Media training for retailers – what the Amazon Fresh store closure tells us
We provide media training, crisis communications training and issue management for a wide variety of retailers from high street names to smaller, specialist chains. This means that we are well aware of the challenges that retailers are currently facing. The announcement by Amazon of the closure of its Amazon Fresh chain is just the latest example of a retailer having to retrench and roll back. It comes just days after a similar announcement from Bodycare.
In our media training workshops for retailers we look at how they can promote positive stories about new product launches, openings and services. We help them to talk to the media about how they’re improving customer service, sustainability and other key issues for the retail sector.
But we also help retailers large and small to deal with difficult issues such as cyberattacks, product recalls and, as in the case of Amazon Fresh and Bodycare, store closures. Our crisis communications training for retailers has become increasingly popular, as you might imagine. The cyberattacks suffered by Harrods and Marks & Spencer over the last few months have hit the headlines but many other retailers have suffered similar problems.
Communications teams at retailers
Sustainability and supply chain integrity have also been put under the media spotlight. As a result, more and more public relations companies with retailers as clients and in-house communications teams at retailers have been bringing us in to provide crisis communications training.
But they also want us to help them to communicate with the media when it comes to explaining their financial results. And this isn’t surprising. New figures released by the British Independent Retailers Association (BIRA) reveal that 46% of businesses suffered a worse Q2 2025 trading compared to the same period in 2024.
Media training for retailers
Media training message development and testing can help organisations to communicate more effectively with the media – and ultimately their customers, employees and suppliers. It might be that they’ve had to close stores as is the case of Amazon fresh or body care. They might also have to explain to the media why this year’s financial results are not as good as last year’s. In our media training for retailers, we’ve helped their communications team explain major board reorganisations as well as the withdrawal of a popular product or allegations of shrink-flation.
How can retailers deal with difficult issues?
The first is to be honest about it. You don’t necessarily have to shout about bad news from the rooftops, but you do need to be ready to answer media questions about it. It’s essential for the Comms teams at retailers to have a line to take on a difficult issue ahead of any journalist’s inquiries. Once a story has broken and calls start coming in it’s often too late to begin to put together a statement.
The wording of that statement is, of course, essential. It needs to sound human and direct. Simple language rather than corporate jargon will not only resonate with audiences but will make you sound human and reasonable. All of our media trainers are working journalists, and they know what it’s like to receive a statement from an organisation that is full of jargon, pompous language and long, complex sentences. If you fill your statement with platitudes and the use of the passive voice, the danger is that a reporter will use it and allow their audiences and social media to ridicule it – along with the organisation that has released it.
Media training courses for retailers
In our media training courses for retailers when we focus on message development and testing, we’ll help cons teams to find the best way to manage an issue. This means doing it in a manner that works for them but also for the media. We’ll then help company spokespeople to do interviews using these messages but delivering them in a way that sounds believable and authentic. This means identifying the words and phrases that work for the spokesperson.
Retailers facing a crisis or difficult situation also need to put it into context. In Amazon Fresh’s case the closure of their stores, might be set against the background of a general downturn in retail. Similarly, if you’re putting up prices you should also explain why this is. Have raw material costs gone up, for instance?
Media training workshops
Very often in our media training workshops for retail groups we’re looking at how they are becoming more sustainable or how they are improving their cybersecurity. In both cases, this is very much a work in progress. The media might attack their track record or question their current capabilities. Here we have templates and acronyms that can help the spokespeople for retailers explain the progress they’ve made so far, what they’re doing to improve the situation and how they hope to be able to report an improvement shortly.
Journalists are all about stories. That’s why we help retailers to identify case studies, examples and even little anecdotes that will illustrate and prove their points. As we say in our media training workshops for retail executives, it’s too late to try to think of an example during a media interview. You need to do this beforehand and have it ready to go so that you can tell the story clearly, succinctly and in a way that will resonate with your audience before drawing out the key message from it.
Crisis communications training workshops
Our media training courses for retailers and our crisis communications training workshops help public relations professionals and in-house press offices to manage crises and other issues. Each one is created bespoke to meet the needs of each client. Come and talk to us about how we can help you. You can follow us on LinkedIn here.
