Customer priorities are changing. Do retail consumers care about sustainability? According to a Capgemini report, 77% of retail organizations have found that sustainability leads to customer loyalty.
You must have observed GenZ’s passion for sustainability. When making a purchase decision, 75% of Gen Z prioritizes the sustainability efforts of the retail company rather than the brand. For a retail business to flourish, retailers have to tackle many challenges, such as changing customer preferences, product management, maintaining quality, reducing waste, having customer-friendly pricing strategies with profit margins, and more. Sustainability typically does not come up as a priority to retailers. However, the environmental impact of retail is not something to dismiss either, as retail contributes to 25% of global GHG emissions. In this blog, we will discuss sustainability, the new buzzword in retail operations. We will understand how having the right technology can make your operations more efficient and environmentally sustainable and drive growth.
Sustainability- is it only a buzz, or is there more?
Sustainability in retail is more than just a trend. Did you know that retail margins have been declining by 2–3% and up to 6% since 2017 compared to their tech-driven competitors? Adopting the right technology and digitalizing their processes can enable retailers to achieve long-term growth while keeping operations sustainable. Sustainability has become a key factor in the quest for success and striving for maximum efficiency in retail operations.
Transforming retail operations
Go paperless with an app: sustainable and convenient.
With resources becoming increasingly expensive, retailers must consider alternative methods of optimizing costs while ensuring a delightful customer experience at a store, a hotel, or a restaurant. Moving paper checklists and audits to a digital platform and utilizing self-inspections are two powerful strategies for making operations more sustainable—and profitable!
Make operations seamless – save time and cost.
Take, for example, a typical large store that uses at least 25 sheets of paper daily for operational checklists, which works out to nearly 9000 sheets of paper over a year for a single store! To add to this cost, staff spends two hours every day manually maintaining this data. By making the switch to a digital app, such as a mobile checklist, and scheduling routine self-inspections, that same retailer could cut operational costs while also better serving their customers, freeing up time and resources.
Enhance compliance and document management practices.
Aside from time and cost savings, there are numerous other benefits to pursuing a digital retail operations process. Improved compliance safeguards, for example, can help alleviate the risks of lost paperwork and outdated information, resulting in higher customer satisfaction. Additionally, digitalization can equip personnel with up-to-date info and guidance on the most effective and efficient practices for completing operational tasks through digital assessments and reviews.
Sustainability and digitalization- optimizing the retail experience.
Apart from operational efficiency, adopting digitalization and sustainability in retail can be crucial in delighting customers and empowering the frontline workforce.
Innovate the customer experience.
Adopting a digital platform can elevate the customer experience significantly. With seamless access to checklists and hassle-free inspections, the frontline workforce can better attend to their customers. They can ensure convenience and enhanced interactions with customers. After all, in-store retail is all about delighting the customers. They love the personal attention and an enhanced experience in the retail stores- which leads to developing strong customer loyalty.
Empowering the workforce
While some employees can find adopting a new technology daunting, once they experience the ease of use and get comfortable with the software, it can unlock a whole new experience. Firstly, the workforce craves efficiency and would love to streamline tasks. Secondly, platforms such as the Proceso App have a seamless user experience. Retail employees get access to training resources and real-time information and can automate their tasks. Digital tools contribute to making their jobs more efficient and enjoyable. The empowered workforce is a brownie point in the social sustainability efforts of the retail organization.
Data-driven decision making
With digitalization, retailers can harness the data, get insights, and make decisions based on accurate data from their apps. Leveraging AI models in the platforms, they can also study consumer behavior, trends, and preferences and better understand their consumers. The retail consumer data is precious. The data-driven decisions can help the organization develop and optimize pricing strategies, product assortment, visual merchandising, and more. Analytics can pinpoint the underperforming areas and reveal the opportunities for improvement. Data-driven decisions allow retailers to optimize their resource allocation and invest in high-impact initiatives.
Going digital and sustainable is not just about having operational efficiency, reducing paper, and cutting down on mundane tasks; it is also about a long-term economic and social sustainability vision. You get to delight your consumers with superior customer experience, resulting in customer loyalty. You also have an empowered workforce who is supercharged and happy. Skilled and happy employees lead to more robust bonds with the stakeholders, better engagement, sales, and retention.
Summing up
In short, retailers need to capitalize on sustainability-driven strategies that save time and money in the long run. Replacing paper checklists and paper audits with digital apps and self-inspections is an ideal means for doing just that! Doing so will revolutionize retail operations and make them much more effective. You can adopt a retail solution such as the Proceso App. It is a no-code end-to-end process management software that integrates seamlessly with your existing systems and empowers your retail front liners and managers with flawless efficiency. Enhanced with AI capabilities, you can identify patterns, analyze your data to develop interesting strategies, gather customer feedback and surveys, and profoundly impact the business. The top-notch retailers are already using it. Check out our clientele here.
Request a demo now, and you can get a 7-day free trial.