How Retailers Can Unwrap Success Next Holiday Season with Retail Task Management Software

The 2023 holiday season was marked by ongoing trends that present challenges, such as retailers and brands dealing with overstock and logistics issues, coupled with a decline in consumer purchasing power. A study from Ernst & Young revealed that nearly three quarters of consumers delayed holiday purchases for discount shopping events such as Black Friday, and more than half plan to reduce their spending to save money.

In response to these obstacles, brands and retailers are exploring strategies to maximize results with fewer resources.

Yet with the right workforce software, retailers lay the groundwork to boost retail sales for a successful 2024.

How retail task management software can make an impact

How can we address customer hesitation? Create unforgettable customer experiences. Let’s back up for a second – we must equip sellers with tools to create these experiences. After all, frontline sales associates are the point of contact for customers. With Performance Enablement (PEP) technology, sellers have an all-in-one software to forge customer relationships, right in the palm of their hands. (Full disclosure: Rallyware provides such software).

Such a tool offers personalized tasks and continuous learning content, helping each individual represent their store and brands with excellence.

Let’s look at what else the right kind of software can do.

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Drive communication and efficiency

The right retail task management software can connect frontline and managerial employees across stores and departments, to drive organizational coordination and planning at scale. Whether it’s an important company-wide update or a message for stores within a specific region, ensuring all relevant parties are kept in the loop is crucial.

Facilitating communication between sellers and their customers is also critical.

The sales floor of a store is a bustling place, particularly during the holiday season rush. While establishing connections with customers is crucial, having a tool to build and manage these relationships is essential. Zebra Technologies’ 2023 Global Shopper Study found that a significant challenge for retail associates is having inadequate tools to provide personalized customer service.

With AI-powered activity recommendations for customer acquisition and retention, a smart CRM would guide sellers, with customer purchase and activity history readily available to them. It would include a sales script library full of message templates, providing key talking points to help associates hit the ground running. This may be quite helpful for those who may not have much experience in selling.

For instance, a customer is looking for a certain style of winter jacket. Several days later the store receives a new shipment of jackets just like what the customer had been searching for but how does the associate approach them, when they are also new to the job and not familiar with this product? Welcome to the world of truly personalized customer care.

Provide insights to shape and steer decision-making

Who are the high performers? Is there anyone who is struggling to meet their sales targets, and might need a little extra support to boost their performance and capabilities? Perhaps some training reinforcement would be beneficial?

A Performance Enablement Platform like Rallyware equips managers with valuable insights into their team’s performance, shaping the smart notifications, personalized tasks, and activities that each of them receives. As managers juggle various responsibilities alongside team management (especially during busier seasons when additional staff might be on the floor), providing them with tools to streamline their tasks is a game-changer.

Provide a consistently excellent customer experience

While eCommerce is taking a leading role in shopper’s journeys, brands must ensure that both in-store and digital platforms evolve harmoniously, maintaining a consistent brand experience across all channels. In a testament to the speed and ease of technology, Zebra Technologies’ study also found that customers finding price and product information on their smartphones faster than associates themselves is another pain point for retail associates.

What if the in-store journey flowed as effortlessly as the online experience (click and add to cart)? Empowered by an all-in-one software solution, sellers can effortlessly revisit product training materials and mark tasks off their personalized and smart to-do lists.

Today, many retailers are taking innovative steps to streamline and modernize the in-store experience. Consider Ikea as an example. The retailer has simplified the shopping process by opening several “Plan and Order” stores, which are smaller than their regular stores, and focus solely on kitchen, bedroom, and living room planning. Customers can make free appointments to work with Ikea specialists in the store to identify what they want, and these specialists are armed with digital tools.

A PEP, Rallyware for instance, enhances the sell-through of a retailer or brand’s products by providing important to-dos (trainings, customer relation nurturing activities, etc.) to the appropriate sellers at the right time. This, in turn, enables them to sell with confidence and ease, articulate the brand story effectively and uphold a positive and robust brand identity.

Gear up for 2024 with Retail Task Management Software

As the sales floor can be quite a busy place, it is crucial to implement the appropriate tools and software to simplify the tasks of sellers. This ensures they are optimally positioned to increase sales, all while maintaining high levels of engagement and confidence. As Tony Spring, President and CEO-Elect of Macy’s said in a recent earnings call, “The customer today does not want an endless aisle. They want the best aisle.”

So, as we head into 2024, let’s aim for nothing less than providing sellers with an exceptional experience, empowering them to deliver exceptional experiences to customers.

Schedule your demo today to see how Rallyware can help empower your sellers, boost retail sales and deliver great customer experiences with robust retail management software – this holiday season and the ones to come!