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The Foundations of Retail Program courses led by the North American Hardware and Paint Association (NHPA) help managers and key employees understand the essential concepts of leadership, personal development and merchandising. Built with flexibility for busy schedules, these online courses are built to feature industry-specific training created with the help of industry-leading retailers.
With start dates offered each month, the Foundations program offers six online courses for both new and seasoned leaders. Courses range from durations of four to 12 weeks and are self-paced to provide flexibility.
Course options:
- Leadership Essentials: In this introductory course, students will learn about their unique leadership style and strengths that will provide a framework for their ongoing leadership growth and career development needs.
- Leading Your Team: This course teaches students the critical components of building and leading a team, including communication skills, conflict management, talent development and performance management.
- Financial Management: Students will focus on the key financial management skills that developing leaders need to manage the financial side of business, including the basics of expense control, budgeting and benchmarking.
- Merchandising Management Tactics for Store Operations: This course is designed for owners, managers and retail employees who want to understand how effective merchandising strategies can boost sales. Learn the philosophy and best practices behind successful retail merchandising, including how visual merchandising enhances sales, the purpose and use of promotional spaces and strategies for store resets and remodels.
- Merchandising Management Strategies for Buyers: This course offers an in-depth look at strategic merchandising and category management. Learn to build vendor relationships, negotiate effectively, plan assortments and choose the right pricing strategies tailored to your business. The course also covers how to align merchandising and advertising with your brand and explores key design elements to consider when designing or remodeling a store.
- Mentoring: Mentoring is a key component to developing great leaders at any company. This online course from NHPA offers a uniform way to train future mentors on how to serve that role to the best of their abilities in a consistent and structured manner. Future mentors will learn all aspects of the mentor/mentee relationship in a professional, easy-to-understand and easy-to-apply manner.
At the conclusion of each course, students will be ready to perform a subjective assessment of their business unit and apply their new skills to address some of the core issues in the business and recommendations for improvement in key areas.
“Every week, I enjoyed putting what I learned into practice,” says Sara Brewer, S.W. Collins Co. store manager. “Foundations of Merchandising Management made me think about our current store layout, the products we carry and how we could make it easier for customers to shop.”
Throughout the process, each student will be assigned a mentor within their company to guide them through the courses. Mentors are provided with discussion points, learning objectives and full access to the curriculum to help engage students in how to apply what they have learned.
The learning doesn’t stop when the course is over. When students complete Foundations courses they are eligible to receive a scholarship for the amount of tuition paid (minus course fees) to attend a future class of the NHPA Retail Management Certification Program.
“I use everything I’ve learned to communicate with employees and be a leader they can trust,” says Madison Franklin, Gold Country Ace Hardware. “I learned so much about myself and how I interact with others through the course.”
The Next Step
Retailers who complete the Foundations of Retail Program and are looking for additional avenues for leadership training can take part in NHPA’s Retail Management Certification Program (RMCP).
In the program, students will learn applied business strategy, advanced retail operations, advertising and marketing, financial management, budget benchmarking and leadership and team building skills. NHPA hosts live, interactive sessions for students to network and work in small groups and classes to share experiences and challenges on a variety of topics. Between sessions, retailers participate in webinars and coaching calls and work with mentors in their organizations to implement new skills in their businesses.
More than 300 retailers have been a part of the learning experience, gaining new skills that have allowed them to manage and drive their businesses to higher levels of performance.
“The course was amazing. I learned so much that I could immediately apply to the business,” says Megan Stiers, manager of Hermann Lumber in Hermann, Missouri. “I felt it was well worth the investment of my time and cost to attend.”
