Tech hiring trends in the retail, transport & logistics, and warehousing sectors in 2024

Multiple sectors are keen to harness the power of new technology to refine their operational management and boost their organisation’s output and potential. The high-profile emergence of generative AI in 2023 highlighted the opportunities that technology presents, but now industries need to hire people who really know how to use it and leverage its potential.

The problems with recent tech hiring are well documented, and some tech candidates are hesitant to join organisations that are not serious about the role within the company and are instead just jumping on business trends. Read our article on how to hire hesitant tech candidates here.

However, automation is set to disrupt the retail, transport & logistics, and warehousing sectors, with entry level and low skill jobs, such as cashiers, packers, and drivers, impacted the most. More specialist roles, and fewer of them, are likely to emerge as business leaders implement new tools that will replace traditional retail jobs.

This article will explore recent tech hiring trends in the retail, transport & logistics, and warehousing sectors, offering candidates and industry leaders an overview of the recent tech advancements and ideas that these industries are pursuing.

AI and automation

AI and automation will have a substantial impact across these three sectors. Robots are already in action within retail, with many stores utilising self-scanning tills, and robotic packaging arms common in manufacturing.

AI will also have the power to improve marketing content, such as writing better product descriptions and optimising photos on ecommerce sites. Chatbots already answer more sales enquiries than humans do. Drivers are also going to see an increase in self-driving trucks and drones to ship packaging, and AI will help managers to predict any maintenance issues that may arise.

As such, lower-level jobs, like sales clerks, cashiers, packers, and drivers are likely going to begin disappearing, and employees will be asked to re-skill towards more maintenance type roles. Keeping the equipment that drives this automation in top condition will be vital to ensure continued business efficiency, whether that’s through data and coding maintenance, or fixing a mechanical robot arm when it gets stiff.

Retail work is often the first kind of job a person has upon entering the workforce, usually when they are young. The loss of these jobs is going to impact how people with fewer skills or qualifications earn and build opportunities for themselves, a problem business and political leaders will be expected to solve sooner rather than later.

Data and digital

The digital world is increasingly impacting the physical one in many ways, especially within these sectors. Ecommerce has boomed in recent years and is predicted to grow by one fifth every year until 2028. As such, the management of this industry has also become more digital to meet customer demand.

Management software within warehousing and logistics is essential to stay on top of the vast number of orders being made. Technology such as automated data entry, analytics dashboards updating stock counts and predicting supply issues, tracking software, and cloud solutions facilitating easier communication across companies and sectors, mean more orders can be shipped faster and with greater accuracy. Digital paperwork is now also more common and useful than physical paperwork, allowing documents to be more easily transferred between stakeholders and keeping confidential information safer overall.

Data management has become the key driver of success in these sectors when managing products, predicting industry changes, and meeting consumer needs. Building systems to contain and distribute this data will be an important tech role in the future of these industries, with data engineering and data science being some of the main roles we are likely to see as the industry evolves.

Presenting and utilising this data are also important skills. Information will need to be passed on to leaders and other stakeholders, and so being able to demonstrate to non-tech experts what the data means will help inform business decisions down the line. Data and digitalisation are also now essential for security – with more people purchasing online and shipments being managed within cloud services, roles involving the security of digital supply chains and payments will become more common.

People interaction

Increased AI and digitalisation in these sectors may worry some that human interaction will diminish. However, as roles change, humans will need to manage this change. Tech advancements offer the opportunity for reskilling and better business planning.

Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) offer the some of the best opportunities for this. As roles change, employees will need to be retrained to complete tasks across multiple areas or skills, and AR and VR make it possible for situations to be simulated for better training opportunities.

This also applies to scenario planning. By simulating processes, leaders and managers can anticipate what issues may arise and discuss how to handle them before they occur, leading to better business security overall. Building this software will be an important role and knowing how to use it will become an essential part of leadership within these sectors.

Tech will also become useful for hiring. App development makes it easier for consumers to purchase products, but also for HR departments to review applications. By streamlining the application process, hiring will become easier and more accurate. App development as a role will take precedence, and tech will impact the HR departments in these sectors in an important way.

The introduction of technological systems into the retail, transport & logistics, and warehousing sectors has changed how the system operates overall, and those that work in this sector will need to continue adapting to changes and reskill accordingly. But opportunities are vast for those who want to work in tech, and these industries in particular offer candidates opportunities to develop even more as the industry grows.