12 Courses to Improve Employee Skills for Retail
We’ve prepared a list of courses to improve employee skills for retail to help them increase sales and strengthen relationships with customers. It includes lessons on topics such as selling strategies, ways to create a positive experience, diversity and inclusions, stocking, and more. Check out the list below.
1. Visual Merchandising (for Fashion Retail)
Visual Merchandising (for Fashion Retail) by EdApp is a great online training course to improve employee skills for retail. It is designed to teach retail employees the art and science behind visual merchandise.
It kicks off with an introduction to the value of visual merchandising and its different types. It then goes into detail on lighting in a retail environment which is an essential element of visual merchandising. It also demonstrates the different techniques to highlight any retail signage and make this retail strategy more effective.
As a remote work software, EdApp uses mobile learning solutions for this course making it easily accessible. This makes it really easy for any retail employee or merchandiser who doesn’t have immediate access to desktops and barely has enough time to spare for long training sessions.
Scope:
- Value of Visual Merchandising
- Types of Merchandising Displays
- Essential Elements of Visual Merchandising
- Techniques to Consider
Cost: Free
Created by EdApp
Explore the course
2. Selling Strategies and Interacting with Customers
Also available in EdApp, the Selling Strategies and Interacting with Customers course teaches retail employees how to leverage customer interactions and apply strategies to increase profitability. Here, employees will learn how to greet customers appropriately to set the mood. They’ll then discover how to ask the right questions to pique their interest and curiosity.
Since the price of an item is one of the main considerations of consumers, the principles of value-based selling are also discussed to help them realize that their purchase is surely worth their money. Insights from this course can also help employees understand the principle behind the use of CRMs.
This is another course to improve employee skills for omnichannel retail which makes use of eLearning examples, such as image sliders and scratch-to-reveal, to reinforce key concepts in a fun and interactive way. There are over 80 templates available on EdApp that you can use for free and are suited to a diverse set of learning methodologies.
Scope:
- Greeting customers
- Value-based selling
- Sale closing techniques
Cost: Free
Created by EdApp
Explore the course
3. Creating a Positive Customer Experience
EdApp also offers the Creating a Positive Customer Experience course specifically for employees in the retail industry. This course will help them develop and improve their skills, as well as retain and increase their customer base by creating a positive customer experience.
This 4-part course focuses on teaching your employees how to keep customers happy by emphasizing customer service’s role in boosting customer satisfaction with their overall brand experience, as well as ways to effectively interact with customers.
Through EdApp’s powerful authoring tool, you can edit, rebrand, and deploy this course directly to your workers’ mobile device in just a few easy clicks. No need to start from scratch, making training a more efficient process for you.
Scope:
- Customer Service’s role in customer experience
- Ways to impress, interact, and engage with customers
Cost: Free
Created by EdApp
Explore the course
4. Online Retail Sales Training
The Online Retail Sales Training by The Retail Doctor was developed for retail sales training and team accountability. Employees who complete this course will learn how to properly greet customers on the sales floor, be assertive in serving their shopping needs, maximize the checkout amount, and create a memorable shopping experience in retail stores, including pop-up and large-scale department stores.
It even includes a train-the-trainer course where you can receive personal coaching via email from Bob Phibbs, who claims to be the world’s leading expert on brick-and-mortar store retailers. If you’re not yet convinced to purchase this course, they offer a trial that gives you free access to 10 lessons.
Scope:
- Greeting customers
- Handling customer complaints
- Shopper personality styles
- How to close a sale
Cost: Starts at 195 USD
Created by The Retail Doctor
Explore the course
5. Business 101: Cash Flow Forecasting for Retail Business
Skillshare created the Cash Flow Forecasting for Retail Business course to help retailers build a proper budget and forecast for large or small businesses. This course demonstrates how to use Microsoft Excel to monitor how your money flows per day, month, or year, depending on your preference.
It also guides you on how to use this information to predict future cash positions and make informed decisions about your business.
This course has a total of 17 video lessons that you can complete in an hour or two. Unfortunately, this type of learning isn’t exactly the best option if your team struggles with a short attention span.
Scope:
- Building the proper structure for budget and forecast using Microsoft Excel
- Format spreadsheet
- How to track cash flow forecast and budget
- How to make informed decisions about your business
Cost: Starts at 8 to 15 USD (monthly on a subscription basis)
Created by Skillshare
Explore the courseExplore our library including courses to improve employee skills for retail
6. Diversity and Inclusion in Retail
A diverse and inclusive retail store or retailer reflects better service for a wide range of customers. That’s why EdApp developed Diversity and Inclusion in Retail. This course reinforces the values of an inclusive, diverse, and equal workplace and elaborates on the different biases of each individual.
It then helps your employees develop the kind of service that creates an inclusive shopping experience for your customers. It also reiterates the importance of a zero-tolerance discrimination policy and guides your employees in listening to customers.
The microlearning approach to its lessons makes key information more digestible which helps improve employees’ knowledge retention. With the compact nature of microlearning courses, they can be completed in just a couple of minutes, unlike traditional courses that take hours or days to finish.
