Bluemercury spends several days training store associates ahead of a new store opening, including conducting skill-based scenario selling. “We will run a scenario, like, ‘Susie is walking in and asks you for this product that is either not available or we don’t sell. How would you handle it?’” Jenna Goldberg, head of stores, omnichannel and…

IKEA is launching an initiative to promote artificial intelligence literacy throughout its organization. What strategies can CEOs employ to prioritize AI literacy and reskilling within their organizations to foster innovation, efficiency, and sustainable growth?

Preparation is critical when bringing a product to market or introducing it to a retailer—especially considering that most new products fail.

Walmart has launched Manager Academy, a week-long training session to help store managers guide their teams.

New Orleans-based PJ’s Coffee is offering franchise opportunities to open up coffee shops inside high schools with the foremost purpose of providing vocational skills to students. What do you think of retailers opening stores inside high schools to provide class-accredited business skills to students?

Target had a lot to say about the importance of company culture in a keynote presentation at the 2023 NRF Big Show. Target CEO Brian Cornell led a discussion on the value of the company’s culture in successfully navigating the pandemic and the chain’s ongoing success. Has “culture,” as Target defines it, been as important to the retailer’s success throughout the pandemic as the people on the panel believe?

Marvin Ellison, CEO at Lowe’s, speaking at the NRF Big Show, said he learned early on that, to get ahead in his career, his best approach was to “just take tough assignments.” Every job he’s taken over the last 25 years has involved succeeding someone who was fired or pushed out. Do you agree with Marvin Ellison’s advice for individuals trying to advance their retail careers?

A recent study from U.S. News & World Report ranked 190 jobs in order to identify the best jobs in the U.S. today. Front-line retail employment did not land high up on the list. What must retailers do to improve their employee recruitment and retention efforts?

Lands’ End earlier this week said it had concluded its search for a new CEO with the hiring of American Eagle Outfitters president, international, Andrew McLean, who won’t take over as CEO until the end of the company’s fiscal year, January 27, 2023. What do you see as the pros and cons of CEO succession plans that ease new leaders into their roles?

Managers, in order to reduce turnover, need to shift the focus of career conversations from promotion to progression and developing in different directions, according to a new article. Is offering store associates a path to career advancement a particular challenge for retail managers?

Walmart has created a series of career path programs designed to let associates pursue advancement opportunities throughout the organization, from store-level to its headquarters in Bentonville. How do Walmart’s store and corporate recruitment and training programs stack up against other large retailers?

A social media firestorm erupted after a manager of Dollar Tree store in Indiana last week posted a sign disparaging Gen-Z’s work ethic and proclaiming a “Baby Boomers ONLY” hiring plea. What’s your take on the work habits of Gen-Z versus previous generations when they were at the same stage in their lives?

Walmart announced that it is increasing pay for its fleet drivers and has launched a new program that will enable people working in its supply chain operations to become drivers themselves. Will higher pay coupled with Walmart’s Private Fleet Development Program give the retailer an edge over retail rivals in addressing trucker shortages?

Last week’s jobs report contained both good news and bad for retailers. It was a sign of a stronger-than-expected economy. But retailers understand the increased challenges the positive numbers mean for attracting and retaining good help. Would grocery retailers benefit from doing a bottom to top analysis of wages and benefits?

A new Pew Research Center survey found as the top two reasons U.S. workers left a job in 2021 “no opportunities for advancement,” tied for first with “pay was too low.” Do the challenges faced by frontline workers seeking career advancement as described by the Urban Institute’s study ring true?

The Home Depot is seeking more than 100,000 new associates ahead of the chain’s spring season, its busiest of the year, at a time when finding staff for stores and warehouses has become more challenging for retailers across the country.  Will quicker turnarounds on job offers help Home Depot bring more job seekers on board?

Improving compensation may seem like the obvious place for retailers to start when they are attempting to retain employees. For the majority of workers who were on the way out the door in July and August, however, it was not about money, according to a new study. What can retailers do to address burnout among staff?

Disturbing stories about customers confronting retail employees, sometimes violently, have been unfortunately growing in frequency in the U.S. for a number of years, especially since the beginning of the pandemic. Why do you think that store associates have become a common target for rude behavior and violence?

Cross-selling and upselling in retail are the foundation of raising the average ticket. Are retailers properly training sales associates to offer credible cross-selling advice and to upsell customers when appropriate?

A new university study finds store loyalty, purchase intentions and spending behavior are negatively affected when consumers encounter a salesperson who is standing nearby. What channels or types of stores may be guilty of associates sometimes being too attentive for in-store shoppers?

Target announced that it will cover all the tuition, textbooks and fees for employees pursuing college degrees or certificates, which along with paying a minimum starting wage of $15 an hour, more than Walmart, makes the case that the smaller of the two rivals has the current edge in recruiting. Does Target have an employee recruiting and retention edge over rival retailers?

Walmart is really taking its “Save Money. Live Better” mantra seriously. The retailer announced this week that it plans to pay 100 percent of the tuition and textbook expenses incurred by company employees who participate in its Live Better U education program. How do companies without the resources of Walmart compete in this space?

A university study finds selling “deep” products at physical stores is a core builder of trust with customers and a primary reason digital native retailers open stores.  Is close product examination the primary benefit physical stores bring that the online shopping experience can’t match?

New university research finds hard-to-please, or “picky”, customers demonstrating shopping tendencies beyond just looking for the “best” option. What advice would you have for sales associates dealing with picky customers?

Amazon.com announced last week the launch of Amazon Returnship, a new employment initiative focused on hiring professionals that have been unemployed or underemployed for at least a year. Are retailers missing a personnel opportunity by not actively recruiting individuals who have been out of the workforce for an extended period of time?

