Retail store associates are frustrated about being unable to help customers as effectively as they'd like (WMT, TGT, AMZN)

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Retail store associates are frustrated about being overworked and unable to help customers as effectively as they’d like, with 55% saying they agree that their company is understaffed, according to a survey by Zebra Technologies.

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Additionally, 42% of associates report that they have little time to help shoppers due to pressure to finish other tasks, and 28% said it’s hard for them to get information to help shoppers when they can’t find what they’re looking for.

Equipping store associates with technology may help address customer service issues. Eighty-three percent of retail decision makers and 74% of store associates believe that customers would have a better shopping experience if employees were equipped with technology — especially handheld mobile computers and barcode scanners.

This would give workers access to more information that could enable them to better aid shoppers — a big advantage, given that over a quarter of associates say there’s no customer information available to them.

Retailers already seem to be realizing the importance of equipping their store associates with the tools they need to be more effective. Around 60% of retailers are planning to increase their spending on handheld mobile computers by more than 6% over the next three years, and 21% are planning on spending more than 10% on tablets.

Additionally, some companies are giving their employees the ability to carry out more functions from anywhere in the store. For example, both Walmart and Target recently introduced a mobile checkout feature that allows associates to check customers out from anywhere in a store. And Walmart even debuted a service that allows customers to place an online order through store employees, which they can then pay for in-store at a register using any payment method.

Going forward, more effective store employees could permanently streamline the in-store shopping experience. If customers can get better, more accurate help finding what they need, their visits will be more streamlined and efficient. This change may be further emphasized by new features like mobile checkout and ordering online from within a store, as these services may minimize the pressure on the checkout area, lowering wait times.

Since 34% of shoppers cited long checkout lines as the top reason to abandon the in-store shopping journey, according to Zebra Technologies data sent to Business Insider Intelligence, this could have a large impact on retailers’ sales. Companies seem to be preparing for this evolution, as about half of retail decision makers (52%) are converting point-of-sale (POS) space into self-checkout, and 62% are transforming it for online order pickup space.