eLearning for Retail Training: LMS, Custom Content & Courses

Here we look at the benefits of and leading companies in elearning for retail training. We pay particular attention to retail LMS, custom content, and off the shelf training course providers that are proven in deliving great solutions for this competitive sector.

Because many retail employees deal directly with customers, it’s essential that they receive adequate product knowledge and soft skills training in order to provide great customer service and to maximise sales.

Training in the retail industry does not come without its challenges though. Staff turnover can be high in this sector, business is often seasonal, and product ranges can change frequently.

When developing a retail training and / or elearning strategy, it is important to address these specific challenges.

 

Employee Turnover

The retail sector is notorious for its high employee turnover rate. In most retail businesses, employees come and go all the time, making it very challenging to have well-trained, customer-facing personnel available at all times.

Providing employee training when you are constantly recruiting new people is very difficult. High turnover also poses challenges with building customer loyalty because customers will be seeing different employees all the time.

Having a flexible, but high quality training programme in place (ideally incorporating retail elearning) can help address these HR and customer service challenges.

 

Rapidly Changing Business Environment

The retail industry is a very volatile environment that is influenced by changing trends and aggressive marketing. For retailers to maintain their competitive edge, it is important that they are able to pivot quickly when fashion moves into a new direction and / or competitors are using new marketing tactics.

Decisions made at the head office level need to be communicated down and implemented quickly to stay on top of the market.

eLearning can provide a great device for passing down information on new products, sales tactics, marketing ploys and other important knowledge.

When setting up a training strategy for your retail organisation, hiring a training provider with retail industry training experience is a must. The help of a professional training consultancy can make a huge difference in the effectiveness of your training courses and the return on investment they provide.

The best retail elearning solutions usually fall into three broad categories:

1. Learning platforms – for managing, assigning, tracking and reporting learning across stores, regions, roles and franchises.
2. Custom eLearning content developers – for bespoke training around brand, service, product knowledge, sales, onboarding, equality and diversity, leadership or operational procedures.
3. Off-the-shelf course providers – for ready-made training in compliance, health and safety, HR, management, wellbeing, digital skills and customer service.

Below we’ve listed few training and learning providers that have extensive experience with retail industry training.

 

Retail LMS Solutions

Custom LMS for Retail – Webanywhere

Webanywhere is a UK-based learning technology provider with strong relevance for retail organisations, especially those looking for LMS implementation, Totara Learn expertise, platform configuration and ongoing learning technology support.

Retailers often need a platform that can support multiple roles, stores, locations and learner groups. They may need to separate training by job role, region, brand, store type or franchise group, while still giving central L&D teams visibility of completions, compliance and performance. Webanywhere’s experience with Totara and custom LMS projects makes it a good fit for these requirements.

Webanywhere has relevant experience with retail and consumer-facing clients including Zara, F.Hinds and Domino’s Pizza.

Its work with F.Hinds, the UK jeweller, is particularly relevant for retail training. F.Hinds had been using an older version of Totara LMS to manage product training for frontline employees. Webanywhere implemented a newer version of Totara Learn, improved the experience for L&D managers and refreshed the learner-facing visuals. This is a common retail LMS scenario: the organisation already understands the value of digital training, but needs a more modern, secure, usable and scalable platform.

Webanywhere’s work with Domino’s Pizza is also highly relevant because food retail and quick-service restaurant businesses need consistent training across distributed teams. A centralised LMS can support onboarding, compliance, product knowledge, customer service and operational procedures across many locations.

Best for: LMS implementation, Totara Learn, retail product training, compliance tracking, multi-site training, franchise training and organisations that need a configurable learning platform.

Learning more about Webanywhere’s retail LMS solutions on their website

 

Easy to Use Retail LMS – iSpring

The iSpring LMS is a strong choice for retail companies because it’s designed to make employee training easy to deliver, engaging to complete, and simple to manage at scale. These points are all critical in fast-moving retail environments where staff are distributed across multiple stores and often juggling customer service duties alongside learning.

This popular training platform supports mobile learning with offline access, meaning retail associates can complete courses anytime and anywhere – on the sales floor, during breaks, or while commuting – without being tied to a desktop computer. This boosts completion rates and fits into their busy schedules.

iSpring also enables centralised onboarding, product training, compliance tracking, and performance reporting, helping to keep knowledge consistent across all locations and ensure everyone is up to date on new products, policies, and customer service standards.

The integrated iSpring Suite of elearning authoring tools lets companies create interactive quizzes, role-plays, and learning paths quickly, so training feels relevant and engaging rather than a chore.

iSpring LMS has been adopted by a wide range of well-known brands across industries, including major consumer products and retail companies, such as PG (Procter & Gamble), Lego, Adidas, Kraft Foods, L’Oréal, Puma, and Energizer. This demonstrates its applicability to complex, multi-location organisations with large frontline workforces.

One notable example in training is Oticon, a global company whose teams use iSpring LMS because it’s intuitive (described by a client as “very easy, just like Netflix”) and works well for mobile learners who travel frequently.

These kinds of success stories show how iSpring retail LMS solutions can help businesses improve training consistency, reduce costs, and drive measurable improvements in staff capability and compliance, making it an excellent learning platform choice for the retail sector.

