By Craig Patterson
Kronos, the leading workforce management software and services company, has released a white paper titled ‘The Future of Work in Retail’ which provides insight into how technology is redefining jobs, capabilities and expectations in the Canadian retail workplace.
The release of the white paper comes at a critical time. Workplaces are changing in many ways as new retailers enter the market and seek to innovate in order to gain market share at the expense of competitors. Technology is also transforming the future of retail — Artificial Intelligence, ‘big data’ and machine learning are creating a new workforce and, ultimately, a happier customer.
Examples abound — Amazon’s new ‘Amazon Go’ concept is a great one. It launched in Seattle this year and is expanding into other markets.
Employees are changing too. Millennials entering the workforce are well-educated, energetic, adept at multi-tasking and looking for new and difficult problems to solve. Plus, there are new shoppers now ready to buy as Gen Z begins making its own buying decisions. All of these changes make for fierce competition, while at the same time retailers are challenged to keep up with ever-changing labour laws.
Certainly, the complexity in retail is only increasing. Research shows that omnichannel shoppers are falling into a definite pattern: the more channels they use, the more they spend and the more loyal they become to their retailers.
The white paper, provided by Kronos, explains how retailers can take advantage of these key trends by embracing today’s technologies to differentiate and stay competitive. For example, retailers can use technology to:
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Enhance the customer experience with face-to-face interactions
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Engage employees in more high-level thinking, creativity and decision-making
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Make better use of analytics, AI and automation
The report dives into these topics and provides useful information and examples, as well as some important solutions.
You can download the white paper here. For more information on Kronos, visit: www.kronos.ca.
