Receive, store, and issue sales floor merchandise. Stock shelves, racks, cases, bins, and tables with merchandise and arrange merchandise displays to attract customers. May periodically take physical count of stock or check and mark merchandise.
12 of 12 tasks have some AI capability
Exposure Trend
This score reflects estimated AI technical capability for tasks in this occupation. It does not predict employment changes, and it does not account for company-specific constraints, regulation, or adoption barriers.
Compare merchandise invoices to items actually received to ensure that shipments are correct.
AI: Fully automatable - OCR, barcode/RFID reconciliation, and inventory software can fully automate invoice-to-received-item matching in 2025.
Itemize and total customer merchandise selection at checkout counter, using cash register, and accept cash or charge card for purchases.
AI: Fully automatable - Point-of-sale systems, self-checkout, and payment processing automate itemization, totaling, and card/cash handling to the extent required in retail.
Requisition merchandise from supplier based on available space, merchandise on hand, customer demand, or advertised specials.
AI: Fully automatable - AI systems can analyze inventory, space, sales forecasts and advertised promotions and automatically generate and transmit purchase requisitions/orders via APIs or EDI, enabling full automation in many deployments by 2025.
Take inventory or examine merchandise to identify items to be reordered or replenished.
AI: Fully automatable - RFID, computer vision, and inventory management AI can take inventory and identify reorder needs without human intervention in many retail setups.
Answer customers' questions about merchandise and advise customers on merchandise selection.
AI: Partial - AI can answer common product questions and provide recommendations, but in-person nuanced sales advice and tactile guidance still often require humans.
Stamp, attach, or change price tags on merchandise, referring to price list.
AI: Partial - AI can generate price lists and drive electronic shelf labels or print tags, but physically attaching or stamping tags still typically requires human labor or specialized robotics.
Stock shelves, racks, cases, bins, and tables with new or transferred merchandise.
AI: Partial - Robotic systems can replenish shelves in controlled environments and AI can coordinate restocking, but most in-store shelf stocking still requires human dexterity and situational judgment.
Transport packages to customers' vehicles.
AI: Partial - Autonomous vehicles and bots can handle curbside delivery in limited pilots, but transporting packages to customers' vehicles generally requires human assistance in most stores today.
Receive, open, unpack and issue sales floor merchandise.
AI: Partial - AI can automate receiving paperwork, label scanning, and conveyorized unpacking in warehouses, but physically opening and shelving varied merchandise in retail still needs humans.
Clean display cases, shelves, and aisles.
AI: Partial - Floor-cleaning robots handle broad aisle cleaning but detailed cleaning of display cases and shelves still requires human attention and manual work.
Design and set up advertising signs and displays of merchandise on shelves, counters, or tables to attract customers and promote sales.
AI: Partial - AI can fully design effective signs and plan displays, but physically setting up and arranging merchandise is still largely manual in stores.
Pack customer purchases in bags or cartons.
AI: Partial - Automated bagging robots exist in limited deployments, but packing diverse customer purchases into bags or cartons in real-world retail is still mostly done by humans.