The retail world is exciting and evergreen, but it’s no secret that there are numerous industry challenges that create unique hurdles for running a business. However, unforeseen events and lifestyle changes have accelerated these challenges and left retailers wondering what is the best step forward and what challenge to focus on first. Below, we have highlighted a few of the key areas where business owners are finding themselves experiencing unique challenges.
Employee Retention
Retaining retail employees is a constant challenge. In fact, the retail industry has one of the highest employee turnover rates. There are numerous reasons for retention issues, including repetitive work and unstimulating routines, lack of incentives for employees and insufficient training. High attrition in retail is nothing new: annual employee turnover among frontline retail workers has been at least 60 percent for a long time, according to Forbes. Retailers regularly face the challenge of replacing more than half of their store staff every year.
If you have strived to hire the right people for the job, increasing employee engagement is likely the best way to avoid your staff from moving on and it’s relatively straightforward to achieve with initiatives like employee discounts, team events, setting individual sales goals for each employee, having one-on-one meetings with employees among many others. In addition, you could also plan to create career plans with employees so that they don’t assume retail is a gap-stop job lacking growth. According to Shopify, about 91% of employees who’ve left a job say they did it for growth opportunities. Not giving your best employees the chance to grow is the biggest way you lose them and increase your turnover costs.
“Staffing is always going to be one of the biggest challenges for any retailer. Employees will all have different backgrounds, experiences, and goals with their employment history. The challenge is to figure out what makes the staff member happy and want to come to work every day,” explains Mikey Moran, CEO of Private Label
Sustainability Practices
More and more, people are highly aware and committed to educating themselves about environmental, social and ethical issues, and naturally, this reflects on their choices as consumers. People are making decisions not just based on which products to buy, but also on the practices of the businesses they’re buying them from. Their purchasing power is transforming the way some companies highlight their sustainability practices.
One easy and impactful way to become more sustainable is to go paper-free. For example, you can replace paper with a software solution to plan your operations, you can start sending invoices and receipts by email or you can make a significant impact by implementing Digital Smart Labels™ in your business.
At Danavation Technologies Corp., we are strongly committed to advocating for and striving consistently toward environmental sustainability through significantly reducing our paper use and print waste. Our Digital Smart Labels™ technology saves trees – less paper equates to more sustainable business practices.
When clients choose to automate their outdated paper labelling systems, not only does that significantly reduce the amount of paper used in one single store, but it also has a snowball effect. For every organization that makes the switch from paper labels to Digital Smart Labels™, Danavation® donates to One Tree Planted, a charitable organization whose mission is to help global reforestation efforts. Our company partnered up with One Tree Planted to collaborate with tree planting in areas severely affected by deforestation. Which means, by adopting our technology, you are also making a positive difference to the environment.
Be transparent and authentic in your communication to make sure customers know about your efforts to be sustainable. It is something they will value and that will give them a push towards your business.
Balance Between Human Connection and Technology
Investing in technology and remaining current is imperative for retailers but this evolution is not meant to replace employees or devalue their contribution to a company. Not only are humans needed to operate and update in-store systems but employee interaction is important to connect with customers and to create loyalty. Finding an ideal balance between technology and human connection/resources is something retailers will have to manage in the coming years.
With over 50,000 products in store and given that pricing is updated weekly, you can assume that managing True Value’s pricing changes has always directly correlated to an increase in labour. A shortage in the labour market coupled with the inability to keep up with pricing changes were just a few of the business constraints which directly impacted True Value’s bottom line through margin erosion. Adopting the Digital Smart Label™ technology was the first step to digital transformation and is essentially a turnkey solution to increased in-store efficiencies.
Numerous benefits were noted, but the immediate tangible value was that with this in-store tech evolution, staff were focused on delivering an overall improved customer service experience to every person who walked into the store. Instead of having to focus on updating pricing, employees could make beneficial connections for True Value, and serve their market more effectively.
Digital Smart Labels™ are an ideal solution to assist with these retail challenges and so much more. To learn more about all Danavation® has to offer, please visit danavation.com
