Thrive Learning CEO discusses partnership with Avon and innovations in learning technology
Learning management system Thrive Learning has announced its partnership with cosmetics and personal care company Avon to create a unified digital hub to align the company’s learning culture across its organizational membership. As detailed in a recent press release, the new platform will provide Avon company representatives with the ability to “access a range of high-quality educational product resources, interactive training modules, and professional development courses, as well as being a hub for general company information including (but not limited to) new and existing product ranges.”
To learn more about the on-demand platform, CosmeticsDesign spoke with Sean Reddington, CEO and Co-Founder of Thrive Learning, for his insights into the partnership between Thrive and Avon and the specifics of how their innovative learning platform is transforming the cosmetics and personal care industry.
About the partnership
According to Reddington, Thrive Learning is the fastest-growing organization in the learning technology space and has most recently worked with companies like Volvo and Vodaphone. The transition into the beauty and personal care space came after “Avon came to us with a need; to drive sales, growth, and connection with their millions of beauty reps around the world,” he said, and “learning, training, and development was the answer.” He further shared that “they needed a technology partner to enable and support their vision,” which laid the foundation for the business relationship.
Specifically, he explained, the partnership “came about as a result of Avon's initiative to enhance learning and skill development for its representatives” and to overcome “the challenge of creating a unified digital hub to provide learning resources and support for its millions of representatives worldwide.” As Thrive's platform aligned well with Avon's objectives, he said, this led “to an extremely thorough tender process and the establishment of the partnership.”
Goals and objectives
When Avon outlined the specific milestones they hoped to achieve by implementing Thrive’s platform for its members, the first focus was to unify Avon’s diverse global beauty representatives, who span 33+ countries. Reddington said that by aligning its wide range of brand representatives, sales leaders, and zone managers, the organization sought to empower its membership to take control of its business growth and drive sales.
Additionally, Avon sought to provide members with a platform that offers personalized skill development opportunities for representatives and sales leaders, Reddington explained, fostering a culture of continuous learning and product knowledge within the organization.
Reddington said the Thrive Learning platform is designed to address several pain points and challenges for Avon, with the primary challenge being the diverse nature of Avon’s self-employed global representative community. Therefore, he continued, there was a great need for a learning platform that is not only user-friendly but also accessible in multiple languages from any device or location with Avon affiliates.
By ensuring that representatives can access comprehensive learning resources and support to enhance their skills and sales performance, the platform also addressed the need for more engagement and connection among Avon's people and representatives, added Reddington, irrespective of geographical boundaries.
Next steps
Moving forward and following the Thrive platform rollout to Avon representatives last month, “Thrive is a platform which will scale with Avon,” Reddington shared. Because the platform was implemented across 33 countries with the learning materials accessible in multiple different languages, “this could include ongoing updates to the platform to meet evolving learning needs, introducing new features to enhance user experience, and exploring innovative ways to leverage technology for skill development and performance improvement within Avon's organization,” he explained.
