Right now, retailers are tasked with meeting complex and multifaceted challenges in the post-pandemic landscape. This blog by Brother Mobile Solutions focuses on small but powerful ways you can meet common challenges with simple adjustments to your day-to-day procedures.
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Whether we point to the Great Resignation, the highly competitive job market, or the increased omnichannel demands associated with COVID-19, one thing is clear: the retail industry is facing a challenging labor shortage. As such, employee shortages are top of mind for retailers across the country. Deloitte’s outlook for retail in 2022 showed that 70% of retail executives say that labor shortages will slow retail growth. Through October 2022, retailers have barely added any new employees and retail giants like Amazon announced that layoffs will continue in the coming year.
Surprisingly, 57% of the executives surveyed by Deloitte reported that they had no plans to invest in automated material handling. Given the acute challenges retailers are facing in today’s market, integrating more automation is a necessary tactic in remaining competitive and managing labor shortages.
To solve labor shortages and stretched-thin workers, look to the most common processes in your retail environment. Common processes like ticketing, returns, and markdown labeling – a routine, day-to-day task – provides the perfect opportunity to uncover dramatic time savings and employee efficiencies throughout your store.
Implementing a compact, easy-to-use mobile label printing solution and bringing it to the floor where you need it helps lighten the workload of your employees, improve the experience of your customers, and dial in your inventory.
On-demand retail price labeling allows for labels to be printed or updated quickly, right from the floor and in the aisles. This means that your associates don’t have to leave the floor to manage a print job. Automation and on-demand printing allows your employees to create new labels as needed while still watching the storefront or interacting with your customers.
In today’s retail environments, employees often find themselves marking down sale items by hand. Automation allows your staff to rapidly print professional-looking labels as needed, which generates an easier-to-read label. This helps to reduce confusion and questions from customers, leading to a more enjoyable customer experience. And having up-to-date labels means that your inventory will be accurate and up to date – a necessity considering currently strained supply chains.
To streamline your workflow, choose a barcode label design software and mobile printer that integrate quickly and simply with existing retail systems. And integrated systems that you can easily train new employees on will also lessen the burden of high employee turnover.
The right printer will have drop-in emulation compatibility to help automate implementation tasks. Plus, zero-cost implementation support means your store can enjoy the benefits of a cohesive, compatible system infrastructure. The right software will have native label printer drivers to provide the best overall quality for your barcode labeling needs and subscription licensing for a lower up-front cost.
In the fast-paced world of retail, you can’t afford downtime from technological errors or printer jams. The latest on-demand label printers feature reliable NFC pairing with Wi-Fi® and Bluetooth® technology to ensure printers connect to your devices – and stay connected. Plus, easy-to-use software, hardware, and highly reliable operations allow your team to keep moving through the day without any technology hassles and frustration.
Finding ways to improve your business and operations doesn’t have to be a huge undertaking. Identifying small steps towards automation – like on-demand retail price labeling – can have far-reaching benefits and implications for your business and staff.
For more information about Brother’s complete retail solutions, visit Brother Mobile Solutions. To learn more about retail labeling software for printing, tagging, and tracking, contact TEKLYNX.
Brother offers next-gen mobile, desktop and industrial printing and labeling solutions that improve workflows both inside and outside the 4 walls. From full-page and small format rugged mobile receipt, ticket and label printers to ultra-fast, high-performance industrial barcode label printers, Brother offers solutions that empower a wide variety of industries.
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