Anyone who has shopped lately – particularly in stores – knows that retailers are feeling the pain of a labor shortage and record-low unemployment rates. As a result, this report set out to 1) identify the challenges all retailers are facing and find lessons that can be learned from the best performers, 2) examine the impact of new customer expectations on what and how work needs to be performed, 3) explore a whole new generation of technology-driven capabilities, and 4) know what internal challenges retailers are facing and which technologies they think will best help them move forward.

It’s a lot to tackle. The results are quite compelling.