Retail Manager: Job Profile and Role

Have you always been good at working and communicating with people? Are you a very organised person who enjoys efficient time management and prioritising tasks? Furthermore, have you always been interested in shopping, new products, and how they could be promoted with successful marketing strategies? If your answer to these questions is “Yes!”, we may have the perfect job for you, which we will explore in this blog.

The following sections are about the job of a retail manager. Here, you will find out what it takes to become a retail manager and who employs you. You will also find out which annual salary you can expect when working as a retail manager. To give you an idea of the daily tasks you will perform, we will look into a day in the life of a retail manager. To conclude this blog, we will give you three tips for thriving as a retail manager.

Short Summary

• As a retail manager, you are responsible for organising all operations related to the store/company you work for.
• As a retail manager, you are in charge of delegating retail tasks to your team and other members of staff.
• As a retail manager, you are responsible for keeping within set budgets. Therefore, it is your responsibility as a retail manager to ensure that the budget is used wisely, ensuring maximum effect with the minimum of costs.

Job description

It is your job as a retail manager to be in charge of all operations related to the store/company you work for. You are in charge of every single process that ensures that the store runs smoothly and efficiently. As a retail manager, you are responsible for sales and promotions, inventory and financial management, and motivating your team of retail assistants and experts. It is also your job as a retail manager to handle your store’s budget in an efficient and low-cost-producing manner.

Responsibilities

• Store Operations Management
• Merchandising/Visual Display
• Marketing and Promotions
• Vendor/Supplier Relations
• Compliance and Security
• Employee Development
• Inventory Management
• Sales and Profitability
• Financial Reporting
• Staff Management

Different types of Retail Managers

• Store Manager
• Food Retail Manager
• Department Manager
• Fashion Retail Manager
• Visual Merchandising Manager

The 6 Ps of Retail Management

Retail management is built on the foundation of the 6 Ps: product, pricing, place, promotion, people, and presentation. If you know how to fill each one of these Ps with a successful strategy, you have mastered the most important things a retail manager should know and implement.

Salary

As a retail manager working in the UK, you will get paid an annual salary ranging from ￡26,000 to ￡39,000. This salary “waits” for you after you have worked as an assistant retail manager, where you can expect an annual salary between ￡21,000 and ￡28,000. If you are thinking about progressing into more senior roles, you will be paid more. A senior retail manager, for example, is generally paid between ￡35,000 and ￡58,000 per year. 

Note that not only your retail management position will affect your salary. Your employing company and its location will also influence what you get paid every year. Furthermore, an increase in your annual salary might be possible, depending if your future employer pays bonuses and other monetary benefits.

Working hours

As a retail manager, you will typically work between 40 and 42 hours a week. Most of these working hours will take place from 9 to 5, either in an office or a store, but, likely, you will also work outside the normal office hours. As a retail manager, you need to be aware of the fact that you will work in the evenings and at the weekends. It is also likely that you will work during Bank Holidays. 

Also, note that your job as a retail manager might involve travelling which also adds to your working hours. We recommend that you check the overtime policies with your future employer since you should not assume that your overtime is also being paid,

Employers

As a retail manager, you can typically find employment in different stores, ranging from large department stores – both physical and online – to individual and independent retailers. You can also look for employment in the hospitality sector where your retail management qualifications and skills may also be needed. Furthermore, you can start looking for a job in any industry that needs a retail manager which can also include pharmaceutical companies, speciality stores, and shopping centres.

Qualifications

To become a retail manager, you either need between four and five GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C) or two to three A-Levels that qualify you to enter either a university course, a college course, or a higher or a degree apprenticeship. Each educational approach should be related to retail management, for example, a degree in business retail management or a Level 4 Diploma in Retail Management. Besides, you should look into sensible and useful additional qualifications, for example, Chartered Management Institute (CMI) qualifications.  

Skills

Typically, every job requires a set of soft skills which can vary depending on the exact description in the job post. Therefore, we recommend that you always check which competencies your future employer values the most. However, we can still give a few examples of soft skills you should have or develop when you want to work in retail management. Let’s take a closer look at what skills will benefit you in your future retail career.

Sales Skills

As a retail manager, you need strong sales skills. Without them, you will not be able to either attract customers or make any sales. Sales skills are a combination of various competencies, including communication skills, product and market knowledge, presentation skills, and active listening. Having those skills will make your job a lot easier – and it never hurts to continuously improve them.

Teamwork Skills

As a retail manager, you not only work with your retail team but also with other departments, suppliers, vendors, and customers. Strong teamwork skills are therefore a must if you want to prevail and advance in your job as a retail manager. Always keep in mind that teamwork skills include other competencies. Again, communication and interpersonal skills are part of this particular skill.

