In the light of ongoing labor shortages, fulfilling the customer experience has never been so important, something that was evident in a recent CX report, where PwC surveyed 15,000 consumers and found that 1 in 3 would stop buying from a brand after just one bad experience.

Retailers can’t afford to ignore expectations, so need to retain their customer base before consumers start shopping elsewhere, especially as the customer loyalty management market is currently valued at over $5.5 billion and is expected to surpass $24 billion by the end of 2028.

Meeting expectations

As recorded previously by McKinsey, margin pressure has made automation a requirement, and while cost pressures are by no means new, many retailers have already exhausted traditional cost-cutting tactics.

Automating roles and tasks can benefit most aspects of a retail business, and equips brands with the tools to support consumer needs, manage their expenses and provide unrivaled customer experiences. Traditional retailing is time and labor intensive and limits an organization’s profitability, with automation providing all of the benefits that a modern retailer can ask for; reduced labor costs, better operational efficiency, minimized human errors and increased sales.

Modern retail

Despite thinking automation is taking over, it is not designed to eliminate humans from the workforce. Integrating AI solutions enables employees to focus on more valuable tasks. It plays an important role across numerous areas, making operations within order fulfillment, inventory management, fraud prevention, store management and customer care more effective.

Introducing self-checkouts is one way retailers can modernize checkout zones. They also allow stores to generate more revenue and profits in less time, offer a hassle-free shopping experience and reduce operational costs. Using a self-checkout can also make it easier to manage inventory through the POS (Point of Sale). This helps businesses to keep track of products while the placement of the tills maximizes traffic flow, visibility and security.

Traditional vs modern retail

With the convenience of online shopping, the appeal of conventional retail has changed significantly. In the UK for example, e-commerce is forecasted to reach a share of 38.1% of all retail sales by 2025, and in the US, an increase by 50% from $907.9 billion in 2022 to $1.4 trillion in 2025 is predicted.

To modernize more traditional ways of working, retailers need to first make changes to the technology they are using. A digitized inventory management system makes all real-time inventory visible, saving time, and minimizing human errors. It also provides better visibility to sales teams about the stock they have in-store so they can sell with less and utilizes RFID as a foundation for omnichannel, improving the bottom line and benefiting the business overall.

The future is automated

There’s already evidence that automated retail is a fast-growing and influential trend. And in 2022, as many as a third of retailers stated they were planning to invest in self-serve kiosks and/or smart vending that will change how retail environments look and feel.

Thanks to the integration of these advanced technologies, vendor relationships can be improved and access to real-time data insights can offer personalized customer experiences.However, as automation continues to grow, it’s important to continue to address the various challenges it will present as well as the opportunities it can provide.

Ailen Bilharz – Director of iD Cloud Platform North America at Nedap
Having studied Communications at Northeastern University and sitting in various commercial positions over the past 13 years, Ailen is an experienced SaaS and cloud technology executive. In her diverse positions, Ailen has played a critical role in growing technology companies in industries such as cybersecurity, legal, real estate and retail ranging from seed to IPO stage. In her role at Nedap, Ailen oversees the company’s cloud-based SaaS platform. Designed to evolve the retail world, Ailen works with her team to bring change to the sector’s approach to inventory.