How To Become A Lead Retail Consultant: What It Is and Career Path

What is a lead retail consultant and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

A lead retail consultant utilizes their experience and expertise in retail operations to provide valuable advice to clients on how they can improve their daily retail operations. As a lead employee, they are also typically in charge of managing a team of other retail consultants and helping them optimize their performance.

Most of a lead retail consultant's time is spent on conducting research and making observations in retail stores before they can provide consultations with their clients. In doing so, they ensure that every piece of advice that they give is based on facts and not just assumptions.

If you think becoming a lead retail consultant is the right career path for you, the first thing you need to attain this role is usually a four-year degree in a business-related field. After that, you would need to gain extensive experience in the industry to build your credentials as well as your skills as a consultant.

With this role, you may work for a business consultancy firm or as an in-house employee for a company. Either way, the average salary is around $45,000 a year, depending on your employer and level of experience.

ScoreLead Retail ConsultantUS Average

Salary

3.1

Avg. Salary $39,319

Avg. Salary $59,228

Diversity

8.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.65%

Asian 6.93%

Black or African American 8.43%

Hispanic or Latino 17.82%

Unknown 4.64%

White 61.52%

Gender

female 40.94%

male 59.06%

Age - 42

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 42

Stress level

9.4

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

5.2

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.6

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a lead retail consultant

Explore lead retail consultant education requirements

Most common lead retail consultant degrees

Bachelor's

49.7 %

High School Diploma

22.6 %

Associate

19.0 %

Start to develop specific lead retail consultant skills

Skills	Percentages
POS	19.80%
Sales Floor	17.47%
Basic Math	12.94%
Product Knowledge	5.99%
Punctuality	5.49%

Complete relevant lead retail consultant training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New lead retail consultants learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a lead retail consultant based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real lead retail consultant resumes.

Research lead retail consultant duties and responsibilities

Assist store leadership in effectively leading, managing and developing store and/or department operations and associates to maximize sales and profitability.
Operate POS (point of sale) station with responsibility for a balance cash drawer daily.
Complete POS and cash register functions such as hourly readings, balancing, voids and undo transactions when necessary.
Assist store leadership in effectively leading, managing and developing store and/or department operations and associates to maximize sales and profitability.

Get lead retail consultant experience

Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become a lead retail consultant. The most common roles before becoming a lead retail consultant include sales associate, store manager team lead and retail consultant.

Prepare your lead retail consultant resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your lead retail consultant resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a lead retail consultant resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable lead retail consultant resume templates

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