Opinion: The impact of the digital revolution on retail employees’ day-to-day lives

The retail sector is going through a digital transformation like nothing it has ever seen, with businesses seeking out new ways in which to embrace changing consumer spending habits effectively.

While a lot of noise is made at a top-line level about the digital journeys of retail businesses, from a grocer implementing a digital transformation project to a fashion retailer trialling iBeacons, nowhere near as much focus is given to how these changes are impacting the everyday working lives of the store managers and their retail colleagues working across the sector.

How do store managers deal with the ever-growing pressure to engage with customers, to know more, to offer more and to close sales?

In light of this change, Chris Love, head of workforce practices at REPL Digital, talks to Retail Week about how store associates are the frontline of this digital transformation.

This follows the release of a documentary and report on the matter, A day in the life of a store associate, in February 2016.