chain challenges, according to an April 2022 Goldman Sachs survey of 10,000 small businesses.
Having the right system to provide a smooth onboarding experience and streamline employee training, while continuing to exceed customer expectations, can make all the difference in how a small retail business rides out the current retention storm.
Get On Board
In a fast-paced industry like retail, getting new hires up to speed is important. An onboarding program that is clear and well-organized strengthens an employee’s confidence in the company, and sets them up to succeed in their new role.
With retail management software, employers can predict and assign work schedules based on customer activity and sales data to maximize efficiency. It’s also easy to assign and track employee tasks. With the back office running smoothly, both new and current employees can focus more on learning the business and working together to meet customer demand.
Taking Stock
Part of anticipating and meeting customer needs is keeping on top of your inventory—what you have, what’s moving, what pricing and promo decisions make sense. The right system can help you streamline inventory management, stay organized, and build your margins.
By tracking and balancing your inventory across multiple locations, you can do more with fewer people, freeing up resources and increasing your overall capacity.
Collaborative Customer Care
Efficiency isn’t only a back office goal. When you optimize the point of sale experience across all of your retail channels, your customers are happy and your employees remain engaged and energized.
Using curated, automated retail solutions, your employees can up customer satisfaction while streamlining the purchasing process:
- Offering shoppers personalized recommendations thanks to customer data
- Developing strong loyalty programs that drive repeat purchases
- Bringing the checkout to your shoppers with mobile point of sale
Productivity and Purpose
With supply chain issues, changing world events, the need among workers for flexible job structures—the labor shortage may be a part of the big picture for a while. Employment in the retail sector will continue to decline by 0.4 percent annually over the next decade (2020-2030), according to recent projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This contrasts to the 0.3 percent annual growth in the same sector over the previous decade (2010-2020). To remain vital, retailers will need to redefine how they interact with their customers and their employees.
Businesses that carefully craft a new model of retail engagement, where both employees and customers use technology to provide personalized service and seamless support, are on track to maximize retention and increase profits in the years ahead. When employees have a sense of purpose, they’re energized to come to work. When customers receive great service from these same engaged employees, they’re excited to continue interacting with your business both online and in-store.
Learn more about how Epicor can help your business lean into the future of retail.
