Supporting the retail industry with languages: Busuu's work with PUMA and Inditex

Busuu is an online language learning platform that provides a comprehensive suite of language-learning tools, resources, and content to help users learn a new language.

Our language learning resources have benefited many major brands in the retail industry who are looking to expand their reach into new markets. These companies include names such as Puma and Inditex.

Working with PUMA and Inditex

In the case of PUMA, they had a goal of celebrating diversity throughout its workforce. They wanted to ensure that all of their employees felt comfortable and at home, regardless of where they worked. This was a huge task, with PUMA’s German headquarters representing 75 different nations, alone. In this highly itinerant environment, good communication is essential. This is where we came in; Busuu provided PUMA with a professional language learning solution, able to drive inclusion. Multi-language support was provided with flexibility for both office and in-store teams.

“We’d been offering language courses to staff for 10 years but we wanted to step it up. We wanted to make language learning more fun, to offer more languages, and to make learning available 24/7.”

Polina Ivanova

Manager of People Development & Organisational Learning at PUMA

The team at PUMA wanted to implement learning that was flexible, in order to fully support employees who travel regularly as well as learning that would be accessible to their thousands of in-store staff who work on shift-based working patterns, to enable everyone to learn on the go.

We developed retail-specific learning resources and content for PUMA. The ‘English for Retail Sales’ course taught PUMA employees how to speak confidently to customers, with common phrases and vocabulary that would be used on a regular basis, such as describing the materials clothes were made of and how customers could return items; all helping to improve the customer experience.

PUMA has always championed internationality so they wanted to support their staff in pursuing new career pathways that may interest them, with new languages. With our help, they were able to offer their employees opportunities to learn new language skills to boost their careers, therefore propelling professional and personal development, as well as having the added benefit of easing relocations internationally.

“We discovered a great fit with Busuu…it’s a great contribution to improving languages and communication with others, especially for our store employees… and I am sure it’s leading to better satisfaction here in the company.”

Dietmar Knoess

Global Director of People & Organisation at PUMA

For Inditex, with over 175000 employees located globally and onboarding with 64 different markets, they wanted to develop custom content that would help to increase net sales. On top of this, they had a goal to attract new talent to their business, as well as to retain that talent and then help to develop the employees they already have within the business in order to improve their net sales.

To do this, we helped create a bespoke course, tailored to employees at Inditex, to support team members with tasks they complete regularly. By learning words used in work on a daily basis, this course proved to be an ideal entry point to what Busuu could offer new learners, as well as boosting uptake of the learning programmes and features available.

Working smart locally and globally

Busuu also helps companies in the retail industry stay on top of local trends and customs globally. With our extensive library of cultural information and powerful translation features, we allow businesses to quickly and easily adapt their product offerings based on customer feedback from different regions. This helps ensure that a business's products are tailored specifically for each market they enter, giving them that competitive edge and empowering business expansion.

We know the value of a strong local strategy, as well as the benefit that local retail managers can have. As the ideal champions to implement our language learning programmes, local managers within the retail industry can share valuable feedback from customers and employees on the ground. This feedback helps to shape the regional strategy and to align this with global goals.

Busuu's courses are made up of bite-sized lessons, designed to work around shift-patterns and engage learners, long-term, for measurable learning improvement. Learners can acces Live Group Lessons and Private Lessons, each with certified teachers. In our English for Retail Sales course we aim to deliver a phenomenal customer service experience, providing each employee with the confidence to deal with customers, through relevant retail scenarios and role plays.

Busuu is an invaluable tool for businesses in the retail industry that are looking to expand their presence, particularly within international markets; reaching customers globally with ease.

Image source - Busuu