Has your buyer asked you about your training strategy yet? For decades, training has been considered one of the most tried-and-true ways to improve beauty retail sales and increase customer awareness. An entire B2B industry of consultants, sales advisors, and expert educators has popped up to help beauty brands reap the benefits from smart training programs. And yet, in an industry that can be tight-lipped about sales data, it’s difficult for emerging brands to understand the ROI on training programs.
To quantify the benefits of training–and put our new training app, BeautyFluent, to the test–Landing launched its own training pilot program. Using our app to educate beauty advisors at JCPenney, we successfully saw firsthand just how meaningful training can be to new brands at retail. Here’s a look at what we found.
Training Impact On Product Level
Across all four brands, products that were highlighted in training education saw a meaningful uptick in sales in the weeks following training. Even products that were already selling well at JCPenney saw over 2x the sales in the following weeks. Those that had been largely overlooked by customers saw an astronomical rise of 900%.
Training Impact On Brand Level
Another exciting result of our program was that even after training beauty advisors on only one product, brands saw a meaningful increase in sales across their assortment. For many of these brands–relative newcomers to the retail market–this demonstrates just how impactful training can be to overall brand awareness and success.
Insights From Beauty Advisors
After reviewing training information and getting the chance to try the products themselves, beauty advisors shared feedback that showed just how helpful training had been. “I love that the pads are large enough for someone who suffers from body acne and now have a solution,” said one beauty advisor about Neogen’s Dermalogy Green Tea Moist PHA Gauze Peeling Pads. Another fell in love with Everyday Humans’ Resting Beach Face SPF 30: “I love that this protects tattoos while still keeping your skin hydrated.” Across the board, beauty advisors shared their enthusiasm and insights into how our brands could stand out in the retail environment.
Meet Our New Training App
This training program was conducted with our new rewards-based education app, BeautyFluent. Designed by beauty retail experts, BeautyFluent connects beauty advisors with the brands they love and rewards them for their influence. By scanning a product barcode on their phones, beauty advisors can instantly pull up product info and demo tips so they can learn on the fly or on their own time. Every time they train and complete fun quizzes, beauty advisors earn points to cash in for products they’re interested in trying. Rewards get sent directly to the beauty advisors at home so they are sure to receive the products they really want to test. Plus, beauty advisors can send feedback directly to brands–helping to shape smarter retail strategy with insights from the sales floor.
To learn how to join BeautyFluent as a brand partner, get in touch with our team at brands@landingintl.com.