Retail
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The importance of retail workers has never been more obvious than during the Covid-19 pandemic.
As a successful retail worker, you need to be organized, collaborative, and a people person.
It can be difficult to showcase these skills when writing your retail resume or writing an effective cover letter.
These nine retail resume examples have helped people land jobs in 2024, so they’re a great place for you to get started.
Why this resume works
- At the end of the day, the job of a retail associate is to help customers and increase sales for the business. As such, it’s important that your retail resume shows that you’ve done this in your past roles.
- Did you exceed sales targets? Improve customer loyalty? Reduce return rates? Estimating the degree to which you did these things on your resume will substantially increase your chances of getting an interview.
- Retail workers have to blend both sales and customer service. On the customer service side, your resume should demonstrate that you’ve taken a customer-first approach in your roles.
- “Customer-oriented environment,” “Answered customer questions,” and “Directed customers” are sample phrases you can use to help show you know the value of customer service.
Why this resume works
- Employers want a retail worker with solid numeracy, social awareness, and commercial acumen skills.
- Strongly show your customer service and communication skills and capabilities to solve problems instantly in your retail worker resume.
Why this resume works
- Most retail sales associates, especially for large retail chains, are given sales targets each month that they need to hit. If you have experience in retail sales, then you should mention how you performed against these sales targets on your retail sales associate resume.
- This shows not only that you’re a strong performer, but it also cues the hiring manager that you know which metrics matter most in your role.
- The skills on your resume should be tailored to the job for which you’re applying.
- For example, suppose the job description repeatedly mentions they want a retail sales associate who is accountable. In that case, this is a strong indicator that you should include that as a skill on your retail associate resume.
Why this resume works
- Getting your first job as an entry-level retail associate can be difficult. How can you get into retail without prior retail experience? The good news is that retail workers, first and foremost, are in customer service. Any experience you’ve had working with people is relevant and should be included on your entry-level retail resume.
- A resume objective is entirely optional. Still, it can be useful when you’re looking for your first retail role to quickly state why you’re qualified and deserve to get an interview. Include an objective if you’re willing to customize it to each position for which you apply.
- Volunteer experience is worth including on your resume. Volunteer experience showcases that you’re hard-working and fundamentally interested in helping others. These are both qualities retail hiring managers are seeking.
Why this resume works
- Boosting sales isn’t the only thing you need when creating a top-notch retail supervisor resume. You’ve got to get one point across: you’re versatile with different scenarios and boost a brand’s reputation in multiple ways.
- Diversify your bullet points from boosting employee retention, foot traffic, and seasonal sales, to even reducing security incidents to prove that you’re a comprehensive worker who’s got the talent to increase not just sales but a brand’s overall presence.
- You can dive into the how and why of these details in your retail cover letter.
Why this resume works
- You don’t necessarily need to start out in the retail or sales field to create a stunning retail salesman resume. Having only a high school diploma will do the job, too.
- In this case, take Carter’s example and check out how he decides to highlight that he’s maintained a high customer satisfaction rating even in a non-sales role to prove his credibility in keeping end-users happy— a valuable aspect of any sales position.
Why this resume works
- As a luxury retail manager, you should possess skills to analyze and interpret sales and customer activity data for accurate decision-making.
- In your luxury retail resume, highlight your proficiency in sales management, growth, and ability to boost customer retention and satisfaction.
Why this resume works
- Your retail manager resume should clearly state the number of employees you’ve managed in any past management roles. You should also be clear about any hiring or training you’ve led.
- Hiring is one of the most important functions for a retail manager! Including your experience in hiring will help you stand out among all the other applicants for the retail manager role to which you’re applying.
- Retail managers need to manage teams to meet or exceed sales targets. If your teams have met sales targets in the past, you should 100 percent mention this on your retail manager resume.
- Including these metrics (even if they’re rough estimates) shows the hiring manager that you know what matters most to a retail manager.
Why this resume works
- Retail hiring managers want to hire retail customer service associates who exceed their targets and work collaboratively to keep the customer at the center of the team’s focus.
- Was there an instance where you went above and beyond to help a teammate in one of your past positions? Be sure to include that on your resume!
- It can be tough to determine whether your retail customer service resume has all of the sections and information it should. After all, you’re not an expert in resume writing!