 

Custom eLearning Content Developers for Retail Training

UK Content Provider: First Media

First Media UK is a strong choice for retailers and retail-adjacent organisations that need bespoke digital learning with a creative, campaign-led feel. The company specialises in custom eLearning, learning design, animation, video, microlearning and interactive digital training.

For retail training, First Media is particularly relevant where the objective is not just to transfer information, but to change behaviour. This could include improving service standards, helping staff understand a brand promise, supporting inclusion across a large workforce, or turning internal communication campaigns into engaging learning experiences.

A useful example is First Media’s work with Amazon, where the company created masterclass-style video learning to help empower small businesses. While this is not a conventional shop-floor retail course, it shows First Media’s ability to produce polished, accessible and commercially focused learning content for a major global brand with a large and varied audience.

First Media has also worked with Group 1 Automotive, a global automotive retailer, on a digital learning module called Respect in the Workplace: The Big Idea. This project focused on equality and diversity, helping raise awareness and support a more inclusive workplace. For retail and automotive retail employers, this type of training is highly relevant because customer-facing teams need to understand respectful behaviour, inclusive communication and workplace culture across dealerships, showrooms, service centres and head office environments.

First Media is best suited to retailers that want highly visual, bespoke learning rather than generic modules. It could be a good fit for fashion, automotive, hospitality retail, consumer brands, franchise groups, ecommerce brands, luxury retail and large employers that need learning to feel on-brand.

Best for: bespoke eLearning, campaign-based learning, EDI, onboarding, service behaviours, internal communications, branded training and animated learning content.

Learning more about creative elearning design from First Media on their website.

 

US Content Provider: AllenComm

AllenComm is a US-based custom learning provider with a long track record in corporate training, learning strategy and bespoke digital learning design. For retail organisations in North America, it is a strong option where training needs to be closely connected to business performance.

Retailers may consider AllenComm for sales enablement, leadership development, onboarding, compliance, product knowledge, customer experience and large-scale transformation programmes. Its strength is likely to be most valuable where a retailer does not simply need a set of modules, but a designed learning programme with a clear link to commercial outcomes.

For example, retailers going through a brand repositioning, new product launch, merger, new technology rollout or service transformation may need more than content production. They may need learning consulting, audience analysis, blended design, digital assets and measurement. This is where a provider such as AllenComm can be particularly relevant.

Best for: US retail training programmes, learning strategy, custom eLearning, onboarding, sales enablement, leadership and enterprise transformation.

Learn more on the AllenComm website.

 

Off the Shelf Training Courses for Retail

eLearning Courses for UK Retailers: Aleido

Aleido offers off-the-shelf eLearning for organisations that need ready-made digital training that can be deployed quickly and cost-effectively. Its course ranges cover workplace topics such as compliance, health and wellbeing, digital skills and people management.

For retail organisations, Aleido’s off-the-shelf courses may be useful where the training need is common across industries rather than unique to the retailer’s brand. Examples include compliance, health and safety, leadership basics, wellbeing, data protection, cyber awareness, communication and management skills.

Aleido may be particularly suitable for retailers that want a blend of ready-made training and broader learning services. Because Aleido also offers bespoke eLearning, blended learning, graphics, video, animation, consultancy, authoring tools and learning systems, it can support organisations that need more than a course library.

A retailer might use Aleido’s off-the-shelf courses for core compliance and workplace skills, then commission bespoke modules for brand, product, store procedures or customer experience.

Best for: compliance, wellbeing, digital skills, people management, blended learning and organisations that may need both off-the-shelf and bespoke support.

Explore the range of high-quality elearning courses from Aleido on their website.

 

US Course Provider: Skillsoft

Skillsoft is a US-based provider with a large library of corporate learning content. It is a strong option for retail organisations that need broad off-the-shelf coverage across compliance, leadership, business skills, digital skills, productivity and workplace safety topics.

For retail employers, Skillsoft can be useful for scalable training in areas such as customer service, retail safety, data security, leadership, communication, management, harassment prevention, compliance and professional development. It may be particularly relevant for larger retailers that want an extensive content library with courses for different job levels, from frontline staff through to managers and corporate teams.

Skillsoft is likely to be most useful where the organisation wants breadth and scale rather than highly tailored retail-specific storytelling. For brand-critical behaviours or store-specific processes, retailers may still need bespoke content alongside Skillsoft’s library.

Best for: US and global retailers, large course libraries, compliance, leadership, business skills, customer service, digital skills and workforce development.

Check out the Skillsoft course library on their website.

 

In Summary

Retail training needs to be practical, scalable and relevant to the day-to-day reality of frontline work. The best solution is often a blend of provider types.

For most retailers, the key is to avoid treating elearning as a single product purchase. Retail learning works best as an ecosystem: a platform to manage training, bespoke content for brand-critical behaviours, simulation for practical skills, and off-the-shelf modules for common workplace topics.

The right mix can help retailers onboard faster, improve consistency, reduce risk, strengthen customer experience and support better performance across every store, site and team.

 

Other retail websites and resources

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/hr-challenges-retail-sector-43858.html

www.theretailatoz.com/e-learning-for-retail/

https://www.vendhq.com/uk/retail-trends-and-predictions.

 

Can We Help You?

Interested in our expert advice on the best elearning, face to face training or blended learning solutions for your business?

Contact Learning Light