The operator workforce is shrinking. And the numbers don’t lie. In the U.S. alone, there are over a million unfilled warehouse and fulfillment jobs.
From 2019 to 2021, warehouse vacancies shot up 57%, fueled by a post-COVID boom and an aging workforce. Fewer people want warehouse, fulfillment, or retail jobs. They’re shifting to gig work or other industries. Wages in the space have climbed 15-20% just to attract talent, but the shortage is hitting the entire supply chain.
For many companies, this is a painful reality. Growth means more orders, but also more labor costs. The operator workforce feels like an unavoidable, ever-growing expense.
But what if it wasn’t just a cost center? What if it was a competitive edge?
The cost of inefficiency
Labor shortages don’t just drive up costs. They slow everything down. Understaffed warehouses mean missed SLAs. Short retail teams mean worse customer service. And a disconnected fulfillment flow? That’s a bottleneck that kills scalability.
Businesses that treat operators as just another cost will always be playing catch-up. The ones that rethink how they structure and empower their workforce? They’re the ones winning.
The profit-opportunity of efficiency
Leading companies aren’t just trying to “fill roles.” They’re investing in automation, smarter workflows, and tools that empower operators, helping them work better, not harder.
Here’s what we ask our clients:
Order management automation: does every warehouse need to touch every order? Can orders be consolidated? Are you leveraging Ship from Store? Fulfil, paired with Shopify, can automate these processes.
Smarter CX tools: is your team still bouncing between Shopify and your ERP to check order status? Packwork eliminates that friction, pulling key Fulfil data into Shopify Admin.
Strategic tech leadership: if you’re managing multiple brands with legacy systems, what’s your game plan? Running e-commerce without a clear tech strategy is a death sentence. A full-time CTO might not make sense, but a strategic tech partner like Codeture —working closely with your COO— can unify and optimize your fulfillment flows.
Too many brands are asleep at the wheel when it comes to tech investments. That’s why their ops are messy.
The future of operations in retail
Tech and robotics will play a bigger role, but automation alone won’t solve the labor crisis. The companies that get ahead will balance tech and workforce investment, making operations more efficient while keeping operators engaged.
The real challenge? Shifting perspective. Instead of seeing operators as a cost, what if they were your biggest driver of growth?
The brands that get this right will scale faster, adapt better, and compete harder in the years ahead.
So, is your operator workforce a line item or your biggest competitive edge?