5 Automation Trends that Could be Vital to Your Retail Scaling Process in 2025

In the fast-paced, modern world of retail, it’s becoming increasingly important for brick-and-mortar stores to emulate the convenience offered in the eCommerce landscape. 

Automation technology has been paving the way for new innovations within the industry that have helped to support the scaling process from bootstrapping startups to fast-growing chains alike. 

Although the convenience of eCommerce is causing challenges for retailers, the industry’s growth rate is set to reach 4.9% in 2024, pushing global retail sales to $31.1 trillion (£23.3 trillion). 

Much of this growth will be driven by the in-store experience that many customers still prioritize over completing purchases online. With the continued emergence of automation technology powered by AI and machine learning, we’re set to see more customers welcome brick-and-mortar experiences as an industry benchmark. 

With this in mind, let’s explore five automation trends that could help your retail store to scale in 2025 and beyond: 

1. Real-Time Inventory Management

Artificial intelligence solutions can optimize inventory management processes to actively update inventory levels in real time, helping you to manage your processes while preventing the threat of lost sales through stockouts. 

With the support of an integrated point-of-sale (POS) system and integrated cash drawer technology, your inventory levels can be updated after every purchase, helping to ensure that any flurries of activity are well-looked after. The automation technology can even order new stock once reserves hit a pre-determined level. 

With the help of machine learning, it’s also possible for automation technology to analyze and predict demand patterns to ensure that reordering occurs before the risk of stockouts can manifest. 

This can significantly improve the customer experience by ensuring that they can visit stores safe in the knowledge that their desired item is more likely to be in stock, even as your business scales and welcomes higher volumes of customers. 

2. Around-the-Clock Support

Another advantage that brick-and-mortar retail has over its eCommerce counterparts is that in-store experiences can far online customer satisfaction. 

Most stores will have staff on hand to deal with queries instantly and in a personable manner, but automation technology is helping to fine-tune the accuracy and time taken to resolve issues with the implementation of natural language processing (NLP) solutions for staff to consult. 

This technology can help to make the scaling process more seamless. As more customers use your store, existing in-house staff can deal with higher query volumes with the help of NLP-integrated handheld devices for faster resolutions. 

3. Understanding Customer Behaviour

Automation technology can also work seamlessly to equip business decision-makers with unprecedented volumes of customer data. 

Again, utilizing AI and ML, it’s possible to monitor customer sentiment based on purchasing trends to learn which products could benefit from special offers and whether lead generation efforts are strong enough throughout sales funnels for different products. 

These analytical insights can help you to learn more about your customers on a personal level, helping to facilitate more growth by targeting segments based on desires and interests geared towards greater engagement and sales. 

4. Optimising Order Fulfillment

Automating order fulfillment helps scale retailers to ensure that nothing is missed throughout the ordering process, helping to ensure a straightforward experience for customers from the moment they enter the store. 

This revolves around a series of integrations to ensure that all companies within supply chains and delivery firms can help manage all orders fulfilled by the company. This can be a particular asset for retail firms that have brick-and-mortar stores but offer product customizations or high-value goods that will be delivered later on. 

Aligning the order fulfillment process with automation technology means that retailers and all their component parts remain on the same page in delivering a positive customer experience. 

5. Driving Personalisation

Artificial intelligence can also help to leverage more personalized in-store experiences for customers based on a number of different integrated solutions. 

One key way this can be delivered in-store is through facial recognition technology and computer vision, which can tailor recommendations to customers from the moment they enter a store based on their perceived historical interactions with the business and specified preferences. 

This new level of personalization helps to maintain a high-quality customer experience model in-store and can leverage higher engagement and loyalty among those who visit the store.

Achieving Sustainable Growth

Over the coming years, automation technology will form a critical component in delivering a brick-and-mortar shopping experience that exceeds that of digital with the help of more focused insights, inventory management, and predictive analytics. 

While the convenience factor of eCommerce remains a hurdle, automation technology is helping to drive growth within the retail landscape and leverage high-quality customer experiences. 

For retailers seeking to scale their operations into the future, adopting automation today is an excellent step towards sustainable growth tomorrow.