The Internal Processes and Challenges in a Workplace
The internal processes of a workplace can be executed regardless of the external business factors. The internal processes tackle vital aspects in the workplace and any organization in general, as it ensures delivery of primary services. In our workplace which is a retail store, the internal processes ensure delivery of services such as operations, maintenance, planning, procurement, and billing among others (Rothery, 2002).
Challenges Faced in Retail Operations
At our retail store, there are some challenges we encounter that provide an opportunity for innovation. Theft is the most significant challenge, as almost every retail operator deals with pilfering by both the employees and the customers. In every annual budget, we have to build in a margin for the lost inventory. According to the National Retail Federation, 96% of retailers are affected by theft, either targeting product transportation vehicles, warehouses, or the online shopping portals and their stores.
Syncing Inventory in Online Retail Business
Syncing inventory is a problem in the online retail business. The difference between what the customer wants and what we have profoundly affects the stock. What the customer wants is to purchase an item and pick them from our store so that they can eliminate any shipping cost. However, about 76% our retail shops are not able to meet this demand.
Addressing Technological Challenges in Retail Industry
The other challenge that requires innovation to address it is technology. In this technological era, keeping up with the technology is overwhelming with our retail industry, mostly as they are required to continually upgrade and keep their networks running due to the economic environment. The innovative solution includes opening online platforms where we can sell our products from and can give the customer the option of delivering to them or picking from the stores. These online platforms should also be accompanied by apps from the mobile phones. This will place us at a competitive advantage from those operating purely online (Funk, 2009).
Cultivating Customer Loyalty
Customer loyalty is a common problem that every business faces, even in niche markets and our retail shop is no exception. To retain customers, we are expected to keep the customers satisfied with our prices and creating a helpful customer service and inventory as customers are likely to shop elsewhere. Therefore, we are expected to be on toes with the trends in merchandising to retain the customer's loyalty, and also be competitive regarding technology and regulating our services and prices.
Ensuring Timely Product Delivery
Ensuring that the products reach the stores in time is another problem that is experienced in my workplace. Our products which are mostly shipped from outside the country, and due to poor management and miscommunication, or change in stock requirements, we experience late shipment. This causes disappointment to the customers, which translates to a loss of customers.
Overcoming Competition in Retail Marketing
In our workplace, competition is another problem in the retail marketing. Most of the time, several stores have the same products, and so our marketing has to be niche high. Convincing the buyers to buy from us and not them is quite a challenge. As a result, we need to have innovative solutions and ideas that will place our products in the best light. One of the creative solutions includes having promotions running to attract customers and have a competitive advantage (McGovern, 2009).
Adapting to Changing Technology
With the changing technology, convenience becomes a problem for our business. With the use of the internet, our retail shops have to work harder to get customers as most would prefer shopping online.
Retaining and Training Employees
Employee retention is another big challenge that we experience. When the customer gets to our stores, they want experienced and knowledgeable staff and salespeople. Salespeople are hard to retain, and we have to continually recruit and train new workers, which is not only time-consuming but expensive. The solution to this would be offering competitive pay and benefits to our employees and opportunities for advancements.
Innovation for Competitive Advantage
The tech-savvy consumer expects their retail shops to give the best shopping experiences. To accommodate their demands, it's essential to develop new strategies and embrace innovation. Innovation is the application of better solutions or ideas that will suit the existing market. In this era, where there is high competition in every business, it's essential that we embrace innovation to remain relevant and have a competitive advantage. In my workplace, from the problems mentioned above, we require innovative solutions that will address these issues. One of the innovative solutions would be implementing the Omnichannel commerce that will help in maintaining the inventory (Samli, 2010). This form of marketing will provide us with the ability to track the engagement we have with our customers through various channels. We can see what pages they visit most and the items they like or don't like, and also their buying habits. By implementing this new process, we will increase our competitive advantage and create a culture in our employees that appreciates innovation. Through this innovation, our company will meet the needs of the supplier and the consumer as it will ensure we stock products that have consumers. In addition, it's a more natural way of maintaining customer loyalty (Thompson, 2018).
Addressing Theft and Employee Retention with Innovation
The other innovative solution to the theft problem that accounts for more than half of retail shrink which has been a primary concern is video surveillance at the point of sale. This will combat theft and shoplifting as it will be easy to verify transactions. This can be done by putting up alerts to inform the manager of any abnormalities like excessive numbers and identify the shoplifters. In addition, there are customized alarms that can be put to reduce cases of theft after the stores are closed. On the problem of employee retention, we can come up with a plan where our workers are employed on a permanent basis and given a pay hike, to avoid resigning. This will help them gain more knowledge of our products, which is what attracts our customers.
Maintaining Competitive Advantage through Innovation
Innovation creates a competitive advantage by perceiving or making the business discover better ways that will make customers prefer us. Maintaining product innovation is a way of sustaining a competitive advantage (Drucker, 2015). These innovative solutions are easy to implement as putting security measures would take a month, and addressing the other changes would require a consensus from the stakeholders. The innovation impact can be measured by considering how many employees have retained their jobs, and how much has been lost through theft and compare it with previous thefts.
References
Drucker, P. F., " Maciariello, J. (2015). Innovation and entrepreneurship: Practice and principles. (Innovation and entrepreneurship.) Oxfordshire, England: Routledge Classics.
Funk, T. (2009). Web 2.0 and beyond: Understanding the new online business models, trends, and technologies. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Harvard Business School. (2009). Executing innovation: Expert solutions to everyday challenges. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.
McGovern, G., " Norton, R. (2002). Content critical: Gaining competitive advantage through high-quality Web content. Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall.
Porter, M. E. (2008). Competitive advantage: Creating and sustaining superior performance : with a new introduction. New York: Free Press.
Rothery, D. A., Harris, N., Bell, A., " Open University. (2002). Internal processes: Block 3. Milton Keynes: Open University.
Samli, A. C. (2010). International Entrepreneurship: Innovative solutions for a fragile planet. New York, NY: Springer.
Thompson, A. A. (2018). Crafting and executing strategy: The quest for competitive advantage : concepts and cases.
