As uncertainty becomes the name of the game, retailers’ ability to operate is fundamentally changing. Rather than pump the brakes on IT projects, smart retailers are accelerating the push in search of processes that reduce operational costs, eliminate human error and deliver superior customer service.

These retailers are shifting to digital transformation projects that address the challenges of agility, efficiency and accuracy to deliver faster time to market and help scale their business. Fortunately, as businesses look to streamline their processes, retail automation solutions and software are available to enable digital transformation projects, as well as connect legacy systems with modern on-premise data centers and cloud-based infrastructures.

The retail industry is no stranger to workload automation. But as retailers face the risk of store closures, shrinking margins, and customer flight, it’s critical they can rapidly scale and automate the IT processes of their key retail systems.

Retailers are faced with constant demands on their IT systems—increased demand for data analytics and smart technology, e-business initiatives, supply chain and logistics management. All these systems require labor-intensive workflows that can easily strain busy IT departments.

As workflow processes in retail become more complex and time-consuming, leveraging operational efficiencies in this competitive sector can be the difference between success and failure. For both physical stores and retailers, workload automation is the optimal solution for companies requiring agility and simplicity in their retail processes, ranging from customer fulfillment, stock management and inventory procurement, to front office processes like sales, auditing, and billing.

Automation can help these businesses operate smoothly by reducing fulfillment processing time, collecting and analyzing store traffic and buying trends, and creating better customer experiences.

With e-commerce workflow automation software, companies can set up tasks including order management systems, inventory to market testing, and customer service. As brands enter higher growth phases, workload automation becomes more integral to business functions, as it is designed to streamline tasks more quickly and securely than people can.

One of the main benefits of workload automation in retail is the reduction of labor costs – more automation means fewer manual tasks across the retail business. Plus, with less need for human capital to perform those tedious, repetitive tasks, employees are free to focus on higher-value projects.

However, one of the main challenges in integrating technology for retailers today is solutions falling short of expectations. There are a lot of technology solutions on the market, and many brick-and-mortar stores often struggle to see the value of their IT investments. This is where workload automation technology can make it easy for retailers wanting to transform themselves into a technology-driven organization.