Inside the Industry: Overcome Retail Labor Shortage Challenges with Workforce Optimization

Author: Mike Vaughn

The retail labor shortage continues. Although the number of job openings peaked in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, many retailers are still operating short-staffed five years later. Furthermore, the industry isn’t seeing steady improvement over time. The BLS JOLTS report shows there were 498,000 retail job openings in March 2025, but that number rose to 685,000 in Feb 2026.

With labor in short supply, retailers are turning to technology to help their employees enhance their performance and maximize their productivity. Workforce optimization solutions have become essential to keep the retail industry operating.

How the Retail Labor Shortage Has Evolved

While the retail labor shortage numbers have stayed in the hundreds of thousands since the beginning of the decade, the reasons behind them have changed. Retailers aren’t just facing the challenge of finding employees. An added issue is retaining them, which has contributed to higher labor and operational costs.

However, cutting back on staff without technological support is not a viable strategy. With so many options, both in physical stores and online, consumers hold retailers to a high standard. In a PwC survey, nearly one-third of customers admitted that they’ve stopped buying from a brand due to poor customer experience. Minimizing customer service in response to the retail labor shortage could result in a downward spiral with little hope of recovery.

Furthermore, retail employee responsibilities have also expanded in the midst of a retail labor shortage. Some stores have become micro-fulfillment centers, with sales associates picking and filling online orders for in-store pickup or shipping. Others have grown into service hubs where omnichannel customers can make returns, place orders, or interact in other ways that blend online and physical experiences. And managing these tasks is often in addition to staffing sales floors.

What Are Workforce Optimization Solutions for Retail?

The goal of deploying retail workforce optimization solutions is to redesign workflows with technology. These retail technology solutions can help staff struggling to keep up during the retail labor shortage work more productively and enhance customer experiences:

Continuous Inventory Management

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology enables continuous inventory data collection. RFID readers capture data from RFID tags on items without requiring a line of sight. So, a store can capture data at item-level in just a few seconds when it receives a shipment, and readers in the stock room, on the sales floor, and at the checkout can immediately update inventory data as items move.

Our ebook, The Billion Dollar Blind Spot, explains that inaccurate inventory leads to higher labor costs as employees spend their time searching for items, correcting discrepancies, and correcting errors. With accurate inventory, continually updated, employees can enhance customer experiences and their job performance. They can provide up-to-date inventory availability and quickly find items for buy online, pickup in store (BOPIS) fulfillment. Retail teams also handle goods movement and shelf stocking faster and more accurately. Oxford Economics research has found that connecting teams to accurate inventory data improves task execution completion rate by 63% and improves customer service metrics by 61%.

Order Picking Solutions

Paper-based order picking processes are inefficient, can lead to errors, and aren’t sustainable. Retailers can replace paper with digital or voice-directed solutions. Using a mobile device or a headset, employees receive orders and the exact location of the items to fill them. Employees assigned to order fulfillment can move from one order to another without delay. They can also confirm accuracy and update the retail management system with a barcode scan.

Mobile POS

Mobile point of sale (POS) solutions allow sales associates to provide in-aisle assistance, from checking inventory availability to completing transactions. Enterprise mobility not only elevates customer experiences by eliminating the wait in a checkout line, but it also helps employees work more productively. When sales associates have all the functionality of a POS terminal on tablets in their hands, they can save time, save steps, and serve more customers during their shifts.

Self-Service and Automation

A retail workforce optimization strategy should include self-service options. Forrester reports that nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults prefer self-checkout, and the number is higher, 70%, for consumers 44 and younger. In addition to giving shoppers autonomy at the checkout, retailers can also make technology available that allows them to perform other tasks during their shopping journeys, like checking prices or picking up an order at a self-service locker, on their own. Self-service meets customer demands for speed and convenience, but it also allows store employees to make the most of their time. When customers handle straightforward tasks independently, employees can focus on higher-value tasks that lead to greater customer satisfaction, bigger basket sizes, and more revenue.

