Challenges & Opportunities for Today’s Rapidly Changing Retail Workforce
No one can deny that the rise of eCommerce has changed the way physical retail operates. Physical stores themselves, however, aren’t the only aspects of retail undergoing change. As stores change, shopping habits shift, and technology evolves, the role of the retailer worker is changing as well. And while technology in some instances is displacing workers from physical retail, shifting the roles and responsibilities of retail workers, or augmenting the way they work, humans still play an essential role in the day-to-day operations of retail — physical or otherwise (at least for the time being). So, how are the roles of retailers shifting as the industry shifts? What pressures do current retail employees face? How are companies finding new value and opportunities to leverage the human aspect of retail that only retail associates can provide?
As it turns out, several companies are already considering these questions. Here’s a little bit more about the circumstances they face.
Being a Retail Associate is Hard: How Industry Change Affects Retail Workers
So how does change in the retail industry affect the workers making it happen on the retail floor? As it turns out, the change affects retail workers in a variety of ways — some good, some bad, and some in ways that are too early to say one way or another. In most cases, change is a mixed bag. Advances in technology, for instance, don’t always make things better (as we’ve written about before). And, in the case of retail, new pressures to deliver more value at less cost don’t necessarily benefit workers either. As big-box brick-and-mortar retailers struggle to compete with Amazon and other eCommerce companies, workers on the retail floors oftentimes feel the pinch more than anyone.
In a recent interview with Business Insider, several Target employees commented that Target’s efforts to “modernize” have increased the amount of stress that workers experience on the job. These initiatives included eliminating backroom and overnight shifts and have led to alterations in the stocking process. Even though Target reportedly consulted every one of its associates before rolling out modernization changes, employees are still finding change difficult to cope with. Regardless of how you approach it, change will always present a challenge and, in most cases, some pain to go along with it.
The story doesn’t seem much different at Lowe’s either. According to Business Insider, the company attempted to cut costs recently by outsourcing or eliminating certain in-store roles and by downgrading several salaried positions to part-time status. In a recent interview with Modern Retail, a former Lowe’s manager reported putting in as many as 70 hours a week following the adoption of cost-cutting changes at Lowe’s. As the manager explained, the amount of work and changes drove them to the point where they thought, “this was horrible — it got to the point where I felt bad hiring people.” Needless to say, a report like that doesn’t bode well for the company’s remaining 300,000 retail associates.
And, of course, you can’t discuss change in the retail sector without covering the increasing automation. At Walmart, for instance, the recent introduction of Bossa Nova robots to scan shelves and clean floors for employees hasn’t necessarily led to greater overall employee satisfaction. Although Walmart likely intended for the robots to improve the jobs of retail floor employees, several employees reported to The Washington Post that the robots made them feel less valued by the company. Although the robots have perhaps lightened the workload of employees in some areas, they’ve caused a general sense of monotony on the job to increase.
And while some changes in retail seem to limit and stress the power of human capital, other innovations in technology are expanding the value that in-store retail associates have to offer — even to customers shopping online.
Live-stream: The Hero of Retail
Not all industry changes spell disaster for retail associates. In a recent partnership, retail tech company Hero and luxury fashion retailer Harvey Nichols found a way to use technology to leverage the person-to-person connection that only human retail workers can offer. Through their partnership, the two companies found a way to use live-stream technology to connect retail associates with customers shopping online. Using their smartphones, customers can video chat with in-store employees from the comfort of anywhere they choose. As a far cry from chatbots and call centers, video-stream technology allows for a genuine connection that could before only be found from in-store interactions between associates and customers. Thanks to new technology, the power of human connection — the crowning strength of brick-and-mortar retail — can reach much further than ever before.
Low-tech Solutions for Leveraging Value
While live-stream represents one way retailers are leveraging the advantages of retail associates, technology isn’t the only way to unlock the power of human potential in brick-and-mortar spaces. As retail changes, certain skills become more and more necessary to meet modern demands. In many cases, meeting the expectations of customers in today’s retail climate could mean simply providing more in-depth training for new and existing employees.
According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), the retail industry of today requires skills that even a decade ago weren’t as much of a priority. As NRF reports, “The role (of the retail associate) is less about folding sweaters as it is about selling them, and retailers are looking more and more for people to come into the role with the skills to sell.”
With retailers seeking increasingly skilled (and educated) employees, skills in communication, sales, writing, math, teamwork, time-management, customer service, and merchandising have all increased in their value and demand. In today’s retail climate, these skills aren’t just nice to have. Rather, they can make all the difference for retailers in their ability to create a satisfying customer experience. As brick-and-mortar retailers struggle to find their place and remain relevant in the modern market, that ability, more than anything, is priceless.
With skilled employees proving more necessary than ever, retailers looking to create satisfying customer experiences and cut costs might actually accomplish these goals best by investing in employee training, which incentivizes employees to remain with their employer and makes employees feel more valued. In the end, the break from the everyday monotony and the skills provided through training could lead to more confidence and engagement on the job, greater efficiency with employee time, and less turnover in the long run. In the end, training provides a low-tech fix with the potential to reduce cost and turnover while increasing customer satisfaction along the way. Customers who feel satisfied with their in-store experiences, of course, are customers who are likely to return.
The Takeaway: Retailers Next Steps
With retail changing in about every way possible, what can retailers do to evolve in a way that allows them to face new challenges and capitalize on rising opportunities? Here are a few tips:
- Maintain transparency with your employees — Bring them into the loop and find out what they like to do. New titles and segmentation of work may be necessary to keep everyone in the best place possible.
- Provide proper training for new roles. Arm your employees with the skills and knowledge they need to accomplish the tasks of today. Employers that invest in training are likely to experience lower turnover and higher engagement.
- Leverage new tools and tech to make training and daily work easier — Look for ways to use tech that people are already familiar with, such as live-stream video in the case of Hero.
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The above piece was written by the Latitude Supercharge Research Team, which includes Connor Beck and Carter Jensen
Resources and original reporting of the above points covered by the following publications — PSFK, Hero.com, Modern Retail, National Retail Federation
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Additional Resources
Want to learn more? Our 2019 retail report is now available and includes a long list of case studies and insights from Shopify, Dollar Shave Club, and much more.
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