- If you want to get detailed feedback on your resume, you can use our resume checker.
Related resume guides
How to Format Your Retail Resume
Writing the perfect retail resume is the exact skill you need to earn a job as a sales representative, customer service representative, sales associate, or cashier. While the content of your resume is of the utmost importance, it’s also essential that you properly format your resume to ensure that it’s readable, logical, and complete. To that end, there are three formatting components you should be aware of, which include
- Reverse-Chronological Format, Functional Format, and Combination/Hybrid Format
- Contact Info and Header
- ATS and Readability
Retail resume format types
The reverse-chronological format, functional format, and combination/hybrid format are the most popular formats for retail resumes in 2024.
Retail resume format choices:
- Reverse-chronological format: Start with the most recent employment history and work backward. Dates, educational institutions, and previous employers should be displayed.
- Functional format: This type of resume highlights the strengths and skills you believe are important to an employer. On the other hand, names, places, and dates aren’t nearly as clear. If you have a spotty work history, this format de-emphasizes this history.
- Combination/hybrid format: This is designed to combine the reverse-chronological and functional formats to incorporate the strengths of both. Make sure to mention skills you’ve acquired in the past that will help you with the specific job for which you’re applying.
While each retail resume format has its own set of advantages and disadvantages that you should be aware of, the reverse-chronological choice is ultimately the best option for retail. Many employers outright dislike the functional format for retail positions. The reverse-chronological format is ideal for retail resumes because it allows you to show prospective employers your most recent work history automatically, allowing them to determine if you have the experience necessary for the job.
Let’s say you’ve worked as a cashier and store assistant for eight years before becoming a supervisor or store manager for another five to ten years. You may be ready for another promotion to regional manager or even a corporate position. If you’ve had any experience in the retail industry, the reverse-chronological format effectively shows a pattern of lateral or upward mobility. The primary benefits of using the reverse-chronological format for retail include:
- This format is easily the most popular option among recruiters and employers within the retail industry
- The resume automatically positions you as searching for the next upward step in your career
- Employment dates are linked, which emphasizes continuity and places more weight on your most recent experience
Including a contact header on your retail resume
When you’re getting started with your resume, it’s essential that you position your contact info and the resume header in the correct locations. Your name should always be included at the very top of the resume and can be set in the center or left side of the page. Consider placing your prospective job title in the line below your name, ensuring that these two pieces of information are seen first by potential employers.
Before you start typing your header, it’s important that you select the right font, color, alignment, and font size that potential employers expect from a retail resume. Classic fonts like Times New Roman and Arial are preferable in most cases. A resume should be formatted with simplicity in mind instead of style and flare.
As for the font size, the standard text should range between 11-12 points. On the other hand, headers should have font sizes that range from 14-16 points, and your name can be the largest. Most of your text should be black, but a touch of color in your headers or name is appropriate, which adds some nice contrast that will make the information on your resume pop. Like most professional documents, resumes should be left-aligned, making them easier to read. However, your contact information and name can be center-aligned if you choose. The types of info that should be placed in your retail resume header include:
- Full name
- Job title
- Email address
- Phone number
- City and State
- An optional LinkedIn or other professional URL
This example is clear, logical, and includes a small bit of color, attracting the eye:
Is your retail resume ATS-friendly?
If you want to ensure your resume is properly formatted and readable, make sure you think about ATS, which stands for applicant tracking system. This is a kind of human resources software that allows employers to organize sizable numbers of resumes efficiently.
In order to make an ATS-friendly resume, you’ll want to pay attention to:
- Margins: Margins should never be less than one-half inches. The ideal margin is one inch on all sides.
- Fonts: Any font you use should be easy to read. If your resume font isn’t clear, the ATS and hiring manager may find it too difficult to read.
- Font sizes: The font must be large enough to read, making anything between 10 and 14 points acceptable.
- Header names: Use capitalization, and don’t get overly creative in determining how to label your headers, as you don’t want to trip or confuse ATS software.
- Skills: Optimize your resume with keywords, your soft skills, and hard skills. Only include relevant information about your skills. Any filler should be eliminated if you want to provide prospective employers with a concise and effective resume.
- Logical order: Sticking to the reverse-chronological format will allow you to make an ATS-friendly resume. Start with your name and contact information before detailing your work experience, education, and skills.
