How To List Retail Job On Resume

Format Your Sales Associate Resume The Right Way

As we mentioned above, you want to go for the reverse-chronological format for your sales associate resume. Thats the most popular resume format .

Heres what it looks like:

The other two popular resume formats are functional and combination:

• The functional resume format is skill-based, so you should only choose it in case you have no sales-related work experience but have industry-related skills.
• The combination resume format, on the other hand, should only be used in specific cases, such as employment gaps or in case of a career change. So, as a sales associate, this resume format is probably irrelevant to your situation.

All in all, none of these formats will do nearly as good of a job highlighting your experience and achievements as the reverse-chronological resume format, so dont think twice about using it.

So, now that youve picked a format for your sales associate resume, you should focus on the resume layout, which includes:

What Is A Retail Cover Letter

A cover letter is a one-page document that is typically three paragraphs long. Its goal is to introduce you and summarize your professional background. It includes information about why you’re applying for the job, a brief description of your professional experience, and what makes you a suitable candidate for the position. Some positions may request a cover letter specifically with your application, while others may just ask for a resume.

A retail cover letter is no different from a letter for any other job. It should show how your talents and experience qualify you to be the ideal new employee for the retail position you seek. If your cover letter is impressive, you’re more likely to get contacted for an interview.

Related:

Include Relevant Skills In The Retail Resume

In your retail resume, the employers will also look at the skills section to decide if you are right for the retail job. Keep in mind that your retail resume skills should align with those mentioned in the job posting.

To list skills on a resume for retail jobs, refer to different skill-listing formats:

• A bullet list is the easiest way to showcase your retail skills.
• An expanded bullet list is a simple way to write about various retail skills.
• Integrating skills with work experience is another way to present retail skills for the recruiter to see on a retail resume. Use a functional resume format to make your strong retail skills stand out.
• If you have tons of skills to list, categorizing your skills will be ideal. Use colons or bold font to mark the general categories.

Example hard skills to put on a resume for retail jobs:

• Accounting

Example soft skills to put on a resume for retail jobs:

• Adaptability
• Teamwork

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Make Your Sales Associate Work Experience Stand Out

After youve grabbed recruiters attention with your resume profile, you should focus on your work experience section.

First, lets address the basics.

Heres how you should format your work experience section:

• Start from your current/most recent position and go back in time from there. If you have lots of experience in sales, only list your most relevant and recent positions. The recruiter wont care about the summers you spent doing garage sales as a teenager.
• Begin each entry with your job title. Your job title should accurately describe your current/previous role.
• Continue with the company name and location. If the company isnt well-known, you can also briefly describe it.
• Include the employment period. Use the mm/yyyy format to show how long you worked at the job.
• Add achievements and responsibilities. Go for 5-6 bullet points for your most recent jobs and 2-3 bullet points for older roles.

Now that you know how to format the work experience section, lets dig a little bit deeper:

You may or may not know this, but more than 13 million people are working in sales in the United States alone.

And, of course, many of them are sales associates.

So, how can you make sure your sales associate resume stands out in such a big crowd?

Well, how you write your work experience section plays a big part:

The key is to focus more on your achievements over your responsibilities as much as you can.

So, as you write this section, ask yourself: how did your work affect the company?

What To Include In Your Resume

• Your contact information should be complete and clear at the beginning of your resume. Potential employers will not take the time to go searching for a cell number or email address to contact you, so make sure they are correct and easy to locate.
• Highlight experience and accomplishments by noting budgets or departments you managed, sales goals youve met or exceeded, and recognition you may have received.
• Your education section can include any coursework, classes, or projects that relate to the position, as well as your degrees earned.
• Take the time to match your qualifications to the requirements the employer has listed in the job posting.

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Customer Service And Communication Skills

Customer service is the care that a customer receives before, during and after a purchase. Good customer service is friendly and polite, and puts the customer first. It is very important in creating loyal customers and is vital in many graduate careers, such as management consultancy and financial services. For example, a retail banking employer might not expect you to have a degree in finance, but may well place great importance on customer-related work experience. On graduate job descriptions this requirement might be phrased as ‘good client management skills’ or ‘the ability to build constructive relationships with clients’ but essentially it boils down to customer service.

