Retail Leadership Training
3 Associate Hiring Questions to Prepare for Busy Retail Seasons
Whether it’s preparing for the holiday ramp-up or gearing up for peak demand seasons that affect your niche — like the busy spring season for home improvement stores — at various points in the year, retail managers will turn their attention to recruiting and interviewing to staff up. When there’s a tight labor market, this task can…
Read More4 Ways Store Managers Create Legendary Customer Experiences
The National Retail Federation’s Big Show is upon us, and once again, the digital transformation of retail is front and center: Topics like the latest disruptive technologies, artificial intelligence, and innovative apps and new ecommerce developments abound. At the same time, we know that tech, on its own, isn’t the cure-all for retail’s latest disruptive…
Read MoreThe Pitfalls of Leaving Retail Training to the “Buddy System”
When you begin a new job or get a promotion, it’s always helpful to have a role model to emulate. You can pick up a lot of insight by following the lead of those who’ve “been there and done that.” And certainly, being a role model is a critical part of leadership. Through their behavior,…
Read MoreHow to Maximize Retail Training’s Impact
When you send a district manager or retail store leader through a training program, it’s an investment—of time, money, and effort, not to mention the fact that they’re going to be away from their daily responsibilities. But it’s also an investment in the future of the business. It’s a down payment on the results and…
Read MoreIn Retail, Technology May Be Cool, But So is Competence
Every new technology announcement in the world of retail is guaranteed to generate a lot of buzz. Take Amazon’s Dash Button, for example. Press a button, and you’ve instantly placed an order for those common, high-volume commodity items. Convenience for the consumer, more valuable data on customer buying habits for Amazon, more talk of robots taking…
Read MoreThe Evolution of Retail Multiunit Management
Back in 2004 when we launched our original Retail Multiunit Management (RMM) program, the retail environment was a little different, to say the least. Shopping malls still ruled. Amazon wasn’t yet the juggernaut it is today. The idea of shopping as a “customer experience” was still fairly new. And by and large, salespeople had more…
Read MoreFocus and Adaptability Keep Retailers Ahead of the Curve
It seems like every time you turn around there’s another gloomy story of “retail’s apocalypse.” While it’s true that brick and mortar retail is facing an array of challenges right now, change isn’t a new thing in retail. In fact, retail is one of the most adaptable industries, which is why it’s had so many…
Read More5 Things Great Retail Multiunit Managers Do
One of the exciting and sometimes frustrating challenges of retail management is that you have a number of different priorities to deal with all at the same time. District managers, regional managers, and other retail leaders who are responsible for leading multiple stores and locations have more things going on than is possible to accomplish…
Read MoreOnline vs. Instructor-Led Training: What Retailers Need to Consider
E-learning is an attractive option in retail, especially when you’re making the tough call about whether or not to take people off the floor and put them into a classroom for a training workshop. But depending on what kind of training you’re doing—and what kind of outcomes you need to achieve—the choice isn’t always so…
Read MoreHow Coaching in Real Time Raises Your Store’s Game
Today’s shoppers are more demanding and more educated about what they’re looking for than ever before. To keep up, retailers are constantly on the lookout for innovative ways to take the customer experience to a new level. But it takes more than data and technology to meet the demands of today’s customers. When shoppers are…
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