Store Associates

Labor compliance issues have long plagued the retail supply chain, from sourcing to brick-and-mortar employee operations. Consider the tragedy at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in 1911, perhaps one of the most well-known labor compliance fiascos in the retail industry’s history, which was a direct result of abhorrent worker conditions. Thankfully, compliance issues of this caliber…

The explosion of smartphones and tablets has created a new way of living and working, especially for the 70 percent of workers, known as untethered workers, who don’t sit behind a desk every day. Companies are embracing the mobile shift and have begun to move their IT applications onto mobile platforms for workers who are…

In a new world of retail comes a new set of responsibilities. According to Adobe’s Digital Trends Report, the single most exciting opportunity in 2020 is the customer experience. The Temkin Group found that companies earning $1 billion annually can expect to make an additional $700 million within three years by investing in the customer…

Your customers’ store experience — and impression of your brand — starts and ends with your frontline employees. Store associates are directly responsible for delivering your customer service model. Unfortunately, retail work has long had a reputation for low employee morale and high turnover, which can negatively impact employee satisfaction. Retailers have the opportunity to…

The serious Black Friday players have been preparing for months. They've reviewed their operation and identified all the things they could do better in 2019. It’s big business, and for many retailers their holiday performance informs their whole year profits. Let’s assume you’re not one of the businesses with Black Friday meticulously planned. What can…

In the time it takes you to read this sentence, a crop of talented seasonal employees received job offers from your competitors. And that means the highly coveted pool of seasonal retail talent just got even smaller — a situation that’s only intensifying as the U.S. unemployment rate continues to hover around a near-historic low…

More often, a reliable employee who is always willing to go the extra mile, put in the extra hours, and take extra projects on starts slipping. Most often we think it’s a problem at home or outside the workplace. However, it could just be all the “extra” adding up to employee burnout, which was recently…

The "gig economy" has taken the traditional hourly workforce by storm. 2019 has been a landmark year for the gig economy, with Lyft and Uber going public, and Postmates expected to do so in the near future. And with the number of gig workers forecast to keep growing, the traditional hourly workplace faces daunting competition…

While online shopping is growing in popularity, according to a 2018 NPR survey, 56 percent of consumers stated they appreciate the in-person experience over e-commerce. That means that today's in-person consumer is looking for a more bespoke buying experience, which puts pressure on brick-and-mortar retailers to provide the optimal in-store customer experience. This shift in…

Consumers have high expectations. They expect a personalized, enjoyable shopping experience across all channels at all times. This has put a lot of pressure on retailers. Even though e-commerce continues to flex its muscles, a recent study showed that 97 percent of consumers still find a need to visit stores. But have retailers over-rotated to…