All employers place great importance on customer-related work experience.

In terms of retail skills for your CV, experience of dealing with customer complaints and queries provide useful examples of your problem solving and communication skills, which often feature on most graduate recruitersâ wishlists. However, communication is such a broad term that employers may want you to define your abilities in this area a little more closely, for example, by referring to persuasion, negotiation or influencing.

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 your retail resume is 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

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Get Your Resume Reviewed

Your retail resume objective hinges on a clearly defined goal, but the don’t forget about the rest of your resume. That objective must be backed up with relevant skills and experience that are properly demonstrated on your resume. Could you use some help with that? Get a free resume evaluation today from the experts at Monster’s Resume Writing Service. You’ll get detailed feedback in two business days, including a review of your resume’s appearance and content, and a prediction of a recruiter’s first impression. Let the experts at Monster help you put your job search in the express lane.

Action Verbs On A Retail Resume

An action verb on a resume is a verb that represents an action that achieves something. On a resume, action verbs are usually used to demonstrate instances where you have accomplished or achieved something significant in a work-related context. Its important you make an effort to use actions verbs, so take note of the following examples:

Strong Action Verbs for a Retail Resume

Popular action verbs used in retail resumes include words like:

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Entry Level Retail 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. As such, 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 but 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.
• Volunteer experience is absolutely worth including on your resume. Volunteer experience showcases you’re hard working and that you are fundamentally interested in helping others. These are both qualities retail hiring managers are looking for.

Provide Contact Information In The Header

Typically, there’s a header at the top of your document that hiring managers see first when scanning your resume. In the header, place your contact information, which includes your full name, phone number, email address, location and a link to a professional networking website. Placing the information in the header ensures that hiring managers have various ways to contact you.

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Tailor Your Retail Resume For The Right Job

If you’ve already created a resume for previous retail sales jobs, you might be tempted just to recycle your old one. If that thought has crossed your mind, stop right there.

As a general rule, you shouldn’t use the exact same resume for each job application, especially if you’re applying for jobs with different titles. Remember that your resume is your first and sometimes only shot at getting the attention of a potential employer. That means you should take the time to tailor it for the right job.

Applying for an awesome retail sales associate job at your favorite store? Read through the job listing carefully and make sure your resume not only checks all the boxes but that it also goes above and beyond. Address all of the keywords that you find in the listing, and you can feel confident that you’ve submitted an A+ resume.

How To Write The Education Section In The Following 3 Situations

1. High school education

If you never attend college, heres how to list your high school degree in the retail resume.

Example:

Graduated in 2015

2. Education in progress

If you havent finished your degree, listing in progress or expected to graduate in in the retail resume is just fine!

Example:

BA in English Literature in ProgressSarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NYExpected to graduate in 2021

3. Incomplete education

What if you never graduated? No worries – put it like this:

Example:

Further reading: How to Put Unfinished Degree on Resume: Guide + Examples

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Summary: How To Write A Resume Summary For Retail

Writing a resume summary for retail can be intimidating, but all you need to do is remember that a retail resume objective is just a short way of telling the hiring manager why youd be a great candidate to hire for their open retail or sales position.

Generally, hiring managers expect that your retail resume summary will quickly list your best skills and experiences that would be beneficial in a retail or sales environment. Resume summaries are usually shorter in length and typically not longer than three to five sentences.

Examples for a retail resume summary include:

• Experience: How many years of experience you have working in retail, sales, or customer service. If you have no experience, write down your related work or volunteer experience.
• Training: Any training that you have that would help in retail, sales, or customer service
• Soft skills: Personality traits, like being a great problem solver or a good multitasker, as well as a short story of how that characteristic was useful in a work or volunteer setting
• Hard Skills: Familiarity dealing with cash exchanges, Interac machines, or POS systems
• Successes: Sales numbers, statistics or metrics related to sales, customers, or improvements to previous employers businesses that you made
• Leadership Skills: Former leadership or standout support positions that you held that would be useful to have in a team environment

Where To Put The Education Section On A Resume For Retail Jobs

• In an entry-level retail resume with no experience, the education section matters and will determine if you are going to be invited for an interview. List your education upfront, right after the resume objective for retail.
• For experienced retail applicants, your retail experience is more crucial in the resume. Place education section after work experience section.

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Retail Cover Letter Tips

A well-written cover letter can help you stand out from other job candidates. Here are some pointers on how to write a retail cover letter:

• Make use of both your hard and soft skills. Retail professions necessitate the use of a wide range of hard and soft skills. Basic math, minor physical work, communication skills, and social skills are examples of these.

• Show your expertise. Retail employees may frequently need to deal with abrupt increases in store traffic and other unforeseen situations. Describe your experience dealing with demanding customers or high-pressure situations in detail to show that your abilities make you a good fit for the organization.

• Take inspiration from the job description. Consult the job description for keywords to describe your skills and experience when composing your letter. Mention particular responsibilities, and explain why you’d be a good fit for them.

Read more:

Dear ,

My name is , and I learned about the job posting for at from . I’m convinced that as a with of experience and , I can contribute to your organization’s excellent customer service.

I think it’s great that your organization cares about . This represents my philosophy, which is why I believe that working at would provide me with the best opportunity to grow while offering world-class customer service.

When can we talk about how my expertise can assist achieve over the phone or in person? Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.

Best wishes,

How To Write An Effective Retail Resume

Retail professionals can work in a wide variety of positions depending on their skills, experience and preferences. When applying for a retail position, having a solid resume may help hiring managers recognize your important qualifications. If you’re applying for a position that involves customer service duties and sales, reviewing several retail resume examples may be useful for you. In this article, we discuss what a retail resume is and provide a list of steps you can use to create an effective resume that demonstrates your retail skills.

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Optimize Your Education Section Based On Your Experience

An important thing to note about the education section is that the more professional experience you have, the fewer details you need to include here. However, the education section of your resume is still important. For entry-level roles, your education and other relevant internships or training act as a source of experience. Ensure that you provide as much detail as possible.

Education section for an entry-level role:

2016â2020

• Graduated with a 4.8 GPA

• Made the dean’s list

• Completed a four months internship program in sales

First Choose Your Resume Format

Before starting your retail resume, you need to decide what resume format you want to use. If you have previous retail experience, use a chronological resume. This is when you have your work experience in reverse chronological order at the top and your skills at the bottom of your resume. If you have little to no retail experience, choose a functional or combination resume. A functional resume focuses on your skills, and a combination resume focuses on both your skills and job experience.

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Specify Why You’re The Preferred Candidate

Next, it’s important to illustrate why you are the ideal candidate using specific references to the job requirements given in the ad. Examine the job description and make a list of the essential requirements and tasks for your new position. Then, consider the ones you’ve excelled at in a quantifiable way, and write about your accomplishments.

How To Describe Prior Experience In A Retail Store

• How to Write a Marketing Cover Letter

Skills gained in retail jobs are applicable in a variety of careers and jobs. The key to successfully completing job applications is connecting your retail skills and experience to the skills required in the job description for the position you want. Employment recruiters may use computer programs for scanning resumes and applications. These programs look for keywords. Use the same action words and job titles appearing in the job description when possible.

References

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Use Our Tried & Tested Templates

If youve ever tried making a Word resume, you know that formatting alone takes ages.

You have to tweak the margins, pick the font, adjust its size, and the list goes on

Instead of wasting your time on all of that, you should just be focusing on perfecting the content of your sales associate resume.

How do you ask?

Its simple – just use one of our professional resume templates and jump straight to filling in the contents of your sales associate resume.

Our resume templates were created in collaboration with professional recruiters, so you dont just win time – you get a free, professional, and visually appealing sales associate resume!

You can see for yourself how our tried-and-tested templates compare to traditional, black and white templates.