When we think of retail, our minds often jump to supermarkets or department stores. A quick online search reveals a flood of advice tailored to these types of businesses, offering tips on how to streamline operations and improve performance.
But retail isn’t a one-size-fits-all industry. Sub-sectors like pet stores are often overlooked in broader conversations. And yet, the needs of a pet retail business and its staff are uniquely complex. After all, the ‘products’ in a pet store are living animals, not shelf-stable goods like tinned soup or instant noodles. They require care, attention, and a depth of knowledge that extends far beyond standard retail training.
That’s why pet stores must optimize their employee training and tailor it to their individual needs.
Like what you hear? Keep reading for practical strategies to improve employee training, and look at how Pet Supermarket revamped its approach and saw major improvements in employee satisfaction and cost savings.
Employee training should always be comprehensive. This means providing your staff with the skills and knowledge needed for every possible situation.
In pet retail, that goes beyond the basics like customer service and sales. It also includes specialised training in animal behavior and care.
Here’s a closer look:
Scroll through social media and you’ll find countless videos explaining the behaviors of dogs and cats. But what about the less familiar pets? Would you know if a bearded dragon was distressed? Could you spot a stressed-out fish suddenly aware of life beyond the glass?
Understanding animal behavior is essential for pet store staff as it helps employees recognize signs of stress, aggression, or illness in animals, ensuring safer handling and better care. It also empowers staff to educate customers on proper pet interaction, enhancing the overall customer experience.
Training tip: Reinforce in-person demonstrations with single-response or multiple-choice interactive quizzes that reinforce knowledge.
Pet nutrition isn't just about picking the right kibble. From reptiles to rodents, each species, and often each breed, has its own dietary needs. Can your team explain the difference between omnivorous and herbivorous turtles? Or why certain treats can harm guinea pigs but benefit hamsters?
For pet store employees, having a solid grasp of animal nutrition means offering informed, responsible advice that supports animal health and builds customer trust. The right food recommendations can prevent illness, improve behavior, and even extend lifespans.
Training tip: Create a visual how-to guide for each pet type, outlining dietary do’s and don’ts, portion sizes, feeding schedules, and common nutritional red flags. Post it in break areas or link via QR code for quick reference on the floor.
Great customer service is the cornerstone of any successful retail operation. Get it right and you’ll increase sales, build customer loyalty, and distinguish yourself from your competitors. With 78% of shoppers saying they’ve walked away from a purchase because of poor service, it’s clear this is something you can’t afford to overlook.
Training tip: Use video-based scenarios paired with quizzes to sharpen customer service skills. Picture short clips of customer interactions followed by multiple-choice questions assessing the best employee response.
From a sales standpoint, pet store employees might seem to have it easy. After all, who can resist a wagging tail or the flash of colorful fish? In many cases, the animals do the selling on their own.
But pets are a serious commitment, and most customers walk in with clear intentions. They typically know exactly what they’re looking for - and what they’re not - leaving limited space for traditional upselling.
That said, there’s still room for strategy. It’s unlikely you’ll talk a casual browser into adopting a puppy on the spot, but suggesting a low-maintenance fish? That’s doable. And customers who already own pets are prime for thoughtful upsells, like upgrading to a larger tank or switching to higher-quality food.
Training tip: Sales and customer service go hand-in-hand. That’s why we recommend the same approach — video scenarios with quizzes to train your staff in fundamental sales techniques. While product knowledge is essential, it only becomes valuable when employees know how to apply it in real interactions.
Check out: 7 Steps to Successful Retail Upselling
In pet retail, safety and compliance are all about keeping animals, customers, and staff safe while following the rules. That means everything from proper animal care and clean enclosures to fire safety, hygiene, and following labor or data laws. Pet stores also have to meet specific guidelines for things like handling live animals and selling pet food. Getting it right helps prevent accidents, keeps you out of legal trouble, and shows customers you’re a business they can trust.
At the end of the day, safety and compliance aren’t just about ticking boxes; they’re about running a store that’s caring, responsible, and built to last.
