5 Retail Sales Associate Resume Examples For 2021

Why this resume works

• This resume includes a resume objective. We suggest you include one if you’re searching for a career change, such as from furniture retail sales to high-end clothing retail sales. Resume objectives can also we a great way to fill in some empty space if you have limited job experience, but they still must be impactful and not solely fill room.
• Resume objectives are a succinct and powerful way for you to introduce your resume, drive home takeaway points, and ensure hiring managers notice you.
  • But, if done incorrectly they can get hiring managers to notice you in a bad way. Make sure your objective is highly specific to the job you’re applying to. That means you’ll need to include job titles, company names, years of experience, and skills that set you apart.
    • There are few things hiring managers like less than a generic, unhelpful resume objective.
  • This retail sales associate objective is highly specific to the job.
    • It includes the job title, years of sales experience, and specific skills.
    • This resume objective also mentions a specific company, and states why they want to work for the company.
    • As a retail sales associate, meeting or surpassing sales goals and enhancing the customer experience are two of the most vital job skills you should include in your resume objective and throughout your entire resume.
  • It would be obvious to a hiring manager that this applicant did not “resume blast” their resume to hundreds of different jobs. There’s an obvious level of care, respect, and attention to the details of this particular job title, which shows hiring managers a genuine level of interest in the job.

Why this resume works

• How much time do you think hiring managers will spend looking at your resume?
  • We asked this question to countless focus groups and found that most people assume a hiring manager will spend upwards of 10 minutes on their resume.
    • Unfortunately, hiring managers don’t have the time to thoroughly read each resume, and on average they’ll only spend 6 seconds reviewing your resume.
•  Get out your phone and set a timer for 6 seconds. Then, look over this resume until the timer goes off. What do you notice? What stands out?
  • First, notice that the bullet points make this resume easy to read. When you write your resume, you need to think like a hiring manager. Get the key points across efficiently and display them prominently.
  • What stands out when you read this resume? The numbers.
    • Including quantifiable metrics (numbers) in your resume is crucial.
      • Numbers draw the hiring managers eyes, slowing them down and encouraging them to spend more than twice as long on quantified resumes than non-quantified resumes.
      • Numbers also efficiently demonstrate your accomplishments. They’re a succinct way to show your ability to excel in your retail work.
• As a retail sales associate, you should focus on including metrics on the number of customers served, the amount of revenue you generated, ways you increased store traffic and by how much, customer feedback scores, the percent you surpassed sales targets and purchase sizes, awards you won, and sales conferences you’ve attended.
  • As a sales associate, there are countless opportunities for you to include strong metrics in your resume.

Why this resume works

• Applying your first job in the industry can feel overwhelming and disheartening. But everyone starts somewhere and hiring managers know better than to overlook an applicant with high potential and demonstrated skill.
  • It may sound surprising, but a job working in nearly any unrelated industry can be formatted to highlight relevant retail sales skills.
• For example, this resume includes the job titles “Delivery Driver”, and “Call Center Representative”.
  • Despite the fact that this applicant has no sales associate experience, this resume highlights important sales associate skills, including critical thinking, collaboration and communication, software, and sales skills.
• You can even include volunteer work, school projects, or classes that demonstrate your communication, leadership, teamwork, or sales capacity.

Why this resume works

• Make sure you don’t forget to include a resume skills section on your resume. If you forget it, your resume may never even be seen by a hiring manager!
  • When a retail sales associate job posting is published online, it’s common for 150 or more job hunters to apply. And since hiring managers often work in retail themselves and can’t devote 40 hours a week to reading resumes, they use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to weed out 80% or more of the resumes.
    • Avoid being weeded out by including 4 to 10 relevant skills.
      • Good examples of relevant skills include product knowledge, proven sales record, leadership, point of sale (PoS) software knowledge, organization, time-management, and exceptional communication skills. 
• Make your job title specific. 
  • If you’re looking for employment in a specific sector of retail, be sure to include that in your title. Other specific titles might include jewelry retail sales associate, furniture retail sales associate, office supplies retail sales associate, wedding gown retail sales associate, or antiques retail sales associate.

Why this resume works

• As a high-end retail sales associate, make sure you understand the job expectations. Customers committing to a high price tag will expect an even more detailed knowledge of products, more one-on-one focused attention, impeccable personal presentation, perfected store layout and displays, and extra pampering.
  • You need to demonstrate that you can create a 5-star shopping environment.
• Writing a resume can seem like writing another language.
  • You’ll need to focus on the content of each bullet point, including action words, active verbs, and quantifiable metrics, while avoiding filler words and keeping bullet length to 200 characters or less.
  • On top that, you’ll need to ensure you include 3 to 6 bullet points per work experience, and you’ll need to include 2 to 4 total work experiences.
  • You will also need to focus on resume format, making sure you fill the whole page without overwhelming or cramming too much information on the page.
• If you need some help crafting your resume, or if you’ve edited your resume alongside this guide and are ready to see if it will help you get more interviews, use our carefully-designed resume checker.