8 Free Courses to Learn Retail for Students
Whether you’re just starting a retail career or looking to broaden your knowledge, you don’t have to break the bank to get the information you need. Plenty of free online courses will give you a great taste of what retail is all about, and some will even teach you practical new skills. Here, we round up eight of the best free courses that can help you get started in retail.
1. Retail Sales Management
Offered by: LinkedIn Learning
Learn the fundamentals of retail sales management, including merchandising, inventory, and customer service strategies. In this course, Noah Fleming shares the secrets to hiring a great team and consistently delivering a customer experience. He shares the critical components of a successful retail management system, which include internal benchmarking, role-playing, and optimal staff placement. He also shares how to motivate your team, measure KPIs, market your business, and more.
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2. Retail Fundamentals
Offered by: edX (via Dartmouth College)
Go deep into the fundamentals that drive retail performance. The course covers everything from distribution strategies to consumer behaviour analyses. It’s for students serious about retail careers.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
- Generating and assessing sales forecasts.
- Planning and optimising inventory management.
- Strategizing and deciding on product assortment.
- Determining optimal pricing for your products.
3. Customer Service Fundamentals
Offered by: Coursera
The course provides an entryway to the IT industry, with an emphasis on customer service and support positions. It doesn’t require a traditional college degree. The course teaches key skills, such as communicating clearly, empathy, solving problems, and adhering to processes.
4. Product Management
Offered by: Future
Learn the strategies behind managing retail products effectively. This course is perfect for those wanting to understand the psychology of product placement and inventory management. This course will help you develop product management skills that prepare you for your career and delve into the product development process from design to launch.
5. Retail Management – Merchandising, Distribution and Marketing
Offered by: Alison
This course covers all important but often left-out areas of retail, such as marketing, merchandising or distribution. You will learn effective sales techniques to increase sales in a retail outlet, such as smart pricing and effective in-store marketing, to increase sales and turnover. Whether you’re a business owner or a part of a bigger corporation, this retail management course will make you a better salesperson and give you an edge over others in your career. If you are a student who wants to get an edge over your classmates, check out these thesis and dissertation writing services. They can supplement your research and writing to make your dissertation stand out.
6. Retail Store Operations and Store Management
Offered by: Udemy
This course is designed for people who wish to open a store. It teaches the basics of a retail operation, such as store design and layout, planograms, and the role of a manager. It also discusses the proper use of mannequins and the psychology of consumer shopping. The course is made to look like an in-store reading experience, down to the pixelated scale of the graphics and the occasional pop-up fact about product placement, guerrilla marketing, and impulse buying.
7. MBA: Retail business, Merchandising, and E-commerce
Offered by: Udemy
This course teaches you how to start or reconfigure a retail or e-commerce business. It explores core retail topics such as retail management, store types, trading areas, and omnichannel strategies. Throughout the course, you will examine specific examples and case studies. There is a heavy focus on using customer data to create supply and demand analyses, designing and optimising store layouts, retail finance, and inventory management.
8. Channel Management and Retailing
Offered by: Coursera
The course covers the main elements of designing and running a distribution channel. It highlights the roles of important channel partners and the approaches to handling conflicts. It also covers different retailing strategies and how they shape a retailer’s strategic positioning. Learn how retailers can sustain their competitive edge and find out the best entry strategies for different circumstances.
Stepping Up Your Retail Game
Not only do you improve your theoretical knowledge of the retail industry, but you also gain practical skills that you can apply in the workplace. If you want to set up your own retail business or work your way up the career ladder within an established company, these free resources are the perfect launch pad for your retail education. So start learning and begin turning your theoretical knowledge into practical knowledge. What better investment can you make than investing in your education? And with all of these free resources, you don’t need to wait. Start your education today, and don’t let your finances stop you. Explore, learn, and enter the retail world with confidence.