Retail jobs go home for holidays … online
“Most of these jobs will be answering customer questions … through phone, email or web-based chat services.” Andrew Challenger, Challenger, Gray & Christmas
Holiday shoppers say they will do half of their shopping online this season, and many seasonal retail workers will find themselves working from home this year.
In an internet-age twist on retail jobs, online stores will need more online staff to answer consumer questions. And workers can do those jobs from anywhere with an internet connection.
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, in-store sales fell 7.2 percent in December 2016, marking 23 consecutive months of declines. In a new survey from consulting and accounting firm Deloitte, Americans said for the first time that they plan to spend more of their holiday shopping budget online.
“This year, we saw a jump in the number of consumers who were doing research online and making purchases there,” Deloitte researchers determined. “Survey respondents plan to spend 51 percent of their budget online, compared with 42 percent in-store.”
The average American family will spend $1,226 on holiday gifts this year, with families earning more than $100,000 a year setting aside $2,226 for the season. That’s about $1 trillion, but more Americans than ever will spend on experiences and celebrations rather than objects.
Twenty-seven percent of the people Deloitte surveyed said they want a great experience, such as travel, a meal or a party, rather than something that comes in a box. A quarter of respondents said they will attend more holiday events and spend less on gifts.
The average American household, though, will still spend $430 on wrapped gifts this year.
And wherever possible, shoppers will look for the best deal online. The big losers are department stories, which mostly sell commodity brands that can be found at multiple outlets. The number of Americans saying they plan to visit a department store this year dropped to 28 percent, a 3 percentage point drop from last year, Deloitte said.
Making matters worse for brick-and-mortar retail, there is a large generational difference in habits. While baby boomers and seniors say they will spend nearly half of their holiday budgets in stories, millennials will spend more than 60 percent of their budgets online.
The key to getting shoppers into stores is great digital advertising of unique items sold with a rich in-store experience, Deloitte found.
These trends are also affecting employment patterns, particularly since the unemployment rate is a low 4.2 percent. To attract the best retail workers capable of offering consumers a great experience, stores are offering more hours, higher pay and better benefits, according to Snagajob.com, a job search engine that specializes in hourly employment.
“With most hourly job seekers able to secure a job in less than a week, it’s clearly a job seeker’s market, and employers must pay close attention to this group’s preferences if they want to staff up adequately for the holidays,” Snagajob CEO Peter Harrison said. More than 91 percent of retailers will pay higher than minimum wage this year, the company found.
And while consumers may be online, that doesn’t mean they don’t have questions about products. Retailers are responding by hiring fewer seasonal workers to walk the showroom floor and employing them instead to work from home in online chat rooms.
J.C. Penney, WilliamsSonoma, the Home Shopping Network and Amazon are all advertising for help dealing with the expected surge of online shoppers, according to global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
“Most of these jobs will be answering customer questions and concerns through phone, email or web-based chat services,” said Andrew Challenger, the company’s vice president. “These types of positions are great for older job seekers or those who may have a difficult time getting to an office or being on their feet.”
Online retail work could also help home caregivers responsible for young children or elderly family members. Getting those workers back into the paid workforce is critical to increasing the labor participation rate and addressing poverty.
In the past I’ve warned readers about the loss of retail jobs as more shopping moves online. Amazon and other online retailers are hiring, but they will not provide a job for every retail worker displaced by online shopping. These online jobs, though, will ease that pain.
“While there is a lot of worry that the increase in e-commerce is going to hurt the amount of jobs available in the retail space, these selling channels bring new opportunities as the industry pivots,” Challenger said.
The nature of work continues to evolve, and there are new opportunities that many people don’t know about. As technology evolves, so must we.
Telecommuting offers an opportunity for many people who are unemployed because of their age, disability or personal commitments to begin earning again. And they can feel good about becoming a kind of online Santa Claus who makes sure the goodies arrive on time.