- One page: The ideal length for any retail resume is one page.
We know it’s a lot to keep in mind, but our resume maker will ensure that you’re formatting for success without remembering it all.
How to Write Your Best Retail Resume
Writing an effective resume seems like a daunting task to most people. However, you can avoid this frustration by taking the process one step at a time. Not only does our resume tool ensure you don’t have to worry about format, but it will also help you include the right details in your document.
As you write your retail resume, you’ll want to think about the following:
- Objective or summary
- Work experience
- Top retail skills
- Education and certifications
- Projects, interests, or hobbies
- Tailoring your resume to the job
- Editing and proofreading
Should you write a retail resume objective or summary?
You could include a resume objective or summary when creating your retail resume. An objective statement is a concise and position-focused statement describing how you can add value to the employer, and the company needs that you can fulfill. The objective could include a short statement of your skills and qualifications for the position in question. Professional resume summaries tend to be a bit lengthier than objective statements and are meant to provide more in-depth details about your job experience, skills, education, and specializations over the course of a lengthy (10+ years) career.
Objective or summary for your retail resume?
- Consider writing an objective statement when:
- You want hiring managers to know you’re a good fit for a specific position
- You’re an entry-level employee who has very little experience
- You are making a career change
- You’ve just moved to a new city or town
- You might want to opt for writing a summary when:
- You have years of experience and want to tie this experience together
- You want to hone in on key transferable skills
- You believe that an objective statement isn’t enough to show your value to the employer
- You want to emphasize your selling points clearly
Even though objective statements and summaries can help you get your point across to hiring managers, not everyone should use one. If you don’t have years of experience or your career path is streamlined and straightforward, a lengthy summary is unnecessary.
As for objective statements, they aren’t always the right fit for retail resumes. Your employer may believe that the objective statement you write is essentially all you offer as an employee. If the statement is too short or not descriptive enough, it may harm your chances. To better understand what a well-written objective or summary looks like, let’s take a look at a couple of poor examples:
- Objective: “To be a sales associate in a retail store.”
- Summary: “Experienced sales associate who is kind and helpful. Knows how to solve problems as they arise.”
The objective statement is far too vague and isn’t centered around the position to which you’re applying. It doesn’t tell your employer anything other than the fact that you’re looking for a job. As for the summary, it says that you have experience and a couple of soft skills but doesn’t sell this information at all. Employers won’t believe what you’re saying in the summary. Here’s an improved objective statement and summary:
- Objective: “Eager to motivate and lead teams to 10% or greater sales through mentorship and accountability. Looking to improve my team-managing and problem-solving skills as a store manager with potential for career growth at ABC Company.”
- Summary: “Dedicated cashier with more than 5 years of retail experience. Eager to provide attention-to-detail and organizational skills at XYZ, Inc. Received Employee of the Month three months in a row for efficiency and reliability during ownership changes. Achieved a streak of 530 days with no sick leave.”
These examples succeed because they discuss specific details rather than general ideas, telling employers something about you and your work.
Retail work experience
Try to include two to four job experience examples for your resume. However, it’s unnecessary to include every job you’ve had since your first. If you have ample experience, include those jobs most relevant to the role for which you’re applying. While writing down your work experience may appear straightforward, it’s easy to make mistakes in this section.
Writing your retail job descriptions
The most important thing to avoid when writing an effective work experience section is to create a wall of text. If a prospective employer decides to skim through your resume, it’s important that they read the most relevant aspects of your past work experience. As such, this experience should be displayed via concise bullet points. Always use active verbs and language in these bullet points. Examples of active verbs for a retail resume include:
- Strategize
- Analyze
- Increase
- Enhance
- Resolve
- Generate
Make sure you use the past tense when writing about your experience. These verbs should prove useful when trying to condense your work experience. Avoid using personal pronouns like “me” and “I,” which take away from the professionalism of your resume.
Three bullet point examples that should be far, far away from your retail resume:
- Handled transactions for customers
- Responsible for handling customer interactions calmly
- Tasked with resolving customer issues
These are examples of passive work responsibilities, too vague to satisfy potential employers. Always go into detail about your accomplishments and past responsibilities with action verbs and hard numbers.
