Distribution Business School Launches New "Subscription Course Access Service" on April 1st – Supporting Reskilling and Advanced Practical Skills in the Distribution and Retail Industries While Reducing On-site Training Burden

The Distribution Economics Research Institute (Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Chairman: Hiroki Kato) will launch a new "Subscription Course Access Service" for corporations within each course of its human resource development program, "Distribution Business School," starting April 1, 2026.

Manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers are increasingly required to systematically acquire specialized skills directly linked to practical work, such as strengthening sales proposal capabilities, improving data utilization skills, and enhancing negotiation skills. However, conducting group training sessions presents challenges in terms of scheduling and workload.

While the Distribution Business School has offered courses in an on-demand format, feedback indicated that it was difficult to design overall educational investments and ensure continuous utilization with individual application types. Therefore, this new service provides a system for corporations to access multiple courses at a fixed rate, enabling planned and continuous development. It supports systematic learning design within companies and the establishment of common language across departments.

This service offers all 9 practical courses in video (on-demand) format. The content is based on the research and practical support knowledge accumulated by the institute for over 60 years. The aim is to acquire practical skills that lead to on-site results, such as sales floor improvements, enhanced proposal accuracy, and practical application of data analysis, going beyond mere terminology comprehension.

Corporate adoption can efficiently accelerate the development of transferred employees and new hires into valuable team members, improve the foundational skills of junior to mid-level staff, and strengthen the proposal capabilities of sales and marketing departments. Furthermore, with 5 or more users, the cost per participant can be reduced compared to traditional individual on-demand course enrollment (*1).

Since 2007, over 5,700 individuals (*2) from manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, and industry associations have taken courses at the Distribution Business School. Instructors include research staff, university professors, and industry experts, with 94.2% (*3) of participants evaluating the courses as "easy to understand."

(*1) Comparison with individual enrollment in the 9 traditional on-demand courses. (*2) (*3) As of January 2026. Details of the Subscription Course Access Service Details of the Distribution Business School Overview Service Name: Subscription Course Access Service Launch Date: April 1, 2026 Target Courses (9 Courses Total) ① Fundamentals of Retail Business Course ② Sales Negotiation Skills Enhancement Course ③ Fundamentals of In-Store Merchandising Course ④ Fundamentals of In-Store Promotion Planning Course ⑤ Fundamentals of Shelf Layout Creation Course ⑥ Developing Observation Skills for In-Store and Sales Floor Activities Course ⑦ Fundamentals of POS Data Analysis and Utilization Course ⑧ ID-POS Data Utilization Course (Basic) ⑨ ID-POS Data Utilization Course (Advanced)

Usage Fees (General Corporations): (Annual fee)