Are Your Store Associates Ready for Holiday Shopping Season

Are Your Store Associates Ready for Holiday Shopping Season?

Equip your team for the busiest time of the year with technology and tools that supercharge your point of sale.

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For years now, retailers have focused their retail holiday prep on crushing Cyber Week. After all, holiday shopping accounts for 19.3% of annual retail sales revenue.

But while your digital sales strategy plays a critical role in your holiday shopping results, your in-store game must remain strong. There's a reason we champion an omnichannel approach for retailers.

According to a June 2024 Bizrate Insights survey, almost three-quarters of U.S. consumers buy holiday gifts in person. Why? Our research shows they like getting their merchandise immediately, plus they prefer to touch and feel products before buying. Other reasons include avoiding shipping fees, taking advantage of in-store discounts, and enjoying the shopping experience.

Simplifying and enhancing your in-store customer experience has never been more important. And your store associates play a critical role in making that happen. So how do you prepare store employees for the busy holiday shopping season? Bring all shopper and operational data together for a single, actionable view of your business. Then equip retail store associates with mobile, real-time inventory and customer data they can access throughout their day.

Table of contents:

• The changing role of retail store associates
• Boost retail holiday prep with technology
• Help associates manage the point of sale
• Amp up your in-store clienteling game
• Give associates and shoppers instant access to endless aisle
• Simplify store fulfillment
• Help your store associates shine this year

With a modern point of sale (POS) system in the cloud, you can unite transactions from anywhere. Then you can simplify, secure, and scale store operations for the most successful holiday shopping season yet.
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The changing role of retail store associates

Working in retail has year-round challenges, but they become more urgent during the peak holiday shopping season. Associates face bigger crowds, stressed shoppers, training and managing of temporary seasonal workers, extended shifts, and security concerns.

And their hands are already full: Retail store associates spend 74% of their time on activities unrelated to checkout. These include relatively new tasks such as social media monitoring, fulfillment, loss prevention, and merchandising. We ask them to wear many hats, then expect them to log in to 12 different systems to do all the jobs. This can negatively affect customer service.

Why not set associates up for success? To support them during the holiday season, your retail holiday prep should include more efficient training, ensure adequate staffing levels, offer incentives, and implement operational best practices.

Retailers can also use technology to help overcome these challenges. Equipping associates with mobile devices to engage shoppers, complete operational tasks, and conduct transactions has become a priority. Today, an estimated 32% of store associates use a mobile device for their job, a share expected to grow to 41% in three years.
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Boost retail holiday prep with technology

When you equip your retail store associates with mobile devices and apps, they can quickly check inventory levels, locate products, and process transactions on the spot. This reduces wait times and improves customer satisfaction. And when you give associates immediate access to data, they can provide stellar service to loyal customers and unexpected assistance to first-time shoppers.

Advanced analytics and in-store communication tools further support employees, making them more resourceful and informed, keeping customers happy and boosting store operations. What's more, AI agents can partner with retail store associates to help them quickly find answers in the flow of their daily routine. (Agents can even lighten associates' loads by answering shoppers' questions and helping them find what they need through self-help kiosks and in-store apps.)

Use tech right, and your store associates can work more efficiently, deliver superior customer experiences, and ultimately drive higher sales during the busy holiday season.
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Help associates manage the point of sale

For retailers, the point of sale represents the location or system where sales are completed. But the point of sale is much more than just a cash register. It supports a variety of retail operations, from sales processing and customer service to inventory management and business analytics. During the peak holiday season, POS systems can be taxed by surges in customer traffic and transaction volumes, connectivity issues, inexperienced temporary staff, and an increased number of returns and exchanges.

To overcome these issues,conduct thorough testing and upgrades of your POS systems as part of your retail holiday prep. Also, consider adding customer service stations or mobile POS units to manage high-traffic periods effectively.

More importantly, upgrade or lean into technology that improves the efficiency and effectiveness of POS operations. These include:

• Mobile systems: Let associates ring up sales anywhere in the store using handheld devices. Mobile point of sale (mPOS) reduces customer wait times and allows for more personalized service.
• Integrate payment solutions: Offer a variety of payment methods, including credit cards, mobile payments (like Apple Pay or Google Wallet), and even cryptocurrency.
• Automate discounts and promotions: Automatically applying loyalty status or sales campaigns savings at checkout speeds the process and pleases shoppers.
• Real-time inventory management: Integrated POS systems provide real-time visibility into inventory levels, so associates can check product availability instantly. If an item is out of stock, the associate can locate it at another store or order it directly for the customer.
• Integrated customer relationship management (CRM): By integrating POS systems with CRM software, associates can access detailed customer information that helps them offer more personalized service.
• Self-service kiosks: While self-service handles routine transactions, associates can assist with more complex customer needs. Kiosks can also reduce perceived wait times as customers actively conclude the buying process.
• Analytics and reporting: Advanced POS systems help associates and managers track sales patterns, peak transaction times, and customer buying behavior. This data can be used to optimize staffing, inventory, and marketing strategies.
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Amp up your in-store clienteling game

Clienteling happens when retail store associates build long-term relationships with customers by offering personalized service and engagement beyond a single transaction. Using detailed customer data, available through their mobile devices, associates can provide a customized shopping experience that caters to individual preferences, purchase history, and behavior. It's essential for retailers who want to turn holiday shoppers into loyal year-round customers: Clienteling offers opportunities to work with new-to-you shoppers to provide exceptional experiences that will make them return.

