What is an Inventory Associate?

Inventory associates work in retail and are responsible for tracking and managing inventory. They might work in warehouses or retail stores, where they count products coming in and going out. As a result of its efforts, the company is able to operate with the least possible waste and the lowest expense rate while maintaining a steady supply.

Inventory associates work under the supervision of the manager of the warehouse or store and process shipments, assist in unloading trucks, and organize physical inventory using forklifts or pallet jacks. They perform data entry, participate in annual inventory overhauls, and maintain a clean and safe working area.

This is a versatile and dynamic position that requires the use of both heavy machinery and inventory software. Annual salaries vary from $20,230 to $45,200, with the highest median wages registered in the District of Columbia.

What Does an Inventory Associate Do

There are certain skills that many inventory associates have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed communication skills, customer-service skills and detail oriented.

Learn more about what an Inventory Associate does

How To Become an Inventory Associate

If you're interested in becoming an inventory associate, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 22.1% of inventory associates have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 1.4% of inventory associates have master's degrees. Even though some inventory associates have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become an Inventory Associate
Top Inventory Associate Jobs Near You

Inventory Associate Career Paths

As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, an inventory associate can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as security officer, progress to a title such as technician and then eventually end up with the title office manager.

Inventory Associate

Average Salary for an Inventory Associate

Inventory Associates in America make an average salary of $30,067 per year or $14 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $37,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $24,000 per year.
Average Inventory Associate Salary
$30,067 Yearly
$14.46 hourly
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Roles and Types of Inventory Associate

The role of an inventory associate includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general inventory associate responsibilities:

  • Initiate, plan and implement recruitment and training objectives. Coordinate
  • Adapts existing methods and procedures to create alternative solutions to moderately complex problems. Understands the strategic direction set by senior management as it relates to team goals. Uses own judgment to determines optimal solution to recommend. Primary upward interaction is with direct supervisor or teams leads. Generally interacts with peers
  • Dc perform the following tasks according to existing procedures, meeting accuracy

There are several types of inventory associate, including:

Overnight Stocker

Role:

As an overnight stocker, you keep some weird hours. As you've already guessed, you work well into the night and straight through until the morning. Then, we're sure you'll go straight to bed. So as everyone is waking up, you'll be going to sleep.

Overnight stockers make sure that products and items are arranged in the correct place on shelves. You wouldn't want a customer to get confused with where a product might be if it's not in the correct spot. You'll also spend some of your time tracking inventory and reporting damaged products.

Your job is important to not only the customers but also your fellow coworkers. If they have to stop what they're doing to help a customer find something that's not in the right spot, then you just made their job harder. So, it's really important you put things where they belong.

  • Average Salary: $29,983
  • Degree: High School Diploma

Inventory Clerk

Role:

Inventory clerks work under the supervision of a store manager, assisting them in tracking inventory. They help to make sure the right amount of inventory is always on stock and the warehouse is organized. They give a hand in unloading and shelving products and provide customer service whenever necessary.

As an inventory clerk, you will keep track of stock using spreadsheets and inventory databases. You will need a driver's license, and you will have to know your way around a warehouse, possibly even operate a forklift. You will need physical strength to lift, carry, unpack, and place products, but most of the job is counting things: supplies, materials, equipment, and merchandise.

No specific education is necessary to be hired for this entry-level position. You need to be good at math and have an analytical mind because, again, your job will entail a whole lot of counting.

  • Average Salary: $32,666
  • Degree: High School Diploma

Inventory Controller

Role:

Inventory controllers are in charge of managing all inventory activities in a business and making sure all the materials and products needed for daily activities are supplied in their accurate numbers. As an inventory controller, you will keep records of the inventory levels and restocking supplies as needed. You are in charge of negotiating with vendors and suppliers and making sure all products and materials supplied are of the right quality and quantity. You also need to maintain all records such as product supply records, pricing records, and inventory records and keep them updated.

You need negotiation skills, writing skills, logic thinking skills, organization skills, analytical skills, time management skills, and a sound understanding of all inventory management practices for this role. You also need a bachelor's degree or a high school diploma degree, or even an associate degree to qualify for this role. You will earn an average of $30,956 per year.

