While there are numerous new tech platforms to help retailers improve efficiencies on their sales floor, a system is only as good as the frontline workers who use it. Brick-and-mortar retailing has already suffered greatly—with consumers migrating to e-commerce faster than you can say “free shipping”—and the frontline work force now is being tasked with more complex jobs. This leads to sub-optimal job performance, outright mistakes and high turnover.

“Before, employees just had to put the stock out, work with the customer and ring up the register,” said Michael Appel, president of retail consultancy Appel Associates and the former CEO of retail chain Rue 21. “Now, we've added all these software solutions, payment solutions, buy online, pick up in store [BOPIS], ship from store, and more. Things that didn't even exist before now make an employee’s job much more complex. And it’s tougher for them to feel mastery.”

It’s all about data, which the Axonify platform gathers via AI. Via the daily learning tasks, the system can see who knows what, and who needs more work in certain areas for optimal learning.

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