If there’s one thing that’s true about retail no matter what’s going on with the economy, it's retail labor shortages.

When business is good and there are plenty of jobs to fill, retailers struggle to find enough employees.

And when times are more challenging, retailers must compete to retain their top talent.

This means managing labor shortages can feel endless for store owners and managers.

But it doesn't have to be. With Shiftlab’s retail staffing software, you can reduce turnover, streamline scheduling, and keep your teams happy and productive.

In this guide, we'll show you exactly how.

The Hidden Costs of Being Short-Staffed

When your retail business is short-staffed—no matter the reason—your store pays the price.

Here are four hidden costs of retail labor shortages to watch out for:

• Lost revenue. When your store isn't staffed at peak levels, your company loses potential sales. Without enough retail workers on the floor, customers deal with longer wait times and unanswered questions. If they get frustrated enough, they might abandon their purchase entirely.

• Burnout for existing staff. When you don't have enough talent on the floor, the remaining employees are forced to pick up the slack. But this can lead straight to burnout, which impacts your employees' mental and physical health. This is concerning purely on a human level, yet it also impacts your company, as higher stress among retail workers can lead to a spike in turnover.
  

• Declining customer satisfaction: When you have insufficient retail workers, the level of your service drops. This can lead customers to associate your brand with a bad experience. Worse, customers tend to share bad experiences publicly via review aggregator sites. The negative experiences and reviews stack up if these issues aren't addressed.
  

• Increased hiring and training costs. Constantly dealing with turnover means managers have to spend large chunks of time recruiting and training new hires. This drives up operational costs and drains resources the company could otherwise have spent on growing the business.

The answer to these problems isn’t necessarily to hire more retail workers.

Instead, focus your efforts on addressing the systems that aren’t working.

Look for smarter ways to optimize your workforce—and give employees more control over their work environment.

Shiftlab’s retail staffing software can help you do both.

5 Ways Shiftlab Helps with Retail Workforce Optimization

We designed Shiftlab to help retailers improve productivity, profits, and morale—even with limited staff.

Here's how our features help optimize your workforce and neutralize the impact of staffing shortages in retail.

1. AI-Powered, Demand-Based Scheduling

Shiftlab uses sophisticated AI to analyze all the little things that affect demand in your store.

Our tool can track:

• Historical sales data
• Current and predicted sales trends
• Customer foot traffic, via integration with store analytics software
• Seasonal fluctuations
• Labor cost trends
• Employee performance metrics
• Absenteeism and shift change patterns

Shiftlab uses this intelligent forecasting to ensure your staffing schedule matches customer demand.

This prevents situations where your retail workers are either overwhelmed with customers or standing around with nothing to do.

And this, in turn, drives sales and improves customer satisfaction, even during a retail labor shortage.

This level of retail workforce optimization simply isn’t something your Excel spreadsheet can do.

2. Smart Shift Planning Using Employee Performance Data

Every employee offers different strengths, and our retail staffing software recognizes that. Our smart shift planning feature uses past performance data to put each employee in shifts where they're sure to succeed.

Newer retail workers will get assigned to shifts where they can learn the skills they need to shine in high-demand situations.

Seasoned employees will fill the most challenging shifts, allowing them to excel and grow.

Hello, boosted morale and retention! This is the beauty of retail workforce optimization.

3. Real-Time Alerts for Overtime, Gaps, or Understaffing

As a manager, it can feel like you spend all your time putting out fires instead of proactively managing your store.

Shiftlab can change this.

Our software offers real-time alerts to warn you as soon as there's a sign of proverbial smoke.

You'll be the first to know if there's a threat of a staff member going on overtime, a gap in the schedule, a sudden risk of understaffing or a break in compliance.

That way, you can take care of these issues before they turn into costly issues.

4. Mobile Tools for Shift Swapping and Filling Open Shifts

Most of us use our phones for...well, just about everything.

Shiftlab taps into this reality with our mobile interface.

With our app, employees can manage shifts right from their smartphones. They can swap shifts with their peers, pick up open shifts, or ask for schedule adjustments from right within the app.

This autonomy helps retail workers balance work-life demands more easily, which leads to:

• Higher job satisfaction
• Fewer last-minute absences
• (Much!) less administrative workload for managers—yes, even during retail labor shortages!