Three examples, on the other hand, that would serve your retail resume well:
- Awarded Retail Associate of the Year in 2019 for incentivizing the team to increase sales with monthly competitions
- Exceeded annual sales targets by 30% by upselling subscriptions and items based on customer interest
- Stocked, organized, and replenished inventory, completing tasks 15% faster than other sales associates
These are richly detailed bullet points that offer precise numbers and action verbs about past work experience.
Use metrics to quantify your impact in retail
You must be able to quantify the impact you’ve had on the companies you’ve worked for in the past. To accomplish this goal, it’s recommended that you use metrics to show exactly what a company would lose if they didn’t have you as an employee.
Did you exceed set sales targets or lower return rates? By putting your work experience into hard numbers, it becomes easier for potential employers to measure the kind of return they would get from hiring you. Try to include a couple of metrics for every job you list on your resume. More is always better! Some examples of ways to incorporate metrics into your bullet points include:
- Daily number of customers you helped
- Number of retail team members you managed
- Sales goals that were met or exceeded
- Loyalty program goals that were met or exceeded
These retail descriptions incorporate all the above:
What are the top retail skills?
If you have ample past work experience, you likely have dozens of skills that could prove useful in the job for which you’re applying. However, you should include skills relevant to the specific needs listed in the job ad. Before you start listing your skills, you should know the difference between hard skills and soft skills.
Hard skills refer directly to the abilities and knowledge that employees require to perform their responsibilities effectively. These skills are 100 percent job-related. Soft skills are more difficult to measure. For retail jobs, hard skill examples include:
- Money handling and basic math
- Product knowledge
- Inventories
- Suggestive selling
Some examples of soft skills that are ideal for the retail industry include:
- Communication
- Active listener
- Patient
- Quick learner and adaptable
Search for keywords in a job description ad that tell you the types of skills the company is seeking. You should typically list around five to eight skills on a retail resume.
What education and certifications do you need on your retail resume?
Most retail positions automatically require a high school diploma, which should be listed with the name of the school you attended, the years you attended, and the school’s location. Some retail jobs will require a little more education. While you may be able to obtain a position as a store manager with a high school diploma, an associate’s degree in marketing and sales management may help push your resume to the top of the list.
Most regional retail managers require a bachelor’s degree in business. If you attended a college or institution, include your GPA if it’s above 3.2 and any specialization or concentration. You might also want to list certifications and licenses to set your resume apart from others.
Projects, interests, or hobbies: Does your retail resume need these?
In most situations, it’s unnecessary to mention your interests and hobbies and the projects you’ve worked on in the past. However, there are some scenarios where adding this information is appropriate depending on your level of experience and the employer to whom you’re sending a resume.
Suppose you’re currently a high school or college student or are applying for an entry position. In that case, your lack of experience gives you the perfect opportunity to add projects, hobbies, and interests to your resume.
For interests and hobbies, you could include:
- Playing team sports
- Studying foreign languages
Additionally, your retail resume could benefit from including projects like:
- Creating a personal website with WordPress
- Reorganizing your school’s entire library of 1,600+ books
Customize your retail resume for every job application
Writing an effective resume takes more than just listing your skills and work experience. It’s also important that you tailor your resume to each job to which you apply. Many applicants make the mistake of sending the same resume to every job. However, most hiring managers will pick up on this.
To properly tailor your resume, add company or organization-specific information to the objective/summary sections, the skills section, and bullet points. If the job ad you’re responding to mentioned they’re looking for a strong leader who can manage numerous team members, you should focus on your leadership skills throughout your retail resume.
Check for mistakes before submitting your retail resume to jobs
This is the simplest yet most overlooked aspect of formatting and writing a retail resume. Hiring managers and recruiters don’t like grammar and punctuation mistakes. Writing the word manager as “manger” is one of the more common mistakes on retail resumes. Carefully read through your resume to look for any issues with grammar, language, consistency, and formatting. Take advantage of our free resume checker to streamline this process.
Get Your Next Retail Job and Celebrate
Now that you’ve made it this far, we hope you’re feeling confident about:
- The correct resume format to use
- How to write a resume objective or summary
- How to list work experience
- What retail skills to include on your resume
- What education and certification info should be provided
- How to tailor your resume to each specific job
Congratulations on writing your resume and readying yourself for the next step. All that’s left is for you to go get the job!
