Every retail business has them: processes that exist not because they are the best way to do something, but because they are the way it has always been done. Maybe inventory is still tracked partly in a spreadsheet. Perhaps one employee is responsible for a process nobody else fully understands. Maybe the same report gets printed every Monday even though nobody can remember the last time it influenced a decision. Or perhaps staff spend hours manually entering information that already exists somewhere else in the business.
When business is busy, these routines are easy to overlook. If something technically works, changing it can feel unnecessary. But as retailers prepare for the busiest months of the year, September is a great time to ask a surprisingly valuable question:
If we were starting our business today, would we still do it this way?
The answer can reveal opportunities to save time, reduce mistakes and make the business easier to manage.
Familiar Does Not Always Mean Efficient
There is nothing inherently wrong with an old process. Some routines have survived for years because they genuinely work. The problem arises when a process continues simply because nobody has stopped to reconsider it.
Consider how much retail technology has changed over the past several years. Point of sale systems have become more sophisticated, ecommerce and in-store operations are increasingly connected, reporting tools can provide information almost instantly, inventory can be tracked across multiple locations, and customer information, loyalty programs, purchasing and sales data can often be managed within interconnected systems. Yet it is surprisingly easy for the processes surrounding that technology to remain unchanged.
A retailer may have a modern POS system while still exporting information into spreadsheets every week because that was how reports were created years ago. Employees may manually update information in multiple places even though an integration could eliminate some of that work. Individually, these tasks may only take a few minutes. Repeated every day, week and month, however, they can represent a significant amount of staff time.
Manual Work Has a Cost
One of the easiest ways to identify outdated processes is to look for repetitive manual work. Ask your team what they regularly enter twice. What information gets copied from one system into another? What reports have to be manually assembled? What processes depend on handwritten notes, separate spreadsheets or someone remembering to complete a task? These small inefficiencies have several costs.
The most obvious cost is labor. If an employee spends 30 minutes every day completing a task that could be automated, that adds up to more than 120 hours over the course of a year.
There is also the cost of human error. Every time information is manually re-entered, copied or calculated, there is an opportunity for something to go wrong.
Most importantly, there is an opportunity cost. Time spent maintaining unnecessary processes is time that cannot be spent helping customers, merchandising the store, training employees, analyzing the business or planning for growth.
Automation does not have to mean replacing employees. In many cases, it simply means allowing employees to spend less time on repetitive administrative work and more time on tasks where their experience and judgment actually matter.
Watch Out for the “Only One Person Knows How” Problem
Every retailer seems to have someone who knows exactly how a particular task works. They know which spreadsheet to open, which report to run, which numbers to change, which vendor to contact and what to do when something goes wrong. That knowledge can be incredibly valuable, but it can also create a vulnerability.
What happens when that employee goes on vacation? What happens if they leave the company? Could another employee complete the process confidently without calling them?
Important procedures should be documented and, whenever possible, simplified. This could include receiving inventory, creating new products, running reports, processing returns, managing purchase orders, completing inventory counts or handling opening and closing procedures. Your systems should support your employees rather than depend on one person’s memory.
Are You Using the Tools You Already Pay For?
Sometimes improving a retail operation does not require buying anything new. Retailers often use only a portion of the functionality available within their existing systems. A POS system might include reporting tools, automated promotions, customer management features, inventory alerts, purchase order functionality, integrations, user permissions or customizable workflows that were never configured or were forgotten after implementation.
Over time, businesses change as well. A feature that did not seem necessary when a system was first installed may be extremely useful today. This makes a periodic technology review worthwhile.
Instead of immediately asking, “What new software should we buy?” start by asking, “What can our current systems already do that we aren’t using?” You may discover that a problem your team has been solving manually already has a solution.
Question the Reports Nobody Uses
Retailers have access to more data than ever, but more reporting does not automatically lead to better decisions. Many businesses regularly generate reports simply because they have always generated them. A better approach is to work backward from the decision.
Before running a report, ask what question you are trying to answer. Are you deciding what to reorder? Trying to identify slow-moving inventory? Evaluating a promotion? Looking for your most valuable customers? Comparing locations? Planning staffing levels?
If a report does not help answer a question or influence a decision, consider whether it still needs to be part of your routine. The goal should not be to produce more reports. It should be to find the information that helps you make better decisions faster.
Look at Your Business Through a New Employee’s Eyes
One of the best ways to identify unnecessary complexity is to imagine explaining your processes to someone on their first day. If the explanation includes phrases like “This part is a little weird,” “Don’t ask why we do this,” or “You have to enter it here and then enter it again over there,” you may have found something worth reviewing. New employees often notice inefficiencies that experienced employees no longer see because those processes have become normal.
Encourage staff to ask questions and suggest improvements. The person performing a task every day may have a much better idea of how it could be improved than the person who originally designed the process. Creating an environment where employees can question a process without being seen as questioning the person who created it can lead to meaningful improvements.
Make the Changes Before the Holiday Rush
September is an ideal time for independent retailers to examine these processes. The holiday season will soon bring increased traffic, higher transaction volumes, additional inventory and, for many retailers, seasonal employees. Small inefficiencies that are manageable during quieter periods can become much more noticeable when the store gets busy.
You do not need to overhaul your entire operation before the holidays.
Instead, identify two or three processes that regularly frustrate your team or consume unnecessary time. Determine whether they can be eliminated, simplified, automated or better documented. Even a small improvement can make the busy season easier.
The Best Process Is Not Necessarily the One You Know Best
“We’ve always done it this way” is understandable. Familiar processes feel safe, particularly when they have helped keep a business running successfully for years. But retail continues to change, and the systems available to independent retailers continue to improve. The goal is not to change processes simply for the sake of change. It is to make sure every routine still earns its place in your business.
Before the busiest months of the year arrive, take a fresh look at how work gets done in your store. Ask your employees what wastes their time. Look for information that gets entered twice. Review the features available in the technology you already use. Question reports that no longer influence decisions. Document processes that currently live in one person’s head. You may find that some of the easiest opportunities to improve your business have been hiding in plain sight.
And sometimes the most valuable question a retailer can ask isn’t “What should we start doing?”
It’s “Why are we still doing this?”
