Get Your Operations on Lock. The Rest Will Follow.
Running a retail store is gritty, sweaty, challenging work. Each day is slightly different. Each day will throw you for a mini loop, or sometimes, a giant loop. As leaders, we have to be flexible about all of it. We bend with customer needs, company shifts, and sudden changes in priority.
We roll with whatever comes our way because we are smart professionals used to being in flux. But flexibility can be exhausting when you’re constantly compensating for a foundation that doesn’t meet you where you are.
You know what really matters? Your operations. Locking in your operational processes at every store is key. If you also invest in technology to support them, magic happens. The goal here is to make the tech invisible. Make it seamless. Make it easy. When the technology is effortless, serving the customer falls into place.
The View from 46,000 Hours
I led teams in retail stores for twenty-four years. I spent about 46,000 hours in stores. One thing I know for sure: if your foundation is weak, everything else will falter.
In many stores, information is fragmented.
One person knows the inventory count; another knows the promo schedule; a third is the only one who knows how to fix the printer. This creates silos and causes information to get stuck. People in stores need one place they can go for information. One dashboard. One source of truth.
When you give everyone access to the basics of the business, they become invested. They feel included, involved, and empowered to make decisions without calling for a manager every five minutes. The tech has to be as organized as your back room.
The Stockroom Principle
Getting the right solution in place is like having a stockroom that is beautifully organized.
Let me explain. In a retail store, if your stockroom is a mess, the rest of the business will be a mess too. If I’m walking into your back room for the first time, I should be able to understand the layout and where things are kept within sixty seconds. Everything should be labeled. Like items should be stored together. There should be a flow that makes sense for the team and for the pace of the business.
Store teams are time-starved. So, taking five minutes to look for a piece of hardware you know you have but can’t find is a productivity killer. It’s a morale killer. When a customer is waiting on the floor for a specific size and you’re back there digging through a mountain of unorganized boxes, you’re losing a sale and you’re losing the rhythm of the day.
Technology is the same. It needs to give you information quickly so you don’t have to search around for what you really need. That means a simple point of sale, an accurate inventory, and navigation that makes sense.
When you have a line of people, the last thing you want to do is search for a button or troubleshoot a system error while a dozen pairs of eyes are staring at you.
The Patience Gap
Customers have an incredible capacity for empathy when it comes to humans. If an associate is kind, helpful, and doing their best, most customers will wait an extra minute. They understand that stores are often short staffed and that retail is tough.
However, customers have zero patience for crummy tech.
The moment a screen freezes or a scanner fails to pick up a barcode, the customer’s patience begins to dwindle. Bad technology makes your best employees look incompetent.
It creates a level of distrust with your customer, and no amount of customer service can win them back. To the customer, a glitchy system isn’t about the tech; it’s a sign that the brand doesn’t value their time.
Building Your Operational Foundation
So, how do you get those operations on lock? You start by building a tech stack that acts as a partner for your team.
Begin by asking these fundamental questions:
- What hardware do you actually need? Don’t buy tech for tech’s sake. If your associates are constantly moving, bulky stationary registers aren’t the answer. If you’re a high-volume boutique, maybe you need ruggedized tablets.
- How much freedom on the floor do your associates need? Do you want them to be able to ring people up on the spot, or is the cash wrap a key part of your brand experience?
- What is the customer journey? What do you want your customers to do when they’re in the store? How do you want them to feel? Do you want them to take their time? Or are they stopping in quickly?
The best technology supports us where we are. It connects us to information in a hurry and then it gets out of the way. It’s the digital equivalent of a clean, labeled stockroom. You walk in, you grab what you need, and you get back to the w
ork that matters.
Focus on the Foundation
Retail will always be unpredictable. You can’t control the weather; you can’t control the global supply chain, and you can’t control the afternoon rush.
But you can control your operations. You can control the tools you give your team. When
you invest in a tailored control system, you aren’t just buying software. You’re buying your team the silent partner they need to be great at their jobs.
Get your operations on lock. Build that foundation. When the tech is seamless and the processes are invisible, the rest will fall into place and thrive.
Kit Campoy is a retail expert and author of the book, The Retail Leader’s Field Guide. She spent 46,000 hours in stores leading teams. Today, she trains frontline teams and writes for world-class SaaS retail tech brands.
