Case Study: L.L.Bean drives world-class store execution and boosts frontline retention with Zipline

How L.L.Bean uses Zipline to drive world-class store execution and frontline employee retention

L.L.Bean, the century-old outdoor retailer with 54 stores, faced a persistent communication gap between Home Office and its frontline “Store Guides”: critical updates were cascaded verbally through leaders, posted on backroom comm boards, or buried on an intranet few part-time associates used. To solve this, L.L.Bean deployed Zipline — initially rolling out Zipline’s leader tools in April 2020 and then piloting Zipline’s Associate Experience to bring timely, role-appropriate information directly to Guides’ phones.

Using Zipline, L.L.Bean ran pilots, enabled BYOD access with a mobile policy prompt, and streamlined a slimmed-down Associate Experience plus a Resource Library. Adoption climbed to nearly 100%, accelerating the brand’s speed of communication, increasing in-store productivity by putting visual and floorset directives in employees’ hands, and freeing leaders to focus on coaching rather than repeating corporate messages — a change Zipline helped drive that L.L.Bean credits with improving frontline engagement and retention.

L.L.Bean

Justina Griffin

Manager of Store Operations