Retailers rarely realize how much time they lose to manual work — until they finally step away from it. Tasks like cycle counting, flipping through old scan books, cleaning up bad inventory data, or importing spreadsheets across disconnected systems feel routine, but the cost is enormous. Hours that could be spent with customers or on strategic planning are instead tied up fixing problems that shouldn’t exist in the first place.
Nearly all of these tasks stem from the same issue: when data is bad or incomplete, retailers end up doing manual work they shouldn’t have to.
To fully understand the problem, we talked with JR Anderson, Director of Account Management at FieldStack. In this blog post, JR shares his first-hand perspective on why retailers are still operating in guesswork-heavy environments — and what changes when they finally adopt systems that give them real-time visibility and accuracy.
JR sees the same pattern across organizations of all sizes: retailers over-invest time and labor in areas where the data isn’t trustworthy.
Inventory is the biggest culprit.
“Most over-invested resources come from inventory inaccuracies and not understanding where all of your inventory lives — especially across multi-store organizations.”
When teams can’t trust their inventory, uncertainty becomes a daily workflow. High-frequency cycle counts, store-to-store recounting, and ordering based on assumptions all grow from the same root problem. These tasks exist not because retailers want them, but because inaccurate data forces them.
JR says that when retailers finally gain certainty — real-time accuracy about where every item is — those layers of wasted time disappear almost instantly.
Associates typically don’t believe it at first. Years of using systems that don’t sync, don’t update, or don’t give visibility have made them cautious. But once they see real-time data in action, the reaction shifts quickly.
“Once stores trust FieldStack’s real-time inventory awareness, it unlocks a variety of things — not just eliminating manual processes but improving the value they’re able to provide customers.”
Teams move differently when they’re confident the inventory is right. They stop hunting for products that the system claims are there but aren’t. They stop worrying that eCommerce sold the last one while a shopper is holding it in-store, because the front end finally sees what’s happening in real time. And most importantly, they stop counting defensively.
The absence of these interruptions gives associates space to refocus on the actual customer experience instead of constant cleanup.
Above: Stores run smoother once retailers embrace the real-time, reliable data that comes with unified commerce.
Every retailer has their own version of a “process that just stuck around,” but JR says one example appears everywhere: homemade scan books.
“Barcodes printed 10 years ago in a binder… pages long… and nobody remembers which barcode goes to what.”
It might sound small, but this binder represents a bigger reality. Over time, retailers build dozens of little side processes meant to compensate for gaps in their system. A strange fee that doesn’t scan, a product that never had a proper barcode, an update that didn’t sync—each one gets patched by a handwritten note or a taped-in page.
Eventually, these workarounds become the workflow.
Accurate data and unified systems finally let retailers retire those improvised methods and regain the efficiency they lost without even noticing.
Most hesitation comes back to comfort. When retailers imagine changing systems, they picture long hours of retraining, frustrated employees, or confused customers.
We get it. As JR explains:
“Change management is hard. Comfort in processes is real — especially when you’re changing the experience for associates and customers.”
But in practice, improvement tends to surface quickly. Once teams see that the new system is easy to learn and easy to trust, their resistance softens. Suddenly the familiar manual tasks don’t feel worth holding onto anymore.
One of the biggest turning points comes when teams understand they no longer need to manually import and sync data across disconnected systems. Instead of juggling files and fixing mismatches, they simply log in and see everything in one place.
JR describes it as a complete inversion of how their time is used.
“Retailers go from spending 90% of their time cleaning up data and 10% doing strategic work… to the opposite.”
That shift doesn’t just benefit the store floor. It impacts buying teams, eCommerce teams, warehouse operations — any department that once had to create their own processes just to bridge the gaps between technologies.
With unified data, their workload moves from reactive to strategic.
This change feels less like a technology swap and more like gaining back control of the business.
Above: The turning point: realizing manual data cleanup doesn’t have to be part of the job.
At the heart of data-driven retail is something bigger than efficiency: relief. When manual processes disappear, so does the friction that weighs down both employees and customers.
Accurate data lifts the entire organization. Associates spend more time helping people instead of fixing errors. Leaders gain the freedom to think strategically rather than reactively. Customers get a smoother, more reliable experience.
As JR puts it:
“FieldStack uplifts the entire organization through the lack of frustration.”
When retailers replace guesswork with data, they don’t just save time — they gain momentum.
If manual workflows are slowing your team down, you don’t have to rebuild everything on your own. FieldStack helps retailers understand where their processes can be automated, where data can remove guesswork, and how unified systems can give time back to your associates and buyers.
If you’re ready to see how your organization can replace manual processes with real-time data, let’s talk.
FieldStack saves retailers more than time. Learn more about how much you could save financially with a custom Impact Analysis.