The retail industry can be incredibly demanding, with queues, shift changes, customer demands, and stock counts, among many other factors. So, when this multinational retailer had to roll out a new point-of-sale system during a global pandemic, the solution wasn’t more meetings or longer manuals. It was rethinking learning entirely.
Together with Wyzetalk, the company moved fast: from chalkboard to mobile screen, from paperwork to insight, from a fragmented experience to a connected learning journey. What started as crisis-driven adaptation became a blueprint for a more agile, empowered workforce.
The industry
The retail sector isn’t built for pause, and that’s exactly what makes traditional learning models so difficult to sustain. With frontline teams spread across hundreds of locations, often working shifts with little downtime, conventional face-to-face training is expensive, disruptive, and out of sync with the pace of the shopfloor. But upskilling is non-negotiable, especially when systems change, compliance matters, and customer experience depends on staff confidence. For retailers operating at scale, the challenge isn’t only about content. It’s about delivery, too.
The company
This JSE-listed retailer, a subsidiary of a larger multinational company, employs over 30,000 people across 400 stores in South Africa.
The business challenge
The client needed to ensure that all employees received the correct information and training for a new point-of-sale system that was being rolled out nationwide. On top of that, the COVID-19 pandemic had just struck, demanding an agile solution.
Previously, the retailer had a paper-based learning system where employees attended face-to-face learning sessions, the results of which were kept in-store at each branch. This meant that there was no centralised location for storing attendance and assessment results. The HR department had no oversight of the employees’ learning processes or skill levels, and there was no way of accurately keeping track of scores, pass and fail rates, or identifying any knowledge gaps.
The Wyzetalk solution
We offered a simple solution for this large retailer: take the employees out of the classroom and digitise their learning. After launching the new platform and fast-tracking the online education process, an intuitive, easy-to-track learning flow was implemented for the rollout of the new point-of-sale system.
This new learning platform comprised several aspects. The Wyzetalk solution made pre-awareness learning content available to all employees, who now had easy access to all the information required for upcoming assessments. This content was made available via text, video and audio files, as well as a variety of other formats.
In addition, attendance was no longer tracked manually using paper-based registers. Instead, the platform tracked which employees had used the learning material available to them. Using unique tracking codes, the platform was able to keep a record of each employee’s progress. A feedback mechanism was also built into the platform in the form of employee surveys. The survey results provided valuable insight into what employees thought of the assessment experience, whether they were able to learn effectively, and suggestions for improvement.
The results
Wyzetalk eliminated the inefficiencies associated with manual training by automating the entire process.
Digitising training helped staff members feel more in control of their own learning experiences, empowering them and encouraging them to continue to upskill.
Head office now has full visibility into assessment results and pass and fail rates as data is stored in a centralised location.
Together, these elements streamlined the microlearning process – not just for the new point-of-sale system, but for future training initiatives as well.
The outcome was a cost-effective, environmentally conscious solution that saves time and money while making employee education easier and more efficient.
Why Wyzetalk
“The line between communication and training used to be very clear – training happened in the classroom. Now, unless I’m completing a formal qualification, I don’t want to sit in a classroom for hours absorbing information I might never use. I want just-in-time (JIT) learning – on-demand learning that delivers the key information I need to do my job. The app has been very useful for this micro-learning concept. What started as a communications engagement channel has now become an integral part of our digital learning journey.”
People Director at a multinational retailer