SNEWS FAQ: SNEWS Retail College classrooms packed with information

The SNEWS® Retail College, an affiliate program of the OIA Outdoor University, has the resources and tools any retailer needs to support and to enhance any level of training, from the most basic to the most advanced, for any industry segment.

Looking for merchandising guidance and ideas? We have three open classrooms:

1. The Lizard Lounge Laboratory — Each month, the Lizard Lounge team of experts brings our readers an inside look at their merchandising laboratory. Packed with visuals, there is something in every column, even for the most experienced merchandising eye.
2. From testing your merchandising knowledge to brushing up on merchandising skills, you’ll find what you need in the SNEWS Retail College with our SNEWS Merchandising Know-How Article Finder.
3. With merchandising maven Sharon Leicham as your guide, peruse the Outdoor Retailer Merchandising Tour Classroom where we present the best ideas found during our Outdoor Retailer trade show tours. We share why they captured our attention and how to adapt them to the retail environment. The ideas apply to a broad range of products, companies, brands and segments, too.

Sales training and techniques:

1. Programs by the OIA Outdoor University, an affiliate of the SNEWS Retail College, are free to all OIA members and to SNEWS subscribers and, otherwise, cost $99. Click here to view past and upcoming programming and request a registration form. 
2. From customer service and mastering basic sales skills, to consumer psychology…you’ll find dozens of top training articles to help guide your staff and training program in our Sales Training Classroom.
   
   

Training and Support for Retail Buyers:

1. SNEWS® Retail Buyer Training 101 article finder is a guide to our 10-part Retail Buyer Training series produced by the SNEWS Retail College. It covers the essential tools necessary to being a good store buyer.
2. Everyone needs a good calculator. Looking to quickly calculate gross margin percent, mark-up percent, GMROI, retail selling price, turns and more? Simply plug in the numbers where our calculators ask for them and presto…your answers await. Talk about being a smart buyer!

Product Sales Training:

Staff won’t find better basic how-to-sell information anywhere than in the Product How To Sell Guides written by the editors of SNEWS and covering both outdoor and fitness categories. We’ve developed handy article-finder charts to help you find what you need. With a quick glance, you can scan the outdoor or fitness How To Sell chart to find the subject matter that fits your immediate training needs. 

Want your staff to have full access to all of the SNEWS Retail College classroom resources? Then make sure they get their very own SNEWS Freebie subscription by sending them to www.outsidebusinessjournal.com/snewsfreebie. Once they’ve subscribed, they’re automatically registered to learn.

Other things you can do on SNEWS? Here’s a sampling:

>> Become a fan of SNEWS on Facebook to receive special tips and news, view fun photos of your industry friends, and find out about our Facebook Fan Page only discounts.

>> Voice your opinion in regular Reader Mini-Surveys of current events, trends and industry issues.

>> List yourself or your company in our Industry Directory of professionals by category. Click here to apply to be added or to search the directory. (We approve all listings before they go live.)

>> Save your top stories in your own My SNEWS favorites “Save This” folder (All Access Subscriber exclusive).

>> Post your own press releases to go live in the section “Industry News Releases” with headlines going out with our news (All Access Subscribers exclusive). 

To peruse our FAQ about SNEWS, what we offer, how you find and research stories, how you contact us, and all the good inside stuff, click here. 

And be sure to email us at any time at snewsbox@snewsnet.com if you have any questions or comments about your SNEWS.

–SNEWS® Editors