CASE STUDY

The North Face

Learn how The North Face® EMEA used Wranx to improve product knowledge and sales, with a 50% increase in items per basket

OVERVIEW

Type: Product knowledge training

Project duration: 3 year project

Number of learners: 4,679

Challenge

The North Face EMEA were looking to improve product knowledge and brand awareness among store associates across Europe, in order to increase sales.

Solution

With Wranx, they were able to provide different product training modules to various teams in six different languages. A media hub was built so resources could be accessed easily on demand. And store managers, as well as HQ, were given access to analytics to track progress.

Results

After implementing Wranx, The North Face saw an increase in knowledge retention, confidence and a 50% increase in items per customer basket.

of learners' raw knowledge improved from pre to post assessment

of learners said Wranx would enable them to improve in their role

of learners improved their certainty based marking score (CBM)

“Using this platform has had a direct impact on our customers, as a higher level of training has ensured they have an enjoyable experience in store. The uplift in sales is clear, as customers have said that their purchase decisions were influenced by our store colleague’s advanced product knowledge!”

Senior Brand Education Manager – The North Face EMEA

Enhancing the customer experience and increasing revenue growth

Built on innovation, The North Face brand offers unrivalled, technically advanced outdoor products, with an extensive line of performance apparel, equipment and footwear.

With such a range of products and technologies, they needed to ensure that product knowledge among store associates was at a high standard to deliver the best in-store experience for customers and increase sales.

As a result, The North Face were looking for a solution to deliver product knowledge training to their disparate workforce who were located across Europe. The training also needed to be provided in six different languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Turkish.

Delivering product knowledge training to a disparate workforce

The North Face chose Wranx – a microlearning platform that facilitates personalised learning through Spaced Repetition.

This learning technique automatically identifies knowledge gaps within learner groups and provides a tailored learning path for each individual based on what they do and don’t know.

This was the ideal tool to help associates fill knowledge gaps, taking learners just 2–3 minutes per day to use at a time convenient to them.

Having an app which was available on all devices meant that training could easily be deployed to associates across stores in different countries.

A bespoke service matched to The North Face’s requirements

Wranx worked with The North Face to create a project plan that was built around their training initiatives and goals.

As part of the onboarding process, Wranx’s Support Team were able to categorize learners into team and division hierarchies, whilst also providing store managers access to the admin portal to and analytics for their team members and download reports.

Wranx created a bespoke media hub for The North Face to use on the platform, where learners could access a variety of on-demand resources in a number of formats. The media hub included athlete and brand videos, product training videos, archive modules and their own Explorer Magazine.

Wranx were also able to white label the platform, creating a dashboard that reflected The North Face brand. This provided a more familiar, learner-centric experience for store associates.

An in-house content team working on behalf of The North Face

The Wranx content team converted The North Face’s existing product content into monthly training modules. They covered a wide range of product info, including new technology launches. The draft content was shared with their technology experts to ensure it was of the high standard needed to demonstrate the features and benefits of the technology. It was imperative that the information was accurate, as store associates across Europe were learning about these proprietary technologies for the first time.

Training modules were delivered in the form of ‘daily drills’ which are made up of 10–12 questions a day that take 2 minutes to complete.

Certainty Based Marking (CBM) used in pre and post-assessments accurately identified employee knowledge gaps and proved the ROI of training. They completed CBM assessments on the ‘New Explorer’ module, which taught staff the most effective selling techniques for a range of brand new products and technologies.

Improved knowledge and sales among associates

After implementing Wranx, The North Face saw a 73% increase in knowledge retention amongst employees and also noted a 50% increase in items per customer basket. They saw 80% of learners improve their CBM scores, meaning they could answer retail-based questions more accurately and confidently after completing their module. Feedback from associates stated that they found it easier to retain product knowledge due to Wranx’s unique use of Spaced Repetition, which came in useful, particularly when communicating with customers. This in turn had a positive impact on customer experience in store as they associated a higher level of product knowledge with helping customers make purchase decisions.