Scope:
- Core values of diversity
- Implicit bias
- Inclusive shopping experience
- Discrimination policy
- Proper approach to customers
Cost: Free
Created by EdApp
Explore the course
7. Stocking
Stocking is a vital task in retailing that needs to be carefully planned and monitored to prevent understocking and overstocking and maintain an efficient revenue stream. This free Stocking course by EdApp has virtually everything you need to learn about the fundamentals of stock management and inventory management, from the types and examples of stocks and retail trade to handling costs.
It will walk your employees through the best techniques for managing and controlling stock levels and ratios, as well as reorder level formulas and diagrams to prevent items from stocking out and getting more stock from the supply chain. An outline of responsible receiving and offloading of an assortment of goods is also discussed to increase warehouse safety and efficiency while also reducing errors and injuries.
Combined with gamification features, the lessons on this course are more fun and engaging for your learners. Through these, implementing courses to improve employee skills for retail becomes more convenient for you and equally effective for your employees.
Scope:
- Fundamentals of stock management
- Stock levels, ratio, and control systems
- Receiving inventory
- Offloading stocks
Cost: Free
Created by EdApp
Explore the course
8. Ergonomics (for Retail)
Investing in retail ergonomics secures a safe and comfortable working space for your employees, which can help motivate them to provide well-rounded customer service. In this 5-part course by EdApp, you’ll learn more about the principles of retail ergonomics and the how-tos of applying this solution to your workstation.
You and your team will also get to know better the proper lifting techniques, recommended working posture, preferred work zones, and stocking tips to prevent musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), which are increasingly common among local and national retail workers in America.
Built to fit the busy schedule of your retail team, the content of this mini training has been separated into short but more concentrated modules that will only take as little as 5 minutes to complete.
Scope:
- Ergonomic principles and their benefits
- The how-tos of applying the solution to the workplace
- Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs)
- Storewide ergonomic solutions such as proper lifting
- Working posture, work zones, and stocking tips
Cost: Free
Created by EdApp
Explore the course
9. Be A Scam Scanner
The Be A Scam Scanner course by EdApp aims to equip your employees with skills in identifying scams and preventing them in the workplace. The 4-part cybersecurity awareness course begins by understanding why people commit scams.
Then, it dives into the most common scams in retail and e-commerce. It concludes by demonstrating ways to be a smart scam scanner to avoid fraudulent incidents.
This course is especially helpful for businesses in retail where the sales process is vulnerable to scams and fraud. You can use this course as a starting point for learning before training them about your point-of-sale (POS) systems.
Scope:
- Common retail scams
- Common online scams
- Measures in protecting your business from scammers
Cost: Free
Created by EdApp
Explore the course
10. Retail Basics
The goal of this course is to have retail employees develop consistent and excellent retail selling behaviors. It teaches basic selling skills with topics including the selling cycle and the sales process. It also explores the psychology of selling, which is all about understanding yourself and your customers.
Here, employees will learn about retail messaging, buying signals, and non-verbal communication. At the end of the course, learners will also discover the secrets to increased sales through various methods, tips, and tricks.
Scope:
- Communication psychology
- Buying signals
- Closing the sale method
Cost: Starts at 170 CAD
Created by Retail Council of Canada
Explore the course
11. Retail Sales Training Course
PD Training’s Retail Sales Training Course will give your retail workers the knowledge and skills they need to satisfy customers and increase sales. First, it will walk your employees through the best techniques for improving personal appearance and product knowledge.
Then, it goes through the different ways they can start, control, and close sales effectively, giving them more confidence as retail workers. There’s also a quick lesson on how to ask probing questions and listen attentively to customer needs.
At the end of the course, your team will learn about the basics of sales psychology, including tie-downs, tag-ons, and the power of “yes” when selling.
Scope:
- Attitude, personal appearance, and product knowledge
- Starting, controlling, and closing the sale
- Needs analysis
- Sales psychology 101
Cost: Contact for pricing
Created by Professional Development Training
Explore the course
12. Customer Service Training
Another retail course worth pursuing is iHasco’s Continuing Professional Development or CPD accredited Customer Service Training program. This course tackles different customer service subtopics that will help your workers improve their customer interactions, whether they’re face-to-face, on the phone, or online.
It starts off by looking at what great customer service is like and how it can benefit companies. The second part of the course highlights how proper communication can help your retail workers build trust and rapport with customers, and understand how they can help them.
The last section of the training program focuses on ways that your employees can deal with customer complaints in a professional and empathetic manner.
Scope:
- Good customer service
- Communicating with customers
- Handling customer complaints
Cost: Free trial, contact for pricing
Created by iHasco
Explore the courseDevelop competitive service with courses to improve employee skills for retail
Training teams with courses to improve skills for retail is an ideal way to equip them with the knowledge and skills they need to provide an outstanding service. Without proper onboarding and reinforcement training, they'll fail to maximize their fullest potential and also have the tendency to make mistakes that can leave a bad impression on customers. Proper retail training and development help your employees enhance their strategic knowledge and retail management approach. It also enables you to ensure that they are up to date with new product information, sales techniques, and consumer buying trends.