Training tip: Use microlearning to break down key information into small, digestible chunks, boosting engagement and helping employees retain knowledge over time.
Now that you know what your training should include, let’s talk about how to deliver it.
Training a retail workforce comes with unique challenge. They’re constantly on the move, working irregular shifts, and needed on the shop floor around the clock.
It might seem like delivering consistent, engaging training is out of reach. But it’s not, and we’re here to show you how.
Mobile training is a smart way to enhance your current training approach and in some cases, replace parts that just don’t work well in a busy retail setting. We’re not saying ditch in-person training altogether. Classroom sessions still matter, especially for mandatory topics, and shadowing remains one of the best ways to show new hires what the job really involves day-to-day.
But the most effective retail stores combine modalities. They take the best of both worlds to create a training experience that actually sticks. Mobile training, in particular, is great for reinforcing key information and improving memory retention.
Take cleaning fish tanks, for example. You might teach it in a classroom, but the forgetting curve shows that half the information is lost by the next day. In fact, 57% of frontline workers say they cant remember what they learnt in their last training session.
Mobile microlearning helps combat that by repeating key points in short, engaging bursts, right when your team needs them most.
Kering, a conglomerate that owns fashion brands including Gucci, found that in-person training took up a lot of time and resources, and it only worked if everyone was in the right place at the right time. On top of that, the quality of training depended on who was running the session, so there was no real consistency across stores, especially when it came to important things like security.
To solve this, they switched to mobile training that actually fits into the fast-paced schedules of their retail teams. The training is quick, easy to tap through, and delivers the info staff need without pulling them away from their day.
Plus, it comes with built-in knowledge checks that help the learning stick and give managers a clear view of how each employee is doing, making it easier to track progress and spot where extra support might be needed.
They now boast a 75% training completion rate, ensuring the majority of their workforce is equipped with the necessary information to thrive in their roles.
Picture this:
You’ve just spent months building out your new LMS. As the L&D Manager, you’ve written, edited, and re-edited every module. Legal’s reviewed it. Your manager’s manager has weighed in. You’ve sat through clunky uploads and endless approval loops. Finally, launch day comes, and a week later? Three completions. Three. After all that effort, it’s a rollout disaster.
Here’s the hard truth: just building great content isn’t enough. One proven way to avoid this nightmare is to offer multiple ways for employees to access training. The more entry points you provide, the more likely people are to actually engage. Don’t just stick a QR code on the staff room door and call it a day, cast a wider net. Send reminders via SMS, integrate training into platforms employees already use like Microsoft Teams or Workday.
Think of it this way: every extra touchpoint is another chance to reach someone when they’re ready to learn. If you want engagement, meet your learners where they are, not just where you hope they’ll go.
So you’ve made training more accessible. Great! But we’re not done yet. Now it’s time to remove friction.
Requiring employees to download a new app, create an account, or remember yet another password adds friction, and friction kills completion rates and overall productivity. One study shows that workers switch between applications about 1,200 times per day, leading to nearly 4 hours per week lost simply reorienting after each switch.
The solution? Reach employees directly on their mobile devices without asking them to install anything new. Instead, as mentioned above, embed training into the tools, workflows and devices they already use and have to hand, such as SMS or Microsoft Teams. This approach reduces steps, speeds up access, and fits seamlessly into their existing routines.
With many retailers adopting BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies, the advantages grow. BYOD allows staff to access training on their personal devices anytime, anywhere, no company device required. When combined with mobile-friendly training formats, it gives employees flexibility and control, increasing training completion rates and retention.
Now you might be thinking - is adding a new app really asking too much? The answer is yes, adding a new app is often a losing battle. Most employees already suffer from app fatigue, and switching over to a new one can decrease productivity by 40%. To truly drive adoption, training needs to show up where they already are, not ask them to go somewhere new.
McCoy’s Building Supply, a U.S. retailer of lumber and farm equipment, employed a BYOD policy to modernize compliance training, shifting from paper-based, in-person sessions to digital delivery.
