Flexible Staffing of Retail Sales and E-Fulfillment Associates to Maximize Profits

摘要

Some brick-and-mortar stores utilize existing sales associates to fill online orders during slow periods, while others rely on dedicated staff for each operation. We formulate a profit-maximizing mathematical program to evaluate alternative staffing strategies for retailers with in-store fulfillment operations. In experiments simulating different customer traffic patterns, traffic variability, and forecast accuracy, we measure expected profits, the flows of flexible staff between sales and fulfillment, and the sensitivity of those metrics to different market and employee characteristics. We find that fulfillment operations with as few as one cross-trained employee are more profitable than those with dedicated sales and fulfillment staff.