Exploring Retail

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Exploring Retail

    The Retail application enhances operational efficiency and communication within retail organizations and between stores and headquarters (HQ). It builds on existing Customer Service and Field Service Management functionalities to optimize workflows and improve coordination across both frontline and backend operations.

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    Key Features

    • Issue Reporting: Front-line employees and managers can report issues directly, reducing the need for call center interactions.
    • Visibility: Improved insights into store performance help drive better support metrics.
    • Task Assignment: Streamlined assignment of tasks from HQ to multiple retail locations.
    • Case Types: Various case types (e.g., HQ communications, store inquiries, in-store operations, customer complaints) are tailored to manage different retail needs efficiently.
    • Retail Data Model: A unified data model supports case and task management, ensuring smooth operations and compliance.
    • Mobile Application: The Retail mobile plugin offers a user-friendly experience for managing store activities and resolving issues in real-time on both Android and iOS platforms.

    Key Outcomes

    By leveraging the Retail application, customers can expect enhanced operational workflows, improved issue resolution times, and greater visibility into retail performance. This leads to more efficient management of store activities and superior customer service, ultimately contributing to a more streamlined retail operation. For further exploration, customers can configure Retail, manage customer complaints, and track cases through the Retail portal.

    Whether you're starting or expanding your implementation of the Retail application, learn more about the features available to optimize your retail organization.

    Retail overview

    The Retail applications streamline operations and optimize communication within retail organizations and with headquarters. By building on the existing functionalities of Customer Service Management and Field Service Management, this application optimizes workflows, improves coordination, and supports both frontline and backend operations to run smoothly and efficiently.

    Retail helps you accomplish the following:
    • Enable front-line employees and managers to report issues on behalf of the stores they're associated with.
    • Help reduce calls to the call center, reduce or eliminate truck rolls, and enable store-based case management.
    • Get better visibility into store performance, which can also drive improvement in metrics for store support.
    • Streamline task assignment from teams at headquarters(HQ) to multiple retail organizations at once.

    Retail users

    Table 1. Users
    User Description
    Store Associate Store associates who perform store tasks, organize the store, are often the first to notice and report issues, and engage with customers.
    Store Manager Store managers who manage the store, address issues, or request help from the central operations team if needed. If issues aren't resolved in time and manage staff and schedules, they step in to contact local vendors.
    Regional Manager Regional managers who oversee multiple retail locations, staying aware of issues and their resolution status across the area's hierarchy.
    Area Manager Area managers, also called market managers,who oversee multiple regions and stay aware of issues and resolution status across their store hierarchy.
    Central Operations Support Central Operations Support or the HQ Operations team who addresses store questions and needs, performs issue resolution, and interfaces with company field staff or third-party vendors in coordination with Store Manager. They’re responsible for creating tasks and standard operating procedures. They're acting as the fulfilling agent for cases routed to them, including the cases related to security, IT Service Management (ITSM), and Central Customer Support.

    For more information on the roles that come with Retail Core, see .

    Retail workflow

    Figure 1. Retail
    Diagram showing a common retail operations workflow.

    Retail case types are designed to address various business needs and streamline workflows for store-level and HQ-driven task management. Each case type is essentially a new case application with its own table, workflows, and UI experience that drives the end-to-end flow from issue to resolution.

    The case types available are:
    • HQ communications case: Initiate and coordinate large-scale actions across multiple stores with the HQ communications case type in the Retail HQ operations plugin.
    • Store inquiry case: Streamline the process for contacting HQ for store-to-HQ cases with the store inquiry case type in the Retail Store Services plugin, which provides a clearly defined workflow for resolution at HQ.
    • In-store operations case: Standardize the reporting, tracking, and resolution of in-store issues with the in-store operations case type in the Retail in-store operations plugin. This case type contributes to structured assignments of store cases and tasks, reducing the time to resolution.
    • Customer complaint case: Help ensure quick and efficient customer service resolutions by capturing store-related complaints from customers using the customer complaint case type in the Retail customer complaint plugin.

    Retail data model

    Table 2. Retail benefits
    Benefit Feature
    Helps to create and maintain Retail organization and Retail specific attributes on it. Retail organization data model
    Covers the unified data model of cases and tasks in Retail. It helps in solving the Retail workflows. Retail unified case and task data model
    Retail data model also includes:
    • Retail task: A retail task is an operational activity in a retail environment that ensures smooth store functioning, customer satisfaction, and compliance. These tasks can be manual or system-generated and are typically part of broader workflows managed by HQ or regional teams.
    • In-store operations task: In-store operations task is used to support daily in-store activities. These tasks are typically tied to a store-level case and are executed by store associates or managers.