For decades, the Pet Industry Distributors Association (PIDA) has been an established leader in the pet industry. PIDA exists to provide resources of every kind to suppliers, distributors, and retailers in their industry. A key piece of their business is Pet Store Pro, which uses the LatitudeLearning LMS.
Pet Store Pro is the training arm of PIDA. They support the pet industry by providing free training to managers and associates on how to run pet stores. This training is an invaluable resource for pet stores of every size, and that resource functions as a growth tool for PIDA membership.
But COVID disrupted the pet store industry, and Pet Store Pro was no longer meeting PIDA’s changing needs. A disconnect grew between Pet Store Pro’s training and the needs and expectations of their trainees. As a result, the return on investment for their training started to dip. Pet Store Pro needed help
COVID Pandemic Disrupts the Pet Industry
Before the pandemic, Pet Store Pro’s LMS solution functioned like an informational and interactive webpage. LatitudeLearning had integrated learning into every aspect of the system, including the landing page and registration process.
Post COVID, the role of the pet store within the industry had changed dramatically. In particular, stores were getting less foot traffic, as many customers began shopping online for their pet supplies. PIDA still had an educational need, but Pet Store Pro now served a different purpose for them.
PIDA decided to rebrand after the pandemic, and there was a big question mark hanging over what to do with Pet Store Pro. They still wanted the learner experience, but customers weren’t engaging with pet stores in the same ways anymore.
Furthermore, it seemed that customer engagement was changing from store to store. Not all pet stores had the same training needs, so the LMS needed to be more flexible in how it delivered training to different retailers.
Pet Store Pro needed LatitudeLearning to rebuild their LMS in a way that aligned with the needs and expectations of the post-pandemic pet industry. Pet Store Pro was a great resource, but if it couldn’t evolve alongside the pet industry, it would be left behind forever.
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What Was at Stake?
Pet Store Pro’s business model is pretty unique. As the trainees become better retailers, PIDA establishes themselves as a central source of information responsible for improving their industry. In turn, PIDA receives more business, because pet stores realize that becoming PIDA sponsored adds value to their store.
However, the training itself is a sunk cost for PIDA. Running curriculum through Pet Store Pro isn’t a source of revenue because the training is free. As a result, PIDA needed Pet Store Pro to be financially efficient, while still helping to increase their membership.
While the pre-COVID solution was still able to deliver curriculum, its impact on membership was far more limited after the pandemic. In order for Pet Store Pro to continue to operate within its parameters, the LMS had to be stripped down and rebuilt. If the rebuild wasn’t successful, PIDA would likely lose significant business.
Related: Why the Right LMS Partner Is Critical to Business Success
Building the New LMS
As the pandemic reshaped the pet industry, LatitudeLearning transformed Pet Store Pro’s LMS to continue meeting their needs. Throughout our relationship, LatitudeLearning had created highly tailored curriculums to meet Pet Store Pro’s needs for their platform. This relationship went along largely unchanged up until the pandemic.
Pet Store Pro’s training was still geared toward the same two audiences: managers and associates. The goal of the migration was to reshape the learning platform to deliver curriculum in a way that met PIDA’s changing business objectives.
One of our biggest challenges was deciding what pieces of the old system had to stay. We couldn’t keep everything as Pet Store Pro migrated into the native LMS, and we had to make some tough choices.
Threading the needle to find that perfect balance was a collaborative process. We worked alongside Pet Store Pro continuously to make sure that they were getting what they wanted out of the new solution.
One of the major improvements of the new platform was a location administrator functionality. This capability hadn’t yet been released on our native platform, so adding it was one of our biggest technical challenges. This feature gave store managers the ability to add and remove employees from the native management interface.
This particular change empowered individual store managers to take charge of each of their employees’ training paths. Each store has different training needs, and this important addition helped managers address those needs with greater customization.
Pet Store Pro also decided to simplify certain elements of their program because they became either redundant or unnecessary within the new solution. This simplification gave the LMS a more efficient flow that allowed for more effective training.
While the process presented certain challenges, it was a great test for LatitudeLearning’s ability to be an innovative partner. We worked alongside Pet Store Pro to make the important decisions, and this resulted in a faster engagement with a perfect outcome.
Related: How LMS Integration Can Boost Enterprise Productivity and Effectiveness
What Were the Results of the Engagement?
Over the course of four months, LatitudeLearning migrated Pet Store Pro’s curriculum from their old solution to the new LMS.
First and foremost, we took down Pet Store Pro’s old platform, which wasn’t capable of managing the training features they now needed. We moved them into our core learning management system product seamlessly and without interruption, allowing them to grow and emphasize the training program from a robust standard platform.
Now that Pet Store Pro is on a standard learning platform, they can equip all the features, functions, and capabilities that they weren’t able to use before. Pet Store Pro now has full visibility into their retailers’ activities, and their retailers have full visibility into their employees’ activities. These capabilities have helped them to stay front and center as a leader in the pet store industry.
Even more importantly, LatitudeLearning’s migration process was seamless. There was no drop in the number of clients using the platform to take training and get certified. Pet Store Pro was still able to engage retailers as they prepared for relaunching the PIDA brand, which they did in May 2024.
Finally, continuing to work with LatitudeLearning on their LMS also helped Pet Store Pro stay within their budget. The cost of the engagement was lower than what they would have likely spent by going to someone else or by trying to do it themselves. Plus, their annual cost moving forward has been cut, all while improving their solution.
Partner With LatitudeLearning Today
LatitudeLearning’s goal is to build long-term relationships with clients who see us as a strategic partner. Like Pet Store Pro, most organizations’ training needs evolve over time. Choosing LatitudeLearning as your partner means that we can make change happen when you need it.
Don’t just take our word for it — see what our current partners have to say about us. Some of our client relationships have been ongoing for over 20 years.
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