Build skills that sell
The Retail Academy offers a suite of practical, high-impact courses designed to elevate your skills, boost your store’s performance, and drive profitability.
Facilitated by leading trainers with real-world, retail experience, these practical courses are designed to give you actionable business tips, solve business challenges and grow your business.
We have a variety of courses – some are offered online that you can complete in your own time and others are practical one-day, in person courses held on demand for minimum groups of 16-20 people nationwide.
Retail NZ offers services that are registered with the Regional Business Partner Network. To explore if your business is eligible for support, contact your Regional Business Growth Advisor here. The following one day, in person courses are offered through this network: Effective Merchandising to Grow Sales, Optimise Store Layout for Sales and Profitability, Strategic Ranging and Pricing for Profit.
Online courses
Retail DNA – Mastering retail financials for better decision making
Retail DNA is a self-paced, online course designed to empower retail professionals with the financial knowledge and tools needed to make confident, strategic decisions. Whether you’re managing a department or an entire store, understanding the financial drivers behind pricing, investment, and profitability is key to sustainable growth.
Inventory DNA – Inventory management for retail profitability
Inventory DNA is a practical, self-paced online course designed to help retail professionals optimise inventory performance for profitability and customer satisfaction. Effective inventory management isn’t just about keeping shelves full — it’s about ensuring the right products are available when customers need them, while minimising the costs of holding excess stock.
In-person classes
Whether you’re a store manager, merchandiser, or aspiring retail leader, each course is packed with real-world tools, case studies and simulations to ensure you can apply what you learn immediately.
In-person classes are run on demand subject to minimum class numbers being met and can be offered nationwide. Contact us to find out more.
Training runs 8.30am – 5pm with breaks throughout the day. Venues are centrally located in each city.
In-person courses:
Standard course fee: $1095 + GST
Retail NZ member price: $995 + GST
Online courses:
Standard course fee: $495 + GST
Retail NZ member price: $420 + GST
Retail NZ member code
Logged in members can see the discount code here. Use this code for your exclusive member pricing:
Please log in to see the code
Course tutors
The Retail Academy is powered by retail performance experts, ieRetail. With over 20 years of experience delivering training and consultancy services to both local and international businesses, ieRetail has been instrumental in shaping the future of the industry. By equipping individuals with the skills and knowledge to build successful, sustainable retail operations, they help create businesses that thrive and make a positive impact in the communities they serve.
Jean DuRand
Jean is the Founder and Partner of ieRetail. A career retailer, Jean has designed and delivered retail training in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, US and UK. Jean received the coveted Citation for Excellence at Walmart for developing a Retail degree launched through the University of South Africa and has since pioneered retail gamification and simulation in NZ retail.
Jean is regularly called upon to advise company heads on retail strategy and as a sounding board for new initiatives. He has been a guest lecturer at retail degree programs in NZ and South Africa and is a past board member of Retail NZ.
Gary Good
Gary has over 30 years’ experience leading teams in both the FMCG and Home Improvement industries across various roles in sales, marketing, category and merchandising, including Heinz Group and Mitre 10.
Gary has a broad retail training knowledge, specialising in growing sales through being customer driven, financial performance, category optimisation and merchandising.
Chris Fisher
Chris has held executive leadership roles for some of the leading and international retailers and wholesale cooperatives, including Walmart, Lidl, Woolworth NZ, Mitre 10 and Farmlands.
In that time, Chris has led significant category, space and pricing optimisation initiatives that have significant sales and profitability impacts.
Terms & conditions
- Enrolment Requirements
- All courses require a minimum number of participants to proceed.
- Each course has a maximum capacity of 20 participants. Enrolments are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.
- Course Confirmation
- Courses will be confirmed once the minimum enrolment number is reached.
- Participants will be notified of course confirmation or cancellation no later than 5 business days before the scheduled start date.
- Course Cancellation — if a course is cancelled due to insufficient enrolments:
- Participants may choose to transfer their enrolment to another scheduled course, or
- Request a full refund of any fees paid.
- Online and In-Person Delivery
- Courses may be delivered in-person (one-day or two-day format) or online, depending on the course type and schedule.
- Participants are responsible for ensuring they meet any technical requirements for online courses.
- Learning Needs and Accessibility
- If you have specific learning needs or accessibility requirements, please contact us prior to enrolment.
- We will consider all requests on a case-by-case basis, but cannot guarantee that all needs can be accommodated.
- Catering and Dietary Requirements
- Course fees include morning tea, lunch, and afternoon tea for in-person sessions.
- Participants must specify any dietary requirements on the enrolment form. While we will do our best to accommodate these, we cannot guarantee all dietary needs will be met.
- Parking and Transport
- Parking and transport to the venue are the responsibility of the participant.
- Participants should contact the venue directly for parking availability and details.
- All parking costs are at the participant’s own expense.
- Refunds and Transfers
- Refunds are only available in the event of course cancellation by the organiser.
- Transfers to another course date or location may be permitted, subject to availability.
- Participant Conduct
- All participants are expected to engage respectfully and professionally during training sessions.
- The organiser reserves the right to remove any participant who disrupts the learning environment.
- Retail NZ reserves the right to amend these terms and conditions at any time.
