Jobs in the retail profession are popular because they do not always require qualifications. You can learn as you go along and you can often receive some very good support, training and development for the future.
Retail is taken to mean the most common point of contact between the customer and the supplier, in the selling of goods in non-specialised stores such as supermarkets and department stores, and the provision of services in for example specialised stores like tourist information offices.
The particular job that you decide to apply for will depend on what you have done at school or college, your working background, and your ambitions and areas of interest.
Retail sales assistants carry out an important function for any shop or office. They are expected to welcome customers, manage payments in cash or by card, give advice on products and services, organise shop or office displays, and perhaps get involved in ordering and receiving stock. You will need to be calm, resilient and patient. Junior sales assistants could start on around half of the average national wage rising to just above that with some years experience.
Retail assistant managers are basically there to provide support to the overall manager, especially when he/she is away. You would be expected to carry out the manager’s duties as well as look after the staff and handle any operational problems that may arise. You may be working with the manager to achieve sales targets, organise staff rotas, deal with complaints from customers, and generally prepare yourself for the role of manager at some point in the future. Confidence, enthusiasm and the ability to absorb pressure could get you promoted to manager, where you could earn up to twice the average national wage.
Store managers could progress to retail area or regional manager, looking after a number of stores and using skills and knowledge of the organisation and the product or service to co-ordinate profitable activities for the business.
For more senior staff, you could take on the role of buyer, merchandiser, director of operations, recruitment officer, distribution manager, financial analyst. So, as you serve customers at the checkout in the local supermarket in your part-time retail job, think of what role you might have in the future.
The skills, knowledge and understanding you will gain from working in retail can stay with you for the rest of your working life. These include learning how to deal with customers, business awareness, how to work under pressure in a pressurised team, using your initiative when a particular problem arises, and a confidence in the use of all aspects of IT in the modern working environment.
Therefore you will certainly have prepared yourself to acquire the most important assets that an employer is looking for. Are you positive and enthusiastic? Can you actually do a job of work for them in return for a salary or wage?
And, are you competent in the skills that you claim to have and that they say they need?