Modernising the Retail Front Line:
The retail paradox we need to solve
Customers want more. They want faster, more personalised service. They want more choice in how they shape
their shopping experience. And whatever path they choose, they expect it to be seamless and frictionless.
Retailers, meanwhile, have their own needs. The last few years have been tumultuous – navigating wage
pressure, fluctuating inflation, chronic vacancies, and thin margins. Amid all this, they are breathlessly
trying to keep up with the fast-evolving demands of consumers. So, what’s the solution?
1) Automate the mundane, elevate the human
Here’s the thing: stores lose hours every week to tasks customers never see – cash counts and recounts, manual
reconciliations, prepping change floats, routine tasking, and chasing exceptions. In a market where retail
talent is scarce and wage growth remains elevated in many economies, every back‑office hour you reclaim is an
hour you can redeploy to the shop floor.
Why ‘just hire more people’ isn’t a strategy anymore
Globally, talent scarcity remains stubborn: three in four employers report difficulty filling roles – one of
the highest levels on record – and retail sales roles are persistently in demand (ManpowerGroup, 2024). Even
when consumer demand is healthy, capacity is capped by labour availability and cost. The International Labour
Organization’s 2024 outlook also describes uneven but persistent tightness in labour markets and skills
mismatches, alongside pressure on real incomes in many regions.
Consumers have voted with their feet. In the US, 84% of consumers enjoy self‑service kiosks and 66% choose
them over staffed checkouts (and these numbers are much higher with younger generations) – behaviours echoed
across markets as unattended payments become mainstream (PYMNTS, 2024). In grocery, nearly 40% of lanes are
already self‑checkout and 96% of stores offer it (Capital One Shopping Research, 2025).
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34%
40%
26%
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2) Give customers more control with self‑service
70%
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50%
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51%
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As you modernise, you don’t need more moving parts – you need fewer, better-connected ones.
Our flexible retail portfolio is designed to plug into your strategy rather than dictate it:
To discover how you can transform your customer experience with smart automation solutions, get in touch.
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Shopify - Unified Commerce in Retail: Business Case and Implementation
In the relentless pursuit of a modern customer experience, many retailers have created a web of complexity.
How to Deliver Seamless CX Without Adding Headcount
Three shifts that modernise the front line (without adding headcount)
3) Unite channels with a single commerce backbone
Most ‘omnichannel’ stacks still carry hidden friction – duplicated price files, inconsistent promotions, and
baskets that don’t travel. The shift now is to unified commerce: one cloud‑native transaction backbone driving
POS, SCO, kiosks and mobile with a single source of truth for prices, tax, tenders and receipts.
The payoff: Faster, friendlier, more profitable retail
When these three shifts land together, the flywheel turns. Customers move through stores faster and with less
friction; colleagues spend more time on higher‑value interactions; and leaders make decisions on one set of
numbers.
Service speed Self‑service preferences are strong, so well‑designed flows convert quickly without adding heads.
Basket uplift Autonomous journeys give shoppers time and privacy to explore upgrades and promotions, while
unified promotions ensure what you promise online is what you deliver in-store.
Lower operating complexity Retailers consolidating onto unified commerce stacks report lower integration
overheads and faster rollout of new capabilities (Shopify Enterprise, 2025), while cash automation also drives
simplicity and efficiency in cash processes across your enterprise.
Happier teams As repetitive tasks shrink, managers spend more time coaching and less time firefighting –
critical in a market where retail talent is scarce and costly to replace.
Where GLORY helps
Frictionless experience With unified commerce, customers get the experience they want, seamlessly shifting
between their physical and digital experiences, with a common basket carried between touchpoints and accurate
information on inventory and promotions.
Cash Automation
Self‑Service
Unified Commerce
As you modernise, you don’t need more moving parts – you need fewer, better-connected ones.
Retail doesn’t need more headcount to deliver better experiences. It needs better allocation of the headcount
it already has, powered by automation for the boring bits, autonomy for customers, and a single backbone that
keeps every touchpoint honest. That’s how you build stores that are faster, friendlier and more profitable –
no matter where the next headwind blows.
A final word
with modular kiosks and SCOs designed for a wide range of environments and delivering measurable uplift.
to remove back‑office friction, reduce errors, and standardise secure, auditable routines across POS, SCO and
back office.
with a cloud‑native platform that keeps prices, promotions, receipts, taxes and tenders consistent across POS,
SCO, kiosks and mobile – so journeys feel seamless and operations stay simple.
Click to learn more
So even where retailers can afford it, adding more staff is not always straightforward, nor does it deliver
everything modern consumers are looking for. The solution today is not bigger headcounts, but smarter
technology. That’s not just us talking. Deloitte’s 2024 global survey of retail executives echoes the picture:
labour shortages and inflationary costs do continue to test store operations – yet leaders see opportunity in
technologies that can boost productivity and at the same time reduce friction across the customer journey
(Deloitte Global Retail Outlook 2024).
Self‑service isn’t a silver bullet – it needs thoughtful implementation to avoid alienating your customers.
The answer is design: the right product, the right staffing balance, targeted loss prevention where
appropriate, and an inclusive approach to payment choice. Get this right and you free colleagues from the
repetitive scan‑and‑bag cycle to focus on service, selling, and the store environment.
Not only can all your cash-related tasks now be simplified to the push of a button – saving you hours of time
on the floor and in the back office every day – but you can also manage your entire cash estate across your
enterprise from a central point, allowing you to make data-driven decisions, refine your process, reduce CIT
visits, and more.
Why it matters: Forrester finds that genuine omnichannel engagement lifts customer lifetime value for 46% of
businesses, while Deloitte’s 2024 outlook prioritises enhancing in‑store omni‑experience and trustworthy
personalisation as growth levers (Forrester/SAP Emarsys, 2024; Deloitte 2024). Shopify also reports that
retailers unifying store and ecommerce operations realise lower total cost of ownership and faster
time‑to‑value than fragmented estates (Shopify Enterprise, 2025).
