Store Manager: Job Profile and Role
Do you consider yourself to be a brilliant negotiator, delegator, and a people person? Do you also enjoy juggling numbers and figuring out where and how to save money? If so, you may want to consider a career in management – to be more precise, in-store management.
This blog, therefore, revolves around the job of a store manager. To help you make the right career decision, you will now find out which qualifications and skills you need, what salaries to expect, and where to find employment. You will also get an interesting glimpse into a day in the life of a store manager before we conclude this blog with three tips for thriving in this managerial position.
Short Summary
- As a store manager, you are in charge of all budgeting and finance related to the store you manage, including tracking expenses and money spent on your suppliers and vendors.
- As a store manager, you need to work closely with your team and delegate all relevant tasks according to each team member’s strengths.
- As a store manager, you need to have a good “marketing head” to ensure both the ideal positioning of your store’s merchandise and optimal sales.
Job description
Your role as a store manager covers multiple tasks, one of which is handling all financial aspects connected to your store. You are furthermore responsible for a team of store employees whom you need to liaise with daily to brainstorm new ideas and delegate tasks. Being a store manager is not limited to administrative and team tasks, it extends to dealing with customers and their enquiries. Besides, you are the go-to person when it comes to ordering supplies and negotiating the best deals with your vendors. Lastly, you need to report back to even more senior departments in your company, for example, when it comes to quarterly or annual sales figures.
Responsibilities
- Customer Service
- Sales and Targets
- Team Management
- Visual Merchandising
- Inventory Management
- Compliance and Safety
- Marketing and Promotions
- Training and Development
- Ensuring Quality Consistency
- Budgeting/Financial Management
Different types of Store Managers
- Department Store Manager
- Franchise Store Manager
- Speciality Store Manager
- Grocery Store Manager
- Retail Store Manager
Salary
When you work as a full-time store manager in the UK, you can plan with a starting salary of around ￡23,000. This can increase considerably to ￡35,000 after you have worked in this job for several years. Your work experience is only one of the common salary-influencing factors. Your employer – generally the company size – will affect your annual wages as much as the location of your employment. However, there currently do not seem to be huge differences in the store manager salaries paid in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
Working hours
On average, you will work between 40 and 42 hours per week. These hours take part during the store’s opening hours and tend to be shift work. Depending on your employer, you may work evenings and weekends. It is also likely that you will work during Bank Holidays.
Employers
Any store in the UK can be an employment option if you want to work in-store management. Besides the big names, such as Sainsbury’s, Tesco, and H&M (supermarkets and fashion), you can equally find employment in other sectors, such as drugstores, electronics stores, pharmacies, speciality stores, and convenience stores. We recommend that you pick a store that fits your interests and values to ensure a harmonious work relationship with both your employer and your team.
Qualifications
The required qualifications to become a store manager mainly depend on your approach to this job. However, you will likely be asked to have completed your secondary school education, meaning that you need to have GCSEs at certain pass grades, usually 9 to 4 (A* to C). The appropriate A-Levels, for instance, in business and finance, can sometimes also qualify you for entering a university or college course or an apprenticeship.
We further recommend that you invest time in software and online tools you will be using daily. For store managers in the UK, the relevant software can be ERPLY, Vend, and Lightspeed Retail. You should also be proficient with Microsoft Office, including Excel and PowerPoint.
The job as a store manager could be suitable for you if you have one or more of the following qualifications:
Skills
Before we take a look at three common skills you should have when working in store management, we advise you to look at the competencies detailed in the job ad so you fulfil all the requirements expected of you. But let’s see what potential skills you will need when you want to become a store manager in the UK.
Is the store manager job a good fit for you? Typically, a store manager should have or develop the following skills:
Leadership
Being a manager means being in charge of a team. Said team ideally looks up to you and takes on board your suggestions and advice. To ensure this, you need strong leadership skills. These include excellent listening and communication skills. It also cannot hurt if you have an open-door policy so that your team knows they can approach and talk to you at all times.
Teamwork/Delegation
Being a good leader requires strong teamwork and delegation skills. You may be the manager but that should never mean that you take on and tackle every single task. Doing this will be anything but beneficial. If you think you are the only one capable of doing the necessary jobs it can lead to the following consequences: your team does not respect you since it does not feel valued and you will likely head towards a burnout. After all, your working day only has so many hours in which to do everything that needs doing.
Marketing
Marketing skills are another vital competency if you want to work as a store manager. You need to come up with brilliant ideas to display and sell your store’s merchandise and produce. This is not only important during sales or the festive season but every day of the year.
Career Path
Your career starting point will not be that of a store manager but the job of an assistant store manager. To advance to the more senior store manager position, you first need to gain work experience and prove that you have what it takes to run a store’s operations. After you have worked as a store manager for several years – how many years that might be will depend on your track record and your employer’s promotion policy – you can look into advancing to the position of an area or regional store manager.
Educational Background
To become a manager, you should look into doing an undergraduate degree in business management. Even though it might not be a requirement with every potential employer, a Bachelor’s degree can give you an important advantage when applying for a managerial position. If an academic approach is not your chosen path, you can also look into doing the appropriate college courses, for example, a Level 4 Diploma in Retail Management which usually qualifies you to manage a variety of stores. Alternatively, you can, for example, do a team leader advanced apprenticeship.
