Retail best practice knowledge and retail training expertise that’s second to none
Whether it’s commercial technical skills training for buyers, category managers, merchandisers and planners, or sales and service skills for store colleagues and staff, we can help.
All of the First Friday team has their roots in retail – many of us at a senior level and from a wide range of retail functions and businesses – which means we are able to hit the ground running and add value from day one.
Retail is in our DNA – we can offer bespoke & customised training solutions or best practice training from our off-the-shelf Retail Training Academy.
First Friday are head and shoulders above other training companies. Even their body language is retail.
Training for Buyers, Merchandisers and Planners
We have extensive experience in developing and delivering training courses for Merchandising, Planning and Buying for many retailers around the world – from a few courses to large all-encompassing Buying and Merchandising (B&M) training academies for some very large retailers.
Bespoke / customised & retail best practice training solutions
Historically retailers would request bespoke, customised training solutions. However, increasingly retailers are choosing our off-the-shelf courses from our Retail Training Academy containing a large range of best practice training courses.
- Choose from our library of best practice retail courses in our Retail Training Academy. These courses are pre-built and based on best practice retail processes. They are predominantly aimed at the more junior and entry level roles in buying, merchandising and planning.
There are some Retail Basics courses covering the fundamentals and suitable for anyone who wants to learn how buying and merchandising works at a high level.
The Training Academy for Buyers, Merchandisers & Planners is a comprehensive suite of courses covering all the technical skills required.
- Choose a bespoke training solution where we customise the training using your own corporate branding, internal jargon, language, systems and processes using relevant examples from your business throughout to help bring critical learning to life
Most retailers find a mix of off-the-shelf and customised training helps them best meet their training & development needs.
Common Retail Buying & Merchandising (B&M) training course topics
- Critical path management
- Sourcing and supplier management and sample management
- Sustainability
- Factory visits & buying trips and store visits & competitor shopping
- Introduction to and and advanced negotiation skills
Customer Service and Selling
Need help to define your customer experience? Want to develop capability in wowing your customers and successful selling?
Our retail operations and hospitality credentials mean that nobody is better placed to train your teams on all things customer that build loyalty and satisfaction whilst delivering commercial results.
Customer engagement
- Buying signals and behaviours
- Body language and communication
- Greeting & welcome
- Approach & engage
- Getting into conversation
- Building rapport and a connection
- Confidence with colours
- Styling and outfit building
Sales conversion
- Discovering customer needs
- Presenting solutions
- Storytelling
- Add-on selling and up-selling
- Closing a sale
- Confidence with colours
- Styling and outfit building
Clientelling and loyalty
- Understanding what drives customer loyalty
- Developing a clientelling strategy
- Gathering discovery detail
- Creating clientelling communications
Need something now?
Try the First Friday Training Academy
Supplement your unique training offering with our pre-built online courses and classroom-based workshops.
Retail Basics
Retail fundamentals training for everyone
Considering a career in buying, merchandising or planning? Or just starting out in a new role? These courses cover the retail basics that are the foundation for success.
B&M Academy
Specialist retail training courses
A comprehensive retail training programme to develop the technical skills needed to build knowledge and confidence in buying, merchandising and merchandise planning.
Recipes for Retail
Invaluable insights from a retail veteran
Learn how to be a great retailer from someone who knows. Bite-sized wisdom from one of the most experienced retailers in the world, John Hoerner.
Example retail training projects
Our trainers know Retail inside out
At First Friday, all our training consultants come from a retail or commercial backgrounds and have become expert trainers. The resultant commercial focus stands us apart from other training companies.
Meet some of our retail training consultants
A Principal Consultant and Head of the First Friday Training Academy, Clare has over 30 years of retail experience which she uses to support clients to develop their commercial knowledge, technical capability and soft skills.
More about Clare »
Charlotte has a proven track record in leadership, managing multi-million-pound budgets and driving business growth at some of the UK’s best-known retailers, and has worked with First Friday since 2020 as a commercial and strategic merchandising consultant.
More about Charlotte »
Jack has over 20 years’ experience as a training and change consultant and has worked on a wide range of complex programmes for several leading retailers. She brings energy, passion and enthusiasm to her work, leaving clients engaged and motivated.
More about Jack »
Related resources
Take a look at some of our popular retail-related resources:
