CREATING GREAT CUSTOMER AND TEAM EXPERIENCES
As passionate retailers and customers, we started the School of Retail in 2015 to help raise the bar on customer experience in Australia.
Since its inception School of Retail has grown, working alongside a team of expert tutors Claire, Aba and Janelle have worked directly with some of Australia’s biggest retail teams to work on the practical retail skills required to create a great team and customer experience.
Our experience tells us that
A happy team = happy customers = great results.
The School of Retail way is all about a positive, practical approach, out-doing expectations and being real.
Our online classes and Mystery Shopping program provide tailored solutions for retailers and their teams.
MEET THE TEAM
CLAIRE
Growing up in Scotland around retail gave me a lifelong love for how this great industry connects people.
Throughout my career, I’ve been lucky to lead some amazing retail teams at Calvin Klein Cosmetics in the UK and Mecca Cosmetica and G-Star in Australia. I started my own retail consultancy in 2010 where I worked with incredible retailers including Kookai, Crumpler and Lululemon.
Founding the School of Retail with my friends Janelle and Aba is something I am incredibly proud of. We have an unwavering vision to create great customer and team experiences and every day we work to bring that to life.
Things that light me up outside of work: travelling with my husband and daughter, time with my sisters, running in nature, practising yin yoga and meditation and studying philosophy.
The common passion I see in successful retailers is that they have people at the heart of every decision they make. Our focus is the same at School of Retail and the fun we have creating a new class of retail brings me great joy.
ABA
Like most kids looking for their first job, retail was an obvious choice for me. However, it wasn’t until I joined the Coles HR Graduate program that I really discovered my love for retail. I truly believe that the retail industry is the most exciting place to build a rewarding career and have been lucky to do just that!
In 2010 I co-founded a HR Consultancy and have been fortunate to work with a bunch of fantastic brands on their team experience. The people I’ve met along the way and what we’ve been able to achieve together has been an absolute highlight of my career.
So too has been the joy of building the School of Retail. We’re on a mission here to provide students with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in retail. We work to a simple formula: happy teams = happy customers = great results. That’s it! We know it works and have so much fun bringing this to life for the brands we work with.
JANELLE
I love helping people, and I love nothing more than helping other leaders realise their own potential.
I first started working in retail when I was 16 years old, but it was during my studies that I decided that HR in retail was the perfect career choice for me. Since then, I’ve worked in and led a number of great retail HR teams across the Coles Group and G-Star Stores. In 2010, I co-founded E&I People Solutions and a few years later the idea of School of Retail was born on a night out for dinner with my amazing friends, Claire and Aba.
Aside from School of Retail, my true loves in life are going on adventures with my husband and our two beautiful kids, pilates and walking my chocolate Labrador.
The work we do at School of Retail is so much fun that it never really feels like work. As a team, we know that you can’t have a great customer experience without a great team experience and it’s helping businesses achieve this that really lights me up inside.
WHO WE’VE WORKED WITH
