By John Orr, SVP of Retail, Ceridian HCM.
People are migrating away from the traditional brick and mortar retail stores in the 21st century, preferring to shop online and using their mobile devices rather than visit physical storefronts. This is most prevalent in the specialty hard goods. However, shoppers still enjoy the social and entertainment aspects that retail provides, as well as with soft goods shoppers tend to still want to touch and size in person. As the percentage of online purchases continues to grow beyond recent 10% figures, in the stores we are seeing a shift in labor.
Overall labor is not being lowered. Recent government programs that impact hour and wage rules are forcing more part-time hours and in retail redefining full-time from 40 hours per week to less than 30 hours per week. And although many retailers are finding themselves forced to cover with more part-time employees, overall labor hours remain fairly consistent. How those hours are used is what is changing, as we see more retailers dedicating some of those hours to in-store pack and ship as well as in-store pick-up.
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