As we embark on a new year, it’s time to break the cycle of forgotten resolutions and make changes that genuinely move your business forward. A new year is the perfect opportunity to reflect on what’s working, what isn’t, and how technology can help you operate smarter while keeping customers and employees at the center of everything you do.
To help you build a clear roadmap, here are eight retail resolutions designed to support growth, resilience, and better experiences across your stores.
1. Get control over your whole business
Do you spend hours every month trying to make sense of your numbers? Is your staff unable to see which products are available in other store locations? Do managers feel disconnected when they’re away from the store? If this sounds familiar, you’re likely still running your business on disconnected systems for sales, inventory, reporting, loyalty, and e-commerce, and more. And chances are, your customer service is suffering from this disconnect.
Now is the moment to rethink your foundation. Choosing a retail system that brings your core processes together gives you better visibility, reduces manual work, and helps teams act on real-time information.
- Take a step back and look at where your daily challenges come from — what takes too long, causes frustration, or limits visibility.
- Identify what information you’re missing, whether that’s sales results, stock levels, or what’s happening in other locations.
- Look for unified retail software that specializes in bringing these capabilities together on one platform and can support where you want the business to go next.
2. Speed up the queues at the till
Faster checkout means happier customers, higher conversion, and more time for staff to focus on service rather than transactions. There are many ways to reduce queues in your store, but it's important to start by understand what's causing them. Is it understaffing at peak times? Slow or unreliable POS hardware? Manual steps that delay payments or returns?
- Review your sales trends and customer behavior to spot busy times and where queues form most often.
- Explore mobile POS, ScanPayGo, or self-checkout options where they make sense.
- Make sure your checkout systems are reliable, quick, and simple for both staff and customers to use.
3. Boost and reward loyalty with AI-driven personalization
It costs significantly more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one, which makes loyalty more important than ever. But today’s customers expect more than points and discounts.
Modern loyalty programs use AI to analyze purchase behavior, preferences, and timing to deliver relevant offers and personalized experiences automatically. Research from Statista states that four in ten consumers are willing to join a loyalty program with AI-powered insights. Instead of blanket promotions, AI-driven loyalty can help you reward customers in ways that feel more personal and timely.
- Make sure your customer data is accurate, up to date, and collected with clear customer consent.
- Analyze at how customers actually shop — what they buy, when they visit, and how often — and use those patterns to guide personalization.
- Start small by testing personalized offers with specific customer segments, then expand once you understand what resonates.
4. Embrace searchless discovery and agentic AI
Customers are increasingly discovering products without actively searching for them. Agentic AI can proactively guide shoppers by suggesting products, bundles, or next steps based on context, behavior, and intent, whether the customer intends to purchase online or in-store.
This shifts discovery from heavy keyword-related searches to more conversational searches where the AI acts on the customer’s behalf to find the perfect fit for their purchase. Boston Consulting Group reports that customers who arrive to a retailer's site via an AI agents are 10% more likely to be engaged. So how can you use agentic AI to your advantage?
- Use agentic AI to personalize the customer's shopping experience with recommendations, bundle suggestions, and relevant promotions.
- Deploy intelligent recommendations to gently guide customers toward products that match their interests and needs.
- Make sure you have a centralized, real-time data foundation the AI can easily pull from to ensure accurate insights and actions.
5. Strengthen cybersecurity at its core
Retailers handle sensitive customer, payment, and employee data every day. As cyber threats grow more sophisticated, security must be central to your retail strategy in the coming year. Research from PwC found that around 60% of businesses are increasing their cyber risk investment this year.
Selecting systems that already embed security best practices helps reduce risk, protect trust, and simplify compliance.
- Consider moving away from on-premises systems to SaaS retail platforms, so security, updates, and maintenance are handled for you.
- Work with technology partners that take security seriously, with built-in protections, regular updates, and strong compliance practices.
- Help your teams build everyday security awareness, from using strong passwords to recognizing suspicious emails.
6. Invest in your staff with workforce management tools
Great in-store experiences depend on engaged, supported employees. Workforce management tools help with scheduling, forecasting, training, and workload balance; all of which directly impact retention.
When staff feel supported and empowered, they’re more likely to stay, perform better, and deliver the kind of service customers remember.
- Use past sales and traffic patterns to plan staffing levels that match busy periods, promotions, and seasonal changes.
- Make schedules and shift requests easy to access, so employees always know where they stand and can communicate changes quickly.
- Utilize technology such as AI assistants, self-service, mobile POS, etc. to support employees with customer service on the sales floor. Technology should make employees’ jobs easier, not harder.
7. Build trust through reviews and feedback
Online reviews aren’t going anywhere — and they heavily influence purchasing decisions. Customers want to feel heard, whether their feedback is positive or critical. According to a recent survey from BrightLocal, consumers increasingly rely on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, as well as AI models like ChatGPT to find reviews for brands they're interested in.
- Ask happy customers for reviews when the experience is still fresh, such as after a purchase or a positive interaction.
- Highlight positive feedback across your website, social channels, and in-store touchpoints to build trust.
- Respond calmly and constructively to negative reviews, showing customers that you listen and are willing to improve. Even a simple response can turn a frustrated customer into a loyal one.
8. Use AI-assisted customer service wisely
AI is capable of handling common questions, provide order updates, and assist with product recommendations around the clock. When used thoughtfully, they free up staff to focus on higher-value interactions. According to Gartner, 60% of brands will use agentic AI to streamline one on one interactions by 2028.
- Spot common questions or tasks that take up your team’s time and consider handling them with AI-powered tools like Microsoft Copilot.
- Always make sure customers can reach a real person when they need help. AI should support service teams, not replace the human connection customers value.
- Keep an eye on how your AI support is performing and adjust based on feedback to make it even more helpful.
In short: be ready for what’s next
With the pace of change constantly increasing, who knows what new trends will explode next year, or what new technology will pop up and transform the way we shop. Be open to unexpected innovations and be ready to start novel collaborations. Whatever you do, just remember to always keep your customers at the center. Technology is expensive; make sure that every system you implement is the right one for your goals, and that it will bring you a positive return, whether in terms of traffic, basket size, or revenue.
If you need help figuring out which type of technology would best help your business, don’t hesitate to contact our retail experts. We at LS Retail wish you a happy and successful new year!