Customer Service Skills

Knowing your products and how to sell them is important when you are a retail manager. It is equally important to know your customers and how to deal with them. Even though most of your customers will be happy with your products and the customer services you provide, there will always be someone who is not happy and wishes to make a complaint. Here, you must stay calm and professional and deal with the complaint efficiently. Excellent customer service skills are more or less mandatory when you want to work as a retail manager. And once more, these skills are accompanied by strong communication skills.

Career Path

Your career as a retail manager starts with an entry-level job, such as the job of an assistant retail manager or retail assistant. Commonly, you stay in that job for about a year, sometimes a bit longer. With the relevant work experience, you can advance to the position of a retail manager. After that, it is possible to progress even further, for example, to the role of a senior retail manager or retail director.

Educational Background

You can become a retail manager by doing a university degree in business or retail management which you typically complete with a Bachelor’s degree. Alternatively, you can do a retail manager higher or a retail leadership degree apprenticeship. The third option available to you is doing a college course, for instance, a Level 3 Diploma in Retail Skills Management or a Level 4 Diploma in Retail Management.

Entry Level

To reach the position of a retail manager, you have to start with an entry-level position first. Your educational background has set you up for a job as an assistant retail manager or a retail assistant. These positions help you to gain your first work experience. Usually, you can start thinking about advancing into the retail manager position after a year. You should always check with your employer which timeframe is set for this promotion.

Continuous Learning

Your continuous learning in retail management can include various additional qualifications. The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) offers leadership and management qualifications that cover Levels 3 to 7. You can also look into earning retail industry-specific qualifications which are offered by the Institute of Retail Management (IRM) and the British Retail Consortium (BRC). Furthermore, you can look into earning a higher academic degree, for example, a Master’s degree in business and/or retail management. Each of these qualifications can help you progress in your job as a retail manager.

A Day in the Life of a Retail Manager

Your job as a retail manager is about retail, products, and the respective customers. Your dealings and interactions therefore shape your working day as a retail manager. In this section, we will take a close look at three typical tasks that you will perform as a retail manager.

Customer Feedback

Customer feedback is one of the most important indicators at your disposal when it comes to monitoring and tracking sales figures and the quality of your retail merchandise. Therefore, you ideally spend a few hours daily to deal with said feedback. It can include queries about products as well as complaints and issues your customers have. The important thing to keep in mind is that you should take all feedback seriously and deal with it ASAP and in a customer-friendly and professional manner.

Organise Sales and Promotions

As a retail manager, you are in charge of organising sales and promotions. These tend to take place towards the end of a (shopping) season and during popular peak times, like Black Friday in November and the further run-up to Christmas. With exciting sales and promotions, you not only satisfy your existing customers. You also have the opportunity to attract new ones that will increase your sales figures and revenue.

Motivate your Team

Even though you are the retail manager and, therefore, responsible for sales and promotions, you will fight a losing battle if you try to organise all these things on your own. This is why you, as a retail manager, have a team of retail assistants who help you come up with brilliant sales and marketing strategies. The surest way to succeed is to motivate your team to be on board with your ideas. It is equally important that each one of your team members has the chance to bring in his or her ideas. 

Tips for Thriving as a Retail Manager

When you are working as a retail manager, you have already done a few things to thrive in your junior position. Maybe you have earned additional qualifications or worked on your soft skills. This personal and professional development aside, there are even more ways for you to thrive in your job as a retail manager. To help you find the right thriving fit for you, we have researched three more tips with which you will thrive as a retail manager:

• Technology integration
• Marketing/online presence
• Sales and promotions

Technology Integration

While you may already have earned qualifications from the CMI or BRC, you should also look into technology-related qualifications, for example, qualifications in retail ePOS and eCommerce systems. Here, you learn all there is to know about point-of-sale systems which in turn will help you improve your sales techniques and strategies. Improving your knowledge of inventory management will also help you thrive as a retail manager.

Marketing/Online Presence

Nowadays, most businesses make use of various online and social media platforms to reach a wider target audience, thus, attracting more traffic and customers. As a retail manager, you should not only be aware of these digital sales multipliers, but you should also embrace and use them to your advantage. If you want to thrive as a retail manager, you should be more than just familiar with marketplaces on Instagram and Facebook, for instance. You should also be familiar with efficient and successful marketing strategies that help you sell your products even better.

Sales and Promotions

Your marketing and online presence knowledge will then help you improve your sales and promotions. By applying marketing strategies, you can create and conduct more efficient and successful sales and promotions. They generally result in happy existing customers and new customers whom you have attracted with your in-depth sales and promotions knowledge. After a sale or promotion, you should always check and analyse how well they have performed. The gained numbers and data help you to adjust future sales and promotions – and eventually, this helps you to thrive as a retail manager.

Frequently Asked Questions