Why Grocery Gains from Back Office Automation
Multiple industries are ideal candidates for back office automation – retail, casino, hospitality, museums, waterparks, convenience stores, and others.
Grocery also benefits from back office automation. This is due to different dynamics, new and old, within the industry.
Traditionally prone to slim profit margins, grocers must be particularly intelligent when allocating expenses. Back office automation decreases expenses, including time expense.
Evention’s research proves that back office automation results in around 75% cost savings for retailers. Swapping manual back office processes for automated processes decreases expenses for grocery stores.
In particular, this reduction stems from cloud-based cash reconciliation and cash recycling. Components of Evention’s Cash Operations Management, these functions allow for employee self-banking.
Through automation, cash reconciliation and cash recycling track cash from POS to bank deposit.
Furthermore, this comprehensive tracking reduces opportunity for internal theft. Internal theft continues to be a hot issue amongst retailers, including grocers.
Forbes reported that in 2013, retailers lost as much as $60 billion from shrinkage. The reporting pointed to employee theft as a considerable shrinkage factor and a top concern.
Forbes also noted that cash continues to be used by consumers. The publication went on to emphasize that adequate measures must be put in place to safely manage it. Automation is the answer to safe cash management.
Additionally, with the more modern trend of online ordering for in-store pickup, grocers must remain competitive.
By transferring mundane back office functions to automation, grocers like Kroger, Giant Eagle, and Whole Foods can improve the front-facing service curbside pickup requires.
Through automating back office solutions like cash management, grocers get more value add.
In addition to decreasing internal theft, automation allows grocers to spend more time, capital, and resources on reinventing front-facing services. This empowers grocers to engage their customers and compete in the contemporary grocery environment.