Entry Level
Starting with your entry-level position as an assistant store manager, you can progress to the job of a store manager after having worked for your employer for a few years. How fast you can climb the career ladder does not only depend on your company’s promotion policy which can stretch from five to ten years. You can influence your “promotion speed” by excellent work performance, ambition, and taking on managerial responsibilities.
Continuous Learning
Spending time on your professional improvement can also contribute to fast-tracking your career. Several options can benefit you if you want to climb to the top of store management. For instance, you can do a postgraduate degree. We recommend that you check the possibility of extra-occupational studies since this enables you to work and earn money while doing your degree. You should also check whether your employer offers company-sponsored training or internal training. Taking part in teamwork training, for example, is not only a good way for you to thrive. It is also a brilliant way to work on your relationship with your team.
More Training Options for UK Store Managers
You can advance your store manager career by completing a Level 5 Operations Department Manager Apprenticeship or earning your Level 2 Certificate in Principles of Team Leading. You can find further training and accredited qualifications with the Institute of Retail Management, the Retail Trust, and the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), where you can earn qualifications in digital marketing.
A Day in the Life of a Store Manager
Are you curious to find out what a store manager’s day has in store for you? In that case, just continue reading because, in this section, we are taking a look at three daily tasks you will perform.
Team Assistance
Being a store manager does not mean that you are locked away in your office all day. On the contrary – you will be asked to assist your team on the ground floor during peak times since supermarkets and other stores can get busy, for example, during lunch breaks and after offices have closed for the day. This means all hands on deck, including yours as the manager of the store.
Customer Service
Your daily tasks include customer service tasks, for example, dealing with enquiries or complaints. Here, you need to ensure that any customer issue is resolved satisfactorily. You will have to apply your problem-solving skills and be empathetic since at the end of the day, the customer is king. You should also take criticism as a way of improving your store, from sales techniques to overall customer service and promotions, to name but a few.
Supplier Negotiations
You cannot run and manage your store if you do not have anything on the store shelves. Therefore, talking to and negotiating with your suppliers is another of your daily tasks. Since you are also responsible for your store’s budget, you need to be a negotiation wizard, thus ensuring that your store stays within the budget and turns a profit.
Tips for Thriving as a Store Manager
If you have advanced to the position of a store manager, we can safely assume that you a) know what it takes to thrive and b) that you are very interested in further thriving as a store manager. This is why we have searched high and low for three more tips that will help you thrive in your store management career:
- Tackle your manager monkey
- Team building events
- Surveys
Tackle your Manager Monkey
The catchphrase monkey business was phrased in the early 1970s and is regularly featured in business magazines, such as the Harvard Business Review. Monkey business refers to the fact that lots of managers do not know how to delegate or do not even want to delegate. In consequence, said managers struggle with their workload and their employees. If you want to thrive, you need not only to have strong delegation skills, you also must know how to get rid of your task monkey. This is the only way to ensure your success and that of your team and company/store.
Team Building Events
A strong team is needed to ensure your store’s success. As a store manager, you may not always have sufficient time for each of the team members – and they, in turn, also do not always have enough time to bond with their colleagues. Therefore, you should look into team-building exercises and events like workshops or retreats where you can reconnect and take some time out from your busy work schedules. Getting to know each other is a brilliant way to temporarily blur work/life boundaries and see your team from a different side.
Surveys
To know how your employees and your customers tick, you should conduct regular surveys. Generally, these surveys revolve around your employees’ job satisfaction but they can equally be extended to your clients. Why not come up with an online questionnaire in which they have to answer a certain number of questions regarding the quality of your products and service and the general layout and display of your store? The results help you to improve and turn your store into the must-go place in your area.
Other jobs that are similar and might also interest you:
Frequently Asked Questions
Your store manager’s starting salary in the UK comes in at around ￡23,000. This can increase considerably to ￡35,000 per year after you have worked in your role for several years. Note that your employer – to be more precise, the company size – will affect your salary as much as the location of your employing store. However, there are currently no discernible differences in the annual wages paid to store managers in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
What qualifications you need to become a store manager depends on your approach to the position. Note that most employers will ask for your secondary school completion which typically means four to five GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C) or the equivalent A-Levels, for example, in business or finance. Thus equipped, you can enrol for an undergraduate degree such as business or retail management, or a Level 4 Diploma in Retail Management. It is also possible to complete an advanced apprenticeship, for example, as a future retail team leader. Besides, you should spend time getting to know the relevant store management and organisational software, such as Vend, ERPLY, Lightspeed Retail and Microsoft Office.
Your store manager job description includes a range of tasks and responsibilities. One of these is to handle all financial aspects regarding your store, meaning that you need to plan and stay within budget, keep track of expenses, and turn a profit. You are equally responsible for working with your store team and both brainstorm new campaigns and delegate tasks. Moreover, you need to be skilled in customer service since you interact with your store’s clientele daily. Even though you are already high up in your store’s career chain, you still also need to report and liaise with more senior departments.