GNC ramps up employee training program with new cloud-based platform
“In the health and wellness space it is critical for us to provide specific product training to enable our associates to understand the benefits and options that our products provide,” Joe Gorman, EVP of Operations at GNC, told NutraIngredients-USA.
The new platform by ePath Learning Inc. is a cloud-based learning management technology, which Gorman described as a “huge leap” for training at GNC.
“With today's millennial workforce we know that it is critical to provide information in the manner in which they are consuming other media,” Gorman added. “The Millennial workforce is used to consuming media in a visual and on the go manner, and this new system allows us to tailor training to be exciting and engaging.”
“[We] believe this partnership will help us to deliver training more quickly and in a more relevant format to our associates.”
Online isn’t a death knell for brick-and-mortars
GNC’s investment in training its employees, including the army of brick-and-mortar retail associates, comes at a time of continued declines in financial performance.
The company’s Q3 results did show some same store sales increases by 1.3%, but revenue was down 2.9%.
However, its Amazon Storefront, which it launched last summer, has seen ‘continued strong growth’ exceeding expectations, GNC executives said at the Q3 earnings call in October 2017.
E-commerce represents about 10% of the company’s US and Canada revenue.
“Because more than 50% of online products searches happen on Amazon, and of those, 37% buy that product in the store, we believe Amazon is not a death knell for brick-and-mortars, but a great advertising platform that puts us right in the path of countless new customers,” Moran told analysts.