According to Training Manager Jason Trail, using multiple communication channels has been “a big improvement,” leading to a 95% training completion rate and 94% employee satisfaction.
Effective employee training doesn’t start on day one; it starts before. Preboarding training, delivered after an offer is accepted but before the first day, helps new hires hit the ground running. It reduces first-day anxiety, boosts engagement, and increases retention by 82%.
The onboarding phase that follows is equally crucial, further improving retention and productivity, while setting the tone for an employee’s experience, helping them feel confident in their new role.
But training shouldn’t stop after onboarding. Continuous learning is essential for keeping skills sharp, knowledge updated, and employees engaged. After all, companies are constantly evolving, and your employees should do the same. Companies that promote continuous learning enjoy 37% higher productivity.
Mobile microlearning is what ties it all together. These short, focused lessons are easy to access and ideal for reinforcing key information taught during longer in-person sessions, helping combat knowledge loss and improve retention.
One of the most powerful (and underused) training tools is your own workforce. In 2025, User-Generated Content (UGC) is gaining traction, and for good reason. 46% of frontline workers say they find learning content more meaningful when it’s created by their peers. In the L&D space this trend has gone so far as to take on its own name - ‘Employee-Generated Content’ (EGC).
Temco Logistics has embraced this approach by turning employees into influencers within their own organization.
Temco made training more engaging and relatable by tapping into user-generated content for peer-to-peer learning. By putting drivers and technicians front and center, they gave employees a chance to share their own experiences, helping people connect across the country and building a stronger sense of community along the way.
‘We're trying to run an influencer campaign with our workforce, just that the content happens to be training. We love to give the opportunity to spotlight somebody that knows how to do something really well.’
- Dan Drenk, Director of Learning and Development, Temco Logistics
Pet Supermarket’s training transformation is a shining example of how incorporating digital strategies can drive real impact.
Previously, all training was done in person, which often meant inconsistent standards and low employee engagement. That made it tough for staff to deliver the kind of standout experience the company aimed for.
To fix this, Pet Supermarket opted for a digital solution that prioritized accessibility and consistency. They moved away from a “one-size-fits-all” classroom approach and started meeting employees where they already were, both physically and digitally.
Training access points were strategically placed in high-footfall areas across stores, using printed QR codes for context-specific learning. For instance, a QR code near the register might link to a quick lesson on how to operate the POS system, while one in the aquatic section explains how to clean a fish tank. This ensured training was immediately relevant and available right at the moment of need.
Digitally, they embedded eduMe into Workday Learning, the HR platform their employees were already using for other tasks. This seamless integration reduced friction and made training feel like a natural part of the work day.
Training now begins even before day one. Pet Supermarket embedded eduMe content into Workday Recruiting, sending applicants a text with a short, engaging “day in the life” video featuring real employees. This content, styled like an Instagram story, gives candidates a clear and compelling view into company culture.
Source: How Workday + eduMe are transforming frontline learning
Pet Supermarket saw a 79% average training completion rate, thanks to making training easy to access, relevant to the job, and built into tools employees already use. The lessons were short, engaging, and quick to complete, averaging just 2 minutes, so staff could fit learning into their day without disruption.
The approach really resonated with the workforce, resulting in a 98% workforce satisfaction score, with employees describing the training as “fun” and simple to take in. The improved training also helped reduce employee turnover by 15%, as staff felt more confident and better equipped in their roles.
And the benefits didn’t stop there. With improved training, employees became more effective at handling perishable stock, leading to $1 million saved - a clear example of how optimizing your staff training can drive real business results.
‘eduMe is extremely well positioned to fill the needs for training in today’s world’
-Theresa Micheli, Senior Manager Store Operations, Pet Supermarket
eduMe is the go-to digital training solution for pet retail teams, seamlessly integrating with your existing petstore software. With training that’s easy to access, fully customizable, and built to keep staff engaged, we give your frontline employees the tools they need to learn at their own pace and deliver a great experience.