Store Associates

How Retailers Can Adjust to the ‘Gig Economy’
October 24, 2019 at 10:30 am

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…

Retrain, Refit, and Reinforce: The Future of Retail Employees in the Age of E-Commerce
October 21, 2019 at 11:41 am

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…

Why Retailers Still Need to Focus on Improving the In-Store Experience
September 9, 2019 at 2:07 pm

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…

The Majority of Back-to-School Shopping Will Take Place In-Store: Are Retailers Ready?
August 22, 2019 at 10:17 am

The back-to-school (BTS) shopping season is well underway, with total retail sales projected to reach a whopping $27.8 billion. However, despite claims that Amazon.com is destroying retail, more than half of U.S. consumers are planning to shop for supplies in-store instead of online this year. So, what does this mean for brick-and-mortar retailers? The BTS…

Ready or Not, Here it Comes: What Predictive Scheduling Means for Retail Managers
August 16, 2019 at 11:13 am

For anybody who has shopped in a brick-and-mortar store, the influence of in-store teams on the shopping experience is no secret. A great experience with a store associate can quickly catapult the brand to the top of a shopper’s favorites list, while a poor interaction or, even worse, the inability to find someone to help,…

The Journey Towards In-Store Digital Transformation
July 11, 2019 at 9:13 am

There has been a significant shift in what consumers expect from their in-store experiences. Retailers are working harder than ever to deliver a seamless shopping journey for their customers to cater to this change and come out as a winner in a competitive landscape. Only those that transform their stores for innovation will continue to…

Store of Tomorrow Will Require Greater Automation and More Predictive Workforce, Inventory Management Tools
May 23, 2019 at 12:22 pm

The demise of the physical, in-store experience has been greatly exaggerated. Consumers like to go shopping — they really do. However, to match their expectations, retailers will need to deploy emerging technologies to engage with consumers in a more intuitive and automated manner. At the same time, they must commit to investments in innovation that will…

How DAVIDsTEA is Using Technology to Improve Store Associate Performance
May 6, 2019 at 12:18 pm

In episode 194 of Total Retail Talks, Executive Editor Joe Keenan interviews April Sabral, vice president of retail sales and operations at DAVIDsTEA, a Canadian specialty tea and tea accessory retailer. Listen in as they discuss DAVIDsTEA's use of an employee engagement app to communicate quickly and directly with store associates, how use of the…

Cutting Edge: 3 Trends Retailers Need to Embrace to Stay Competitive
April 9, 2019 at 10:47 am

If we learned anything from past retail trends, it’s that the store is still the most important part of the retail experience. Interest in the brick-and-mortar store is everywhere. Target’s CEO has said that the company's stores are its single biggest competitive advantage. Retailers must continue to keep their focus on the store by ensuring…

Target Raises its Minimum Wage to $13 an Hour
April 4, 2019 at 11:48 am

Target Corp will raise its U.S. minimum wage to $13 an hour in June, from $12 currently, increasing its payroll costs and putting new pressure on rival Walmart to attract retail workers in a tight labor market. Minneapolis-based Target employs over 300,000 workers and runs 1,845 stores in the United States. The company is investing…