During the peak holiday shopping season, the increased volume of shoppers and the high demand for quick, efficient service can strain even the best clienteling strategies. You can solve these challenges with robust clienteling tools, training staff effectively, managing inventory intelligently, and ensuring your technology infrastructure can handle the increased load during the holiday season.

Clienteling best practices start with that unified customer data we've already mentioned. This information helps associates suggest new products, find the right merchandise, and coordinate fulfillment.

But it can also help you get your loyal customers back into the store. Use AI to create personalized emails and messages or to make phone calls to inform existing customers about new products, special promotions, or events that align with their interests. And after the store visit, employees can go one step further, following up on the sale. Your team can check that customers are happy with their purchase, provide care tips, suggest complementary products, or thank the customer for their purchase. This follow-up can help solidify the relationship and encourage repeat business. By focusing on building strong, personal relationships with customers, retailers can create loyal brand advocates and drive long-term sales growth.
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Give associates and shoppers instant access to endless aisle

Your endless aisle strategy uses digital technology to extend the range of products available in store to include items not physically stocked on shelves. It gives shoppers access to your complete inventory through in-store kiosks, tablets, or mobile devices, merging the online and offline shopping experiences. Today's consumers expect this.

Managing an endless aisle requires real-time synchronization between online and in-store inventory systems. It can be unexpectedly impacted by strained supply chains, high traffic volume on backend systems, inexperienced seasonal staff, and an omnichannel pricing and promotion plan.

A number of technologies, in addition to those already discussed, can help you successfully manage an endless aisle. These include:

• E-commerce platforms: Seamlessly integrating in-store systems and online platforms ensures all customers get the same availability, pricing, promotions, and product information.
• In-store digital kiosks and tablets: These allow in-store shoppers to browse your full range of products, read reviews, compare items, and make purchases right from the store floor.
• Retailer-specific mobile apps: An extension of your kiosks, your app helps customers use their own devices to scan products in-store for more information, check additional options online, and complete purchases for home delivery or in-store pickup.
• Order management systems (OMS): An effective OMS manages order fulfillment from various inventory locations. It ensures orders placed via the endless aisle are processed efficiently, whether they are to be shipped directly to the customer or picked up at the store.

While customers prefer shopping in stores for holiday gifts, they don't enjoy facing sparse shelves or coming home empty-handed. An intelligent endless aisle strategy gives them the best of both worlds - the real-world shopping experience with unlimited inventory options.
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Simplify store fulfillment

Today's physical stores are not only places for customers to shop but also mini distribution centers to fulfill online orders. Fulfillment can include buy-online-pickup-in-store (BOPIS) options, ship from store, curbside pickup, and returns in store. In 2023, 64% of retailers offered in-store returns of online purchases and 58% offered BOPIS. We predict that 33% of ecommerce sales this season will be BOPIS, reaching up to 50% as we get nearer to Christmas.

In-store fulfillment offers you more sales opportunities, more efficient use of inventory, cost savings, and better scalability. But there's a lot to juggle with in-store fulfillment during the holiday season - an increase in order volume that strains existing systems, inventory management, staffing constraints, space limitations, higher demands on customer service, and safety and security.

As part of your retail holiday prep, you must plan meticulously and use technology that enhances inventory management and order processing. In addition to integrated inventory management systems, order management systems, mobile POS systems, and self-service kiosks, retailers can benefit from automated storage and retrieval systems, geolocation and RFID tagging, digital signage, electronic shelf labels that automatically update promotions and pricing, and AI chatbots for customer service.

Just keep in mind that while technology can improve efficiency and productivity, it will only be successful if you've taken the time to offer retail store associates personalized training based on roles and skills - for both full-time and seasonal employees. This training shouldn't be one-and-done, and it definitely can't take place five minutes before they take to the floor. It's essential to plan ahead.
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Help your store associates shine this year

In-store sales are an important component of your omnichannel strategy, particularly during the peak holiday shopping season. Remember that your retail store associates are the face of your company, and equipping them to handle the busiest time of the year delivers a better experience for both employees and customers.

Making real-time customer data easily accessible across the entire point of sale helps associates better engage with customers, move more inventory, and hit your revenue goals. Even better, stores that provide exceptional customer experiences turn holiday shoppers into year-round customers. So give your associates what they need to make this holiday shopping season merry and bright.

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Patricia Staino is an editorial lead on the industries marketing team at Salesforce, working across all industries but specializing in retail and consumer goods.