With this year’s holiday spending expected to reach $655.8 billion, there’s a great deal of opportunity for retailers to succeed this festive season. However, many will miss the boat, as they’re tied up trying to manage the increase in footfall and traffic during busy periods.
We recently spoke to 350 retailers to find out how they manage holiday season spikes and the findings were very revealing — the costs associated with using inefficient business processes and operations could cost the average retailer more than $300,000!!
Check out the infographic below which reveals why the majority of retailers will ignore the benefits of technology and continue making costly decisions to meet holiday demand – hiring extra staff, increasing inventory, or extending shopping hours.
Prepare well for the holidays, and don’t make the same mistake!
Key Stats to Remember:
Slightly more than half of decision makers in retail (58%) currently invest in technology to manage sales spikes, for example at busy shopping times like Black Friday and the Seasonal Holidays, which means a significant number do not.
To prepare for holiday shopping, retailer decision-makers favor:
- Hiring extra staff (53%)
- Increasing their inventory position (40%)
- Extending opening hours (17%)
- Hiring extra staff or extending opening times (70%)
Just over a third (35%) of retailer decision-makers would be very likely to adopt a new technology solution to automate their back-office and inventory processes during peak periods.
Whilst 19% (the equivalent of one in five) retailers do not automate processes and workflows to manage sales spikes at peak trading times.
Finally, 31% consider automation to be the most important retail initiative in driving business growth.
Are you ready to find out how automating your workflows could help you and your retail business save money?
