How Timberland improved retail training and onboarding

After the pandemic in 2020, Timberland needed to reconnect and re-engage its store teams and adapt to changing customer behaviours.

The transition back to physical retail spaces came with new challenges: 

• Employee engagement: reconnecting dispersed retail teams as physical stores reopened.

• Customer experience consistency: ensuring a unified brand approach across owned, partner, and concession stores.

• Product knowledge: delivering complex updates in a short, engaging way.

• Onboarding efficiency: integrating new hires quickly and consistently across regions.

In short, Timberland required a scalable, engaging solution to improve retail training and onboarding.

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1. Why Timberland Chose MobieTrain

To meet these demands, Timberland wanted a platform that would:

• Reinforce brand values and build employee pride.

• Support an omnichannel mindset, preparing staff for hybrid retail.

• Deliver mobile-first, microlearning modules to avoid overwhelming busy teams.

• Provide a centralised learning hub adaptable to different store formats.

MobieTrain’s mix of microlearning, mobile access, and peer-led training made it the right partner.

2. The Solution: The Timberland Retail Academy

Together with MobieTrain, Timberland launched the Retail Academy, a digital, centralised learning platform to engage and inspire.

The training program initially rolled out across Timberland's owned stores. Since then, it has expanded to include partner and concession locations, reaching a total of 1.206 registered users, making a major step forward in unified communication and training across all retail formats.

Key elements included:

• Video-first training, created by store managers and available in multiple languages.

• Short modules (max 15 minutes) with only three new tracks released at a time.

• Peer-led learning, with Training Champions in stores and Training Leaders in regions.

• Continuous feedback through webinars and employee input.

This approach transformed training into a collective effort, helping employees take ownership of their development.

After this successful start, Timberland continued to work with MobieTrain to solve its L&D challenges and to help redesign its internal communication processes, setting the stage for the next phase of its journey. 

Learning is a multifaceted process that revolves around culture
and the human element. This has been our primary focus over the past few years. 

Alessandra Venturin, Sr. Manager Retail Customer Experience VF Corporation

After successfully reintegrating their retail teams post-pandemic, Timberland entered a new phase, facing fresh challenges linked to growth, consistency, and customer experience.

• Delivering a consistent customer experience: Timberland has always prioritised exceptional in-store customer experience. As the brand expanded to partner-operated and concession stores, the challenge became ensuring consistent, high-quality service across all locations. 
• Communicating product knowledge effectively: as Timberland's product range expanded, so did the need for comprehensive, up-to-date product training. Store teams needed to feel confident and informed when engaging with customers. But it was equally important to deliver this knowledge in a way that was engaging and not overwhelming for busy retail staff.
• Onboarding new hires efficiently: with the business expanding rapidly, Timberland needed a streamlined, scalable onboarding process. The goal was to integrate new employees quickly and consistently, ensuring every team member, regardless of location, received the same quality introduction to the brand, its value, and operations. 

3. The Results: A Measurable Impact on Retail Teams

Timberland shifted away from static, written content and embraced a more engaging, video-first approach. 

Much of this content is created by store managers themselves, in different languages and tailored to their peers. 

The result: short, relatable modules that cover topics like product updates, sales techniques, and customer experience. 

This structure ensures the Retail Academy is a collective effort, not a top-down directive, delivering strong adoption and engagement:

• 98% of users registered out of 1.206 total users

• 1.013 active users representing an 84% activation rate.

• 774 training modules completed in just the last six months.

• Over 90% adoption and engagement with the Retail Academy across stores.

The outcomes went beyond training metrics:

• Stronger comparable store sales across several markets.

• Smooth omnichannel transition blending in-store, e-commerce, and showroom models.

• Employees became confident brand ambassadors, delivering consistent, high-quality service.

“With MobieTrain's support, we successfully built the Timberland Retail Academy, empowering our teams with the skills and knowledge they need to thrive. This journey has ensured consistent, high-quality service across all locations, reinforced our brand values, and transformed our associates into passionate, informed brand ambassadors”.

Brian Bodnar, Director Retail Operations & Customer Experience, Timberland EMEA

4. Conclusion: Lessons from Timberland’s Retail Training Case Study

What started as a response to post-pandemic reintegration challenges has now become a cornerstone of Timberland's long-term strategy, driving growth, consistency, and employee engagement through smart, scalable learning.

This case study on how Timberland improved retail training and onboarding demonstrates that the right learning strategy drives more than just employee engagement. It:

• Builds brand consistency across diverse store formats.

• Reinforces customer experience excellence at scale.

• Supports growth and sales performance.

Timberland proves that investing in digital, mobile-first training pays off with measurable business impact.

Want to empower your retail teams like Timberland? Download the PDF.