Can staff keep up with the digitalisation of retail?

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During the pandemic, incredible leaps were made on all fronts, not least in the retail sector. McKinsey has written that in a few years we have achieved the equivalent of 10 years of digitalisation. And that this rapid pace of development is here to stay. 

The question is, do we have time? 

Before the pandemic, omnichannel was a bit of a buzzword that retail was striving towards. After the pandemic, it feels like it has become a reality for many. A proof of this is that the Swedish Confederation of Commerce has announced that they are merging the Swedish Confederation of Commerce and the Swedish Confederation of Digital Commerce as the boundaries are becoming more and more blurred. 

What we are now talking about instead are words like "fygital" where we mix the physical and the digital. And just like the rest of the world, commerce has become hybrid.

What does all this mean for staff?

This means a greater need for knowledge. Not only the knowledge to best help customers coming into the store to choose the right one from the store's offer, but also the knowledge of the whole offer that can be offered to the customer in all your channels. 

The requirement to know systems is also increasing. It is no longer enough to manage a simple POS system. Now you need to understand the whole ecosystem of e-commerce. Customers who come into the store for help may be expecting help with an order they placed online a day ago. 

It is exploding with systems that the staff in each store should be able to manage. Ideally, systems should talk to each other and integrate fully, but the reality is often not as optimised as it potentially could be - integrating systems is also a cost.

Nor is it enough for just the permanent staff to keep up with all the new things. Everyone working in the store must have the same ability to help customers. Most customers come into the store outside of their working hours, i.e. evenings and weekends, when there is the most extra staff. 

More and more, we are beginning to notice that staff in shops do not have all their systems under control. If you go into a shop today to change the size of an item on an e-commerce order, it's not uncommon to be left standing for a while while the staff try to figure out what to do and how. 

How we keep up the pace as we digitise the retail chain

The solution, of course, is not to slow down. Most of the retailers we talk to have understood this and are focusing on getting smarter instead. Now that the store has to cope with more systems, to help the customer in both the physical and digital store, the solution has two parts. 

1. The right systems, integrations and automation
2. The right knowledge

The right systems, integrations and automation

A tremendous help in the workload of shop staff is of course if as much as possible is automated. The best thing is if the customer gets help with his order the moment he notices that something is not as planned. This rarely happens while the person is in the shop. 

For example, most shops that ship orders know quickly when an order has reached the recipient. This can help the store catch those who need help and proactively direct them to customer service. Then the store can become a point of pickup or drop-off for an order that has already been processed.

But even when the customer comes into the store with their case, the staff are helped by systems that talk to each other and integrate as much as possible. Take something as simple as a central and reliable stock balance that doesn't require staff to check once in their own warehouse, once in the digital one. Something that is still not a reality in all stores.

The right knowledge

But integrations and automation can only simplify things for store staff so far. In the end, they still need to understand your processes and manage what's left to manage in your systems. That's where ongoing training comes in. 

You will always need to replace some system in the mix and your processes will always be refining and changing. At this faster pace of change, it's no longer enough to run a briefing for half the staff once a year at a conference and then hope it sticks and spreads to new staff and those who couldn't attend. 

Better to take a systematic approach and provide all employees with ongoing digital training in the systems and processes that are relevant to them. Something they can access on-demand and repeat themselves as needed.

We're here to help if you want to take control of ensuring that all staff in all stores have the right information and knowledge to manage your systems and give your customers the best possible experience.

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