Automated Solutions to the Problems Faced by the Retail Sector

Do you have a retail business? 

Are you lagging in the competition?

Retail businesses are identified as highly dynamic and customer-oriented businesses. It involves a lot of processes and manual labor to get things done. Be it a retail store or an e-commerce business, the number of functions is endless. The only way to stay competitive and continuously deliver value to your customers is to keep up with the changing technology. 

Robotic Process Automation, aka RPA, is the technology I am talking about. 

Robotic Process Automation is the software that takes charge of the rule-based, repetitive tasks in your business. According to Gartner, Robotic process automation (RPA) is a productivity tool that allows a user to configure one or more scripts (which some vendors refer to as “bots”) to activate specific keystrokes in an automated fashion. 

RPA has found its application in various industries like healthcare, financial services, Human resources, etc. In this article, we are explicitly talking about the application of RPA in your retail business. 

As we know, retail is a consumer-driven industry, and the fast-paced nature of the industry makes it essential for businesses to reduce their cost and increase efficiency. One of the fundamental strategies that companies opt for is - reduce the costs and increase profits. However, what they struggle with is that they cannot reduce the price further after a point. This is where the firm needs to adopt automation. It is not an additional cost but an investment that would cut down your production costs drastically. 

The expected benefits of RPA include:

1. Automating the repetitive tasks. 
2. Improves efficiency 
3. Helps manual labor to focus on productive tasks
4. Cut down costs

However, it does have some specific benefits to retail businesses. These are:

Trade Promotions 

• The processes involved in trade promotions are simply manual and often spreadsheet-based. It forms the second biggest expense for the sector and requires on-going data collection and analysis. 

RPA replaces the task of employees entering data in spreadsheets in much less time with higher efficiency. It increases the ability to quickly and accurately track and analyze how promotions are performing. 

Sales Analytics

• Retail business involves a large amount of  sales data to analyze and action every day. The employees have to put in a  lot of consistent effort to get the work done as fast as possible. 

Automating business and sales analytics helps you with faster access to exhaustive reports comprising real-time insights of consumer behavior and relevant preferences. It helps to maximize sales opportunities. 

Demand-supply planning

Demand-Supply planning in retail involves processes like gathering data, standardizing this data, and simulations to study the patterns of demand. Based on the study, organizations create a supply plan to fulfill the demand. 

Needless to say, these processes were traditionally carried out by human force. RPA can automate the demand-supply planning process. You would also be able to make data-driven decisions for asset management, customer support, supplier management, and capacity management. 

In-store planning 

• The in-store strategy is to segment your store layout according to customer demographics and preferences. 

RPA taps into existing databases and gives retailers access to more accurate information on a store-by-store basis. It helps in improving the user experience and reap profits. 

These are some of the ways in which RPA can help your retail business thrive. And not just your retail business, but RPA can help any business to achieve the goal of maximum profits and a better customer experience in the most sophisticated manner. If you further want to get into the depths of RPA in the retail industry or any other industries, get in touch with us at www.darkbears.com