Why a Generic Training Module Underperforms on a Sales Floor
Training Melts on a One-size-fits-all Platform A major theme of NRF 2020 was the urgency to empower and invest in front-line retail employees, the pillar of today’s physical stores. This explains the industry’s renewed focus on...
Sign-Ups Are Not Adoption
The Idea of ‘If You Build It, Associates Will Figure It Out’ Is Simply a Waste of Time and Money, and Why Most Retail IT Projects Fail. More retailers are opening stores than closing them and are investing in new technologies that help propel their businesses in an evolving industry.
On-Floor Training Between Customers
How to improve the Customer experience with app-based, On-Floor associate training At no other time in retail has delivering an excellent, omnichannel customer experience been more crucial to converting and retaining shoppers. In the brick-and-mortar channel, digitally-savvy consumers are entering…
Why Video, and Why Most Training Video Teaches Less Than It Could
iPad-Based Videos Boost Employee Productivity And Engagement The iPad is a terrific tool for mobile payments, mobile POS and much more – including infrastructure-free app-based, non-streaming video that moves your training into the future.
Brand Ambassadors: Why the Store Is Worth More Than Its Own Sales
In-Store Sales Associates: The Transformation Into Essential Brand Ambassadors The growth of cross-channel retail has transformed the role of the physical store and particularly its associates – from conventional salespeople to essential brand ambassadors. Today’s consumers enter a store to enhance…
Coaching, Not Surveillance: What to Do With Training Data
App-Based Solutions Promote Increased Associate Engagement And Performance Why do some retailers spend millions on creating digital training programs then neglect the crucial final step – determining which associates actually completed the sales and brand training, and how well? Similarly, they…
10 Best Practices for Driving Enterprise Software Adoption
10 Best Practices for Driving Enterprise Software Adoption The world’s gone mobile, and so have innovative learning, content and management performance systems. If you’re like most retail operations executives, the perceived – time and effort of moving enterprise software to the tablet and…
Using Data to Drive In-Store KPIs and Customer Engagement
Using Data to Drive In-store KPIs and Customer Engagement As mobile, digitally-savvy consumers continue to browse and buy online, where efficiency rules, they still delight in the unique attribute of a physical store: Well-informed, digitally-enabled sales associates. Retailers who invest in…
The ROI of Mobile Store Training and Communications
Mobile App-based training leverages payroll dollars by keeping associates on the sales floor longer – a huge operational advantage. In between customer time, new and established associates stay up-to-date on the latest product, branding, merchandising, workforce and corporate communications – all…
Time to Competence: The Store Device Number Nobody Costs
There’s a Rumbling of Sheer Urgency at the Physical Storefront Isn’t this an interesting time in retail!? New forms of shopping and selling, more choices and competition, smarter consumers and innovative technologies are causing great concern especially for brick- and-mortar retailers. Traffic is…
Who Owns Store Training?
Deloitte Says L&D Needs to Reinvent Itself Savvy retailers are focusing on the all-channel customer and brand experience – arming themselves with new chief marketing and experience officer leadership, and more – but their Learning & Development (L&D) functions, especially front-line training, is…
Global Message, Local Layer
New Associate Training Category The Internet changed how people shop. Mobile changed how shoppers interact with retailers. Now a nimble and sophisticated new mobile associate communication platform – mACP – is changing how retailers educate, inform and evaluate their most powerful and expensive…
Your Most Profitable Channel: The Returns Argument for Store Staff
Arm Sales Associates With The Knowledge They Need To Stay Clicks Ahead Of Tech-Savvy, Experience-hungry Consumers There’s No Replacement for Stellar In-store Experiences No omnichannel technology can replace the impact of stellar face-to-face customer experiences provided in stores, where the…
Build, Buy, or Both: Platform and Content Are Two Decisions
The INCITE App-based Knowledge Tool Marks a Major Shift In Mobile Enterprise Communications And Represents the Future of Professional Development There comes a time when great L&D content should advance to an app for mobile enterprise tablets that can leverage the sophisticated digital power and…
Knowledge Checks: Why the Quiz Is the Training
Do Your In-store Associates Have the Breadth of Knowledge To Converse Intimately About Your Brand – Or Are They Just Reading Mobile Prompts? Quiz Them. Score Them. INCITE Them. Pivot On Real-Time Feedback. Win. In-store shopping will never die. The store experience must transform – foremost with…
Customer-Facing or Associate-Facing? Where Store Technology Money Works
Use Laser Precision to Improve Store Performance Starting With Your Associates Darts can go anywhere but lasers only go where you aim them. So don’t throw darts with your technology dollars when laser-precision, in-store solutions can expertly target improved performance – starting with your…
The Last Hundred Feet: Making Change Land in Stores
Death of Omnichannel and Changing Store Model Mean Senior Execs Must Harness Change Initiatives Are Your All-important, Customer-facing Associates Comfortable With Your New Technologies? Here’s How to Find Out.
Start Here: The Case for Store Capability in One Page
Unleashing the Power of Human Capital This “Saving the Store” series of white papers from The O Alliance, a leader in creating Seamless Circular Commerce, examines how physical store retailers can apply innovative technology solutions to leapfrog competitors in today’s world of digital retail. The…
Company Devices or Personal Phones?
Bring Your Own DilemmaIndividuals’ Own Devices Help Cut CostsBut Can Compromise Security, Productivity and Consistency Most cost-cutting measures involve a trade-off : You may gain savings in the short-term but lose capabilities and impact for the long haul. Let’s consider Bring Your Own Device for…
Beyond the Training Academy: Spacing, Forgetting and the Retail Shift
What appears to work for Walmart may not succeed for others, especially considering the drawbacks of live classroom training Walmart tenaciously adheres to Sam Walton’s insightful rules of retail management success – including his belief that investing in frontline employees results in satisfied,…
The Cost of Doing Nothing
Digital Disruption Requires Retail Leaders to Engage Their Entire Teams About a Fundamental Transformation Welcome to the game of retail leadership on a once-familiar playing field, with new rules and tools for success and new expectations from retail leadership. Afer many decades, great…
The District Manager Problem
How Field Leaders Can Improve Data Usage to Drive In-store Performance Retail associate cutbacks and high turnover mean fewer on-floor associates available for shopping assistance and, unfortunately, sales personnel often less knowledgeable than the educated consumer seeking them out. Today’s lean…
Instant-On, Non-Streaming Video
Relieve IT Pain Points and Bandwidth Headaches While Creating a More Self-sufficient Workforce The need for more store bandwidth seems to escalate daily, with several competing priorities to deliver a variety of platforms, many of which are mission critical. Among your challenges as a store…