  • Average Salary: $36,911
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree
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States With The Most Inventory Associate Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active inventory associate jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where inventory associates earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Inventory Associate Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1California5,484$32,778
2Florida3,222$23,798
3Texas3,222$25,261
4Pennsylvania2,675$29,292
5Illinois2,057$29,812
6New York1,991$31,128
7Ohio1,989$27,756
8New Jersey1,905$30,230
9Georgia1,801$24,498
10Michigan1,709$30,297
11Indiana1,628$26,458
12North Carolina1,524$24,238
13Massachusetts1,373$33,685
14Virginia1,359$25,171
15Arizona1,301$29,453
16Wisconsin1,264$29,996
17Maryland1,189$28,006
18Washington1,161$34,295
19Tennessee1,137$25,013
20Minnesota1,039$32,761
21Colorado991$30,236
22Missouri852$26,696
23Kentucky792$25,899
24Alabama758$23,724
25South Carolina679$22,291
26Connecticut641$31,752
27Utah561$31,348
28Kansas528$25,497
29Arkansas514$24,376
30Iowa507$27,428
31Oregon504$32,361
32Louisiana428$22,408
33Oklahoma418$25,082
34Nevada380$29,691
35Mississippi351$22,589
36New Hampshire300$33,935
37West Virginia253$24,138
38Maine237$32,958
39Nebraska235$27,818
40Idaho207$27,967
41Delaware207$27,228
42North Dakota193$30,416
43Rhode Island180$33,413
44New Mexico169$26,592
45Hawaii134$32,108
46Montana133$31,902
47South Dakota96$30,264
48Vermont93$32,994
49Wyoming84$31,107
50Alaska74$24,818

Inventory Associate Education

Inventory Associate Majors

Business
23.4 %
General Studies
10.2 %
Criminal Justice
8.5 %

Inventory Associate Degrees

High School Diploma

42.1 %

Bachelors

22.1 %

Associate

18.0 %

Top Skills For an Inventory Associate

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 31.1% of inventory associates listed ladders on their resume, but soft skills such as communication skills and customer-service skills are important as well.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Inventory Associate Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Inventory Associate templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Inventory Associate resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

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Inventory Associate diversity

Inventory Associate Gender Distribution

Male
Male
60%
Female
Female
41%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among inventory associates, 40.5% of them are women, while 59.5% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among inventory associates is White, which makes up 56.1% of all inventory associates.

  • The most common foreign language among inventory associates is Spanish at 67.5%.

Online Courses For Inventory Associate That You May Like

Advertising Disclosure  

1. Introduction to Operations Management

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Learn to analyze and improve business processes in services or in manufacturing by learning how to increase productivity and deliver higher quality standards. Key concepts include process analysis, bottlenecks, flows rates, and inventory levels, and more. After successfully completing this course, you can apply these skills to a real-world business challenge as part of the Wharton Business Foundations Specialization...

2. Complete Inventory Management in Microsoft Excel & TALLY ERP9

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4.1
(335)

Inventory, StockControl, Inventory Control, Microsoft Excel inventory, Stock Calculation, Inventory Valuation, LIFO, FIFO, WACC...

3. Laravel 9 - Build Complete Inventory Management System A-Z

udemy
4.6
(350)

In This Course, You Will Build Two Different Projects With Laravel 9 including Inventory Management System A-Z...

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Best States For an Inventory Associate

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as an inventory associate. The best states for people in this position are Washington, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Inventory associates make the most in Washington with an average salary of $34,295. Whereas in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, they would average $33,935 and $33,685, respectively. While inventory associates would only make an average of $33,413 in Rhode Island, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. New Hampshire

Total Inventory Associate Jobs: 300
Highest 10% Earn:
$40,000
Location Quotient:
0.97

$33,935

Avg. Salary

View 300 Inventory Associate Jobs In NH

2. Maine

Total Inventory Associate Jobs: 237
Highest 10% Earn:
$38,000
Location Quotient:
1.01

$32,958

Avg. Salary

View 237 Inventory Associate Jobs In ME

3. North Dakota

Total Inventory Associate Jobs: 193
Highest 10% Earn:
$36,000
Location Quotient:
1.17

$30,416

Avg. Salary

View 193 Inventory Associate Jobs In ND
Full List Of Best States For Inventory Associates

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Top Inventory Associate Employers

Most Common Employers For Inventory Associate

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1Target$37,229$17.9091
2CarMax$36,814$17.70646
3Staples$36,597$17.59275
4Amazon$33,128$15.93175
5Blue Apron$32,904$15.8234
6Nordstrom$32,700$15.7242
7The Home Depot$32,248$15.50139
8Kohl's$32,247$15.5034
9Best Buy$32,182$15.47510
10Macy's$31,912$15.3473
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Inventory Associate Videos

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What Does a Warehouse Inventory Control Clerk Do? : Career Advice & More

Becoming an Inventory Associate FAQs

How Much Do Inventory Associates Make?

Inventory associates make an average hourly wage of $20. However, the salary range falls anywhere from $18 to $24 an hour, or around $35,000 to $40,000 in a year.

However, the specific salary range of an inventory associate depends largely on experience level. This means that the more experienced inventory associates can make closer to $50,000 in a year.

What Does An Inventory Associate Do At Walmart?

An inventory associate at Walmart moves inventory in the backroom and unloads trucks. They may also fulfill club pick-up orders or help members while stocking shelves.

An inventory associate keeps track of the goods and supplies at Walmart and manages orders to facilitate sales or production. Their duties include signing off on shipments, counting the number of available products, and placing orders for more inventory according to demand.

Have more questions? See all answers to common office and administrative questions.

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Updated April 6, 2023