Summary

Grocery retailers face a perfect storm: inflation drives up the cost of goods, wages, and utilities while eroding consumer purchasing power and demand for high-margin items. Post-pandemic worker shortages and heavier workloads add pressure to control costs, stay agile, and maintain store performance and customer experience.

This whitepaper sets out five ways to rethink grocery operations with technology: digitizing store operations, improving communications, simplifying repetitive processes, digitizing regional team processes, and upskilling teams in the flow of work. It draws on YOOBIC deployments across Lidl France, Alnatura, Vitalia, and Naturalia, part of the 350+ companies that trust YOOBIC.

Summary

After being praised as frontline heroes during the pandemic, retail associates now face high stress, demanding customers, and heavier workloads with fading recognition. That combination is driving disengagement and record turnover, even as 94% of retailers reported difficulty filling vacant positions in 2021.

This guide draws on third-party research from Gallup, Harvard Business Review, Korn Ferry, and the University of Phoenix, plus YOOBIC’s own 2022 survey of 1,400 frontline employees. It lays out why associates disengage and how their engagement directly affects sales, customer loyalty, and retention.

Summary

Brick-and-mortar retail’s post-pandemic resurgence created a perfect storm: surging foot traffic and sales met fewer stores, fewer employees, heavier workloads, and intense hiring competition. Retailers cannot simply revert to pre-pandemic practices. They need store operations built for an unpredictable environment, supported by technology rather than paper and one-off training.

This YOOBIC ebook lays out five strategies for rethinking store operations: digitizing operations, improving communications, simplifying repetitive processes, digitizing regional team work, and upskilling teams in the flow of work. It includes examples from retailers such as The Kooples, Boots, The Foschini Group, and Jules showing measurable operational gains.

Summary

COVID accelerated business digitization, but many retailers still lag on frontline communication, leaving store teams disconnected from HQ. Weak, non-user-friendly communication tools undermine productivity, engagement, retention, and the customer experience, and the cost of getting it wrong shows up across the entire store network.

This ebook explains why mobile-first store communications matter and how to consolidate them into one engaging platform. It draws on YOOBIC’s 2021 Frontline Employee Workplace Survey, a Deloitte data source, and customer examples from Adore Me, GANT, Roots, and Johnston & Murphy.

Summary

UK retail is navigating a declining, high-turnover workforce, a widespread wellbeing crisis, and the biggest cost-of-living crisis in a generation. Retailers face the dual challenge of recruitment and retention while balancing productivity and adapting to post-Covid working trends such as hybrid and four-day-week models.

This report explains how flexibility, wellbeing support, engagement and competitive pay lift frontline productivity, using examples from Levi’s, Primark, Pandora, Majestic Wine and M&S. Produced by Retail Gazette in collaboration with YOOBIC and Inploi, it draws on data from Workl, The Retail Trust, the ONS, Deloitte and academic research.

Summary

Retail has moved into an era of experiential shopping, where the physical store has to work harder to stand out. Yet the store visit remains decades behind the rest of retail: an exercise in low-value admin and policing rather than a way to improve the in-store experience and lift performance.

This guide sets out the five most common problems with outdated, paper-based store visit procedures and how to fix each one. It draws on YOOBIC’s eight years working with retailers and an interview with Louise O’Keeffe, Head of Retail Support at Halfords, which operates 455 shops.

Summary

Post-COVID-19, stores face reduced foot traffic, weaker brand loyalty, a shift to online shopping, and fewer employees and locations. Consumer digital adoption that would have taken 10 years happened in 90 days. Cost-cutting became retailers’ priority, but they cannot afford to sacrifice in-store experience or team performance to get there.

This ebook lays out four tech-powered approaches to help each store do more with less: digitized remote store visits, AI-driven data analysis, mobile-first training and communication, and tool consolidation. Cost and time savings are based on YOOBIC customer data. YOOBIC’s digital workplace is used by 200+ retailers and brands, including Lacoste, Boots and Puma.

Summary

Restaurants and QSRs are absorbing rising operational costs from labor shortages, high quit rates, and supply chain turbulence. One chef reported that since 2020 fryer oil prices more than doubled, takeout box costs nearly quadrupled, and a case of chicken wings spiked 388%. Food wastage alone accounts for $2 billion in lost profits.

This ebook shows how a digital workplace platform lowers labor, waste, administrative, and maintenance costs while using location data to improve efficiency. It draws on data from Goldman Sachs and a Coresight Research survey, alongside frontline workforce findings, to make the case for digitizing restaurant operations.

Summary

Discount retailers have weathered a cost-of-living crisis, inflation, rising interest rates, and organized retail crime, all of which cut consumer spending. Entering 2024, the market shows signs of recovery and growth, but capturing it demands more efficient, agile store operations that protect performance against continued volatility.

This ebook sets out how discount retailers use technology to reach operational excellence across five areas, from digitizing store operations to upskilling teams in the flow of work. It cites the Centre for Retail Research and the White House Council of Economic Advisers, and draws on implementations at Lidl France, francesca’s, Adore Me, and Naturalia.

Summary

Retailers face labor shortages, high turnover, and shifting frontline workforce expectations, compounded by inflation, recession, and supply chain pressure. Too many siloed, non-intuitive legacy systems leave deskless workers underserved. To build lifetime customer loyalty, retailers need consolidated, human-centric platforms that attract and retain a next-generation workforce while improving customer experience.

This analyst buyer’s guide was authored by IDC Retail and Financial Insights, with analyst Leslie Hand, Group Vice President, and produced by IDC Custom Solutions. It draws on named IDC surveys and NRF data. Sponsored by YOOBIC, it includes worksheets for vetting vendor fit, required capabilities, and long-term compatibility.