Digital Price Tags/ESLs

Centralizing prices with digital price tags or electronic shelf labels (ESLs) can save time, increase accuracy, and improve consistency. Instead of looking for available employees during the retail labor shortage to update labels and tags, the technology automatically updates prices across the store (or across an enterprise) with the correct price and can update at the beginning and end of promotions. The return on investment (ROI) includes labor cost savings and greater profitability from pricing accuracy.

Intelligent Security Systems

Technology can help retailers secure their stores without looking for additional employees during the retail labor shortage. Smart cameras and RFID technology can help control shrinkage and losses. Retailers can also leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to help spot suspicious activity, send alerts, and automate aspects of security processes, like activating door locks or calling authorities.

Top Features of Retail Workforce Optimization Solutions

When choosing solutions to help with retail labor shortage challenges, decision-makers need to select the best fit for their operations and their employees. Key features of retail workforce optimization technology include the following:

• Standardized solutions that enable easy training and cross-training
• Durable, reliable devices for heavy use in a commercial environment, with appropriate drop and Ingress Protection (IP) ratings
• An optimized mobile network for reliable connectivity
• Handheld devices with all the tools retail employees require, including a camera or barcode scanner and an integrated payment device
• User-friendly touchscreens that employees can read in all lighting conditions
• Ergonomic devices that are easy to carry and use
• Battery life that’s long enough to last through a shift
• Connectivity options for flexible methods of connecting to the network or connecting a POS device to a printer
• Device management capabilities for maximum uptime, remote updates, and strong data security

Partner to Implement Optimal Solutions for Labor Shortage Challenges

The retail labor shortage leaves minimal time for staff to plan, test, implement, and train employees in new technology. Partnering with a retail technology solutions provider can work with retailers to design solutions and provide expert technology services and managed services. Retailers can trust their retail solutions provider partner to conduct a site survey for reliable connectivity, plan and work through a proof of concept (POC) and a pilot, and handle device procurement when it’s time to take the solution full-scale. Retailers will also benefit from a partner that provides lifecycle services, manages a spares pool and advanced exchange, and handles repairs, reconfigurations, and end-of-life services.

Retailers can also rely on an experienced retail solutions provider partner for training employees to use new devices and for help desk services to ease the burden on the IT team when employees have tech-related questions or need troubleshooting assistance. The relationship with a valuable partner can continue with ongoing managed services like network management and monitoring.

Make a Connection That Helps Connect Your Frontline

A partner that delivers a well-planned retailer workforce optimization solution can also help overcome retail labor shortage challenges. Research reported in our Billion Dollar Blindspot ebook from Zebra Technologies found that equipping employees with the right tools can reduce employee turnover by as much as 8%.

Moreover, the employees at work will have fit-for-purpose tools that help your organization improve its performance metrics. Oxford Economics research shows that retail workforce optimization results in 1.8% higher revenue growth, 1.5% higher profit growth, and a 22% decrease in operating costs compared to companies that continue to operate using legacy processes.

Levata has helped numerous companies navigate retail labor shortage challenges by equipping their staff with tools that help them maximize their performance. Contact us to see how to help your team manage more work, more effectively with retail technology solutions.

About the Author:
Mike Vaughn is a digital transformation leader with more than a decade of global experience helping retailers modernize operations through strategic technology adoption. As a Senior Director of Enterprise Sales at Levata, he works closely with retail organizations to design and implement solutions that enhance the shopper experience while improving operational visibility across stores and supply chains. Vaughn partners with customers to deploy mobility, data capture, and automation technologies that streamline workflows, improve inventory accuracy, and support seamless omnichannel retail strategies—from the sales floor to fulfillment. His customer-first approach focuses on helping retailers use connected technology and intelligent insights to deliver faster, more convenient, and more personalized shopping experiences.