How Mobility Is Changing Retail

By Bob Johns

A conversation with Christina Garcia, Senior Manager Retail Systems at OfficeMax

Christina Garcia, Senior Manager Retail Systems at OfficeMax, took an interesting route to working with mobility in the stores. She started as an engineer doing web development and managing ecommerce sites and later joined OfficeMax in the ecommerce department. After a few years, she decided to move to the stores. “Now, I get to merge both due to mobility,” Garcia says. “Mobility is a huge part of retail. That’s what is wonderful about retail right now. All of the digital advancements made online can be used in the stores, through mobile devices in the hands of associates and customers alike.”

Garcia notes how many retailers are going to a hybrid system with having a fixed POS and service center, along with untethered store associates. “We need the associates to have that one-on-one interaction, giving them the info they want and need, but also allow them to handle that customer lugging around a bunch of items that just wants to drop them on the counter and check out,” she says.

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