Best Buy last week elaborated on a workforce reset aimed at encouraging store employees to tackle more tasks to support omnichannel practices, including delivering packages to homes. What do you think of Best Buy’s strategy of reducing the overall staff count by upskilling workers and increasing the percentage of full-time workers?

Amazon’s management wants the world to know that the company is serious when it comes to the health and safety of its workers with a comprehensive physical and mental health program intended to make Amazon the safest place to do manual work on the planet. What do you think of Amazon’s WorkingWell program?

Best Buy looked like a retail chain on its way out of business in the early 2010s. Under the guidance of then-CEO Hubert Joly, however, the retailer turned its fortunes around in impressive fashion. What can other retailers pursuing turnarounds learn from Best Buy’s experience?

Amazon plans to provide non-technical employees with the skills they need to move into software engineering roles. Do you think retailers, by and large, are making adequate investments in training and developing the skills of employees?

What defines a “wow” depends on the shopper and type of store, but hassle-free customer support is at the top of the list, finds a recent study from Wharton’s Baker Retailing Center and The Verde Group. Has online shopping largely replaced stores as the place consumers expect to be wowed as they shop?

Amazon.com can walk and chew gum at the same time. That’s the message from Jeff Bezos, pledging to turn the most customer centric company on the planet into the best employer with the safest workplace environment. Do you expect Amazon to bring a similar level of focus to becoming the best place to work as it does to satisfying its millions of customers?

Retail’s front line faces an angry, vocal minority that abuses associates simply because workers cannot fight back. Have “the customer is always right” programs in retail allowed confrontations with associates to escalate?

According to a new study commissioned by Sephora, two in five U.S. shoppers have personally experienced unfair treatment on the basis of their race or skin tone. What steps can retailers take to minimize racial bias on selling floors?

The death of creativity and imagination are at the heart of low sales in retail shops around the world. Some think technology is the answer — not The Retail Doc. What suggestions would you have to help retail associates overcome selling fears?

“Change actually starts from within each one of us,” Walmart’s CEO Doug McMillon said last week at a keynote address at CES 2021. “Our biases, conscious and unconscious, need to be dealt with individually and collectively.” What’s holding back faster progress for retailers with diversity and inclusion programs?

After-Christmas retail can be fun — even with a pandemic — as long as you stay focused on making money and minimizing returns instead of just giving profits away through aggressive promotions and discounts. What tips do you have for minimizing the impact of returns and maximizing sales in the week after Christmas?

From delayed launches to expansions put on hold, COVID-19 has caused many organizations to scrap plenty of plans — thus putting innovation at risk. What advice can you offer for driving iterative or disruptive innovation in a remote work environment?

A great retail store manager develops teams, continually inspires and elevates morale. The job has become increasingly tech-savvy. Having the right attitude and being open to feedback, however, is a core trait of managers that are a cut above. What are the hard and soft skill sets that make a successful store manager today?

The increasing attention being paid to artificial intelligence (AI) raises questions about its integration with social sciences and humanity, according to a business school professor.  What adjustments may retail leadership have to make to capture the benefits and avoid the risks of artificial intelligence?

The practice of virtually hiring and onboarding seasonal help has been on the rise in recent years as online technology advances, but this holiday season, due to COVID-19, it has become the primary option for many retailers. Will the quality of retail’s seasonal staff be impacted by the shift toward virtual hiring and onboarding?

The NRF Foundation has partnered with the Crisis Prevention Institute to develop online training tools to help retail workers prevent and de-escalate in-store conflicts. What obvious and less obvious advice would you have for store managers and associates on how to prevent and de-escalate conflicts over COVID-19 requirements?

2020 has been great for Target from a sales standpoint. It has not, however, been a banner year for the retailer’s Minneapolis hometown. What will Target’s commitment to the hiring, retention and advancement of Black employees mean to its brand?

There’s no doubt that the novel coronavirus pandemic has taken a heavy toll on the industry with little guarantee that many or even most of the jobs lost to date will ever come back. Do you see retail industry employment returning to pre-pandemic levels any time soon?

Slowly, stores are being given the go-ahead to reopen. It’s time to make sure the retail staff is coming back from the best place possible. Here are five things to support the re-onboarding process. Where do you see the biggest challenges for retail managers who are onboarding retail staff as stores reopen?

Why should you hire people who do not look like you? Because while it is human to hire people with similar backgrounds, it can be based on unintentional bias. Further, making shoppers feel welcome in your store starts with the people you choose to hire. What hurdles prevent stores from hiring more diverse staff?

Nike’s “most important priority,” he said, is to fix its internal challenges around diversity and inclusion. Do you agree that consumers are generally demanding more than statements of solidarity from brands and retailers around social causes or is racial inequality a unique issue?

Retailers emerging from the COVID-19 quarantine have created business reopening playbooks, to convey trust and credibility that their business is a safe environment. Do you think documented accountability matters more now as stores reopen, or will customers quickly forget the threats and return to shopping as usual?

Last week, a security guard at a Family Dollar in Michigan was fatally shot after telling a customer to wear a face mask. Other high-profile incidents involving rebellion have occurred against social distancing mandates. How should stores manage the minor and major confrontations stemming from social distancing mandates?

COVID-19 changed everything. We aren’t living in the new normal, we’re still deep into the now normal where things change daily and retailers need to be prepared as they reopen stores. What advice would have for independent stores as they reopen to ensure safety, follow regulations, effectively merchandise and sell products?

When Vuori temporarily closed five activewear stores, two main questions arose — how to leverage conditions to emerge stronger, and is there an opportunity for associates to expand their skills and support other departments? What do you think of Vuori’s decision to train and deploy its retail staff in new areas after closing its stores due to COVID-19?