You can read all about our shift-swapping features here.

5. Integration with POS and time clock systems

Shiftlab integrates with your point-of-sale, traffic and HRIS systems for effortless staff management. Our seamless integration partners include:

• Paycor
• ADP
• Rebiz
• Workday
• UKG
• ShopperTrak
• iQmetrix
• Paylocity

Our retail staffing software works with these tools to track sales, labor costs, and employee attendance. With insights gleaned from these platforms, Shiftlab sends timely alerts to your management team.

For example, if foot traffic is predicted to spike due to a local event or promo, Shiftlab will create schedules accordingly.

If an employee clocks out early or unexpectedly misses a shift, Shiftlab spots the gap and immediately alerts managers. With this alert, Shiftlab can also suggest replacements based on availability and performance.

Or, if sales begin to dip during a typically busy time of day, Shiftlab might recommend scaling back labor to stay within budget. (See our guide to retail scheduling for tips on acing this balancing act.)

These features mean fewer labor expenses while also driving up sales potential.

That’s a win-win in our book.

What Makes Shiftlab Different from Other Workforce Staffing Software?

Unlike generic workforce management tools, we built Shiftlab specifically for retail workforce optimization.

That means each feature is designed to help retailers handle the rollercoaster of challenges they face every day.

And by retailers, we mean retail store owners, sales and ops leaders, managers, and employees. Our user-friendly interface is for everyone, from frontline employees to leadership.

Staff can easily swap shifts, pick up open slots, and stay up-to-date on the schedule, all from their phones. Managers get performance metrics, labor costs, and coverage gaps in real-time, making their role easier than ever before.

We also play well with others. Our integrations with popular POS, HRIS and Traffic platforms mean less manual data entry for you.

Plus, you can unify your HR and scheduling workflows into one smooth system.

Just ask GP Mobile, a leading T-Mobile authorized retailer. After adopting Shiftlab, GP Mobile saw a measurable drop in scheduling errors and a noticeable improvement in team morale.

See the retailer’s story in our GP Mobile case study.

3 Ways to Maximize a Lean Team with Workforce Optimization

Running a lean team during a shortage in retail labor doesn’t have to mean sacrificing performance and mental health.

With the right strategies and tools, you can help your current team make even more of an impact—without overextending them.

Here's how:

1. Cross-train employees for agility and flexibility. Teach retail workers to handle multiple roles, like customer service, restocking, and cashiering. During high-traffic times, your entire team will be able to confidently handle a multitude of tasks. And during unexpected slumps, your team can do behind-the-scenes tasks that help keep the store running smoothly.

2. Use performance data to schedule smarter. Instead of randomly assigning employees to shifts, look at employee performance and store traffic data. This information can help you match high-performing staff to high-value shifts, and vice versa. Best of all, you don't have to lift a finger—Shiftlab can crunch the numbers and make suggestions so you don't have to spend hours on scheduling.

3. Offer shift control and flexibility to increase retention. One of the best ways to keep a lean team intact is to give them more agency in the workplace. Shiftlab’s mobile tools let retail workers swap shifts, claim open ones, or adjust their availability with ease. This flexibility helps improve satisfaction and employee retention. It also relieves the scheduling headaches that lead to burnout and turnover.

Ready to keep up the momentum in your store, short-staffed and all? Our retail staffing software is here to help.

Book a free demo to see for yourself how Shiftlab can help you run your store smoothly, even with fewer people on staff.

Retail Labor Shortage FAQs

Is there a labor shortage in retail?

Yes. As of February 2025, U.S. job openings remained high at 7.6 million, with the job openings rate at 4.5%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retail trade experienced increased layoffs and discharges, which points to ongoing staffing challenges.

How do you solve staffing shortages?

The key here is to improve your existing workforce management strategy. Tools like Shiftlab can help you line up your staffing with customer demand, drive employee engagement, and reduce burnout. With our AI-powered scheduling, real-time alerts, and mobile app, retailers can help their existing teams stay empowered, motivated, and productive.

What is WFM optimization software?

Workforce management (WFM) software uses data analytics to streamline labor management. Our favorite WFM tool is Shiftlab, of course! Shiftlab's WFM analyzes sales trends, foot traffic, and staff performance to create smart schedules for your store.