Merchandise associates provide a coherent shopping experience. They understand how to use their people skills to match customers with products and answer their questions. As a merchandise associate, you are expected to maintain and organize the front of the store and provide customers with outstanding experiences. While interacting with customers, it is expected that you promote products and store loyalty programs. Also, you must scan new products into the inventory system of the store and apply the right sales tags. In addition, you are to also display popular sales items.
There is no particular certification needed to be a merchandise associate as candidates receive on-the-job training. Prior work experience is more important to be a qualified candidate. You must be someone who pays attention to details, possesses organizational skills, and has good customer service skills. It's also important that you are computer literate. As a merchandise associate, you should earn $11.01 per hour.
What is a Merchandising Associate?
What Does a Merchandising Associate Do
There are certain skills that many merchandising 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 selling skills, interpersonal skills and math skills.
How To Become a Merchandising Associate
If you're interested in becoming a merchandising associate, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 41.0% of merchandising associates have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 2.7% of merchandising associates have master's degrees. Even though some merchandising associates have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Merchandising Associate Job Description
Merchandising Associate Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of merchandiser you might progress to a role such as driver eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title operations manager.
Average Salary for a Merchandising Associate
What Am I Worth?
Roles and Types of Merchandising Associate
The role of a merchandising 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 merchandising associate responsibilities:
- Process accurate and efficient unloading of trucks complete
- 1. Store salesperson - duties include upselling, cross selling
- Receive freight and convey shipments from the shipping/receiving platform to backroom process, ticket, store, move,
There are several types of merchandising associate, including:
Merchandising Representative
Role:
Merchandising representative is an individual who typically works in retail and is responsible for assisting customers in making purchases. They also assist in stocking shelves, arranging product displays, help manage store inventory, and alert management to customer purchasing habits, likes, and dislikes.
Merchandizing representatives act as customer service representatives and assist customers if issues arise or if a customer has an issue with a purchased product. Merchandising representatives should be adept at computers and analyzing sales trends, as well as possess excellent customer service and communication skills.
Depending on the retail environment, these individuals may spend variable store hours, including weekends, and may spend most of the day on their feet. Merchandising representatives should possess excellent interpersonal, organizational, and communication skills and be able to provide quality customer service.
Although an advanced degree is not needed to obtain a position as a merchandising representative, these individuals should have excellent verbal, basic math skills. Depending upon the store or business, a merchandising representative can make up to $29,000 per year, and there are always opportunities for advancement to management positions. This career field is expected to grow in the US by 2% by 2028.
- Average Salary: $32,303
- Degree: Bachelor's Degree
States With The Most Merchandising Associate Jobs
Mouse over a state to see the number of active merchandising associate jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where merchandising associates earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.
Number Of Merchandising Associate Jobs By State
| Rank | State | Number of Jobs | Average Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | 9,231 | $38,720 |
| 2 | Florida | 6,089 | $31,416 |
| 3 | Texas | 5,936 | $30,650 |
| 4 | New York | 4,270 | $42,374 |
| 5 | Pennsylvania | 4,038 | $30,445 |
| 6 | Illinois | 3,409 | $34,564 |
| 7 | Ohio | 3,377 | $32,303 |
| 8 | North Carolina | 3,283 | $32,344 |
| 9 | Georgia | 3,190 | $30,520 |
| 10 | Virginia | 2,889 | $31,336 |
| 11 | Michigan | 2,794 | $35,423 |
| 12 | New Jersey | 2,584 | $35,844 |
| 13 | Massachusetts | 2,355 | $35,235 |
| 14 | Indiana | 2,070 | $29,250 |
| 15 | Tennessee | 1,884 | $31,391 |
| 16 | Maryland | 1,871 | $32,336 |
| 17 | Colorado | 1,836 | $34,939 |
| 18 | Arizona | 1,833 | $34,078 |
| 19 | Wisconsin | 1,729 | $36,514 |
| 20 | Washington | 1,651 | $41,382 |
| 21 | South Carolina | 1,564 | $30,696 |
| 22 | Missouri | 1,494 | $34,586 |
| 23 | Alabama | 1,456 | $30,769 |
| 24 | Minnesota | 1,413 | $35,498 |
| 25 | Connecticut | 1,385 | $35,892 |
| 26 | Kentucky | 1,126 | $31,369 |
| 27 | Louisiana | 978 | $28,822 |
| 28 | Utah | 879 | $33,505 |
| 29 | Iowa | 823 | $32,549 |
| 30 | Oregon | 792 | $39,786 |
| 31 | New Hampshire | 756 | $35,454 |
| 32 | Oklahoma | 752 | $31,727 |
| 33 | Kansas | 705 | $32,413 |
| 34 | Arkansas | 628 | $31,372 |
| 35 | Mississippi | 595 | $30,452 |
| 36 | Maine | 539 | $33,677 |
| 37 | Nevada | 495 | $32,676 |
| 38 | West Virginia | 482 | $29,384 |
| 39 | Delaware | 460 | $30,560 |
| 40 | Nebraska | 412 | $34,586 |
| 41 | New Mexico | 352 | $32,291 |
| 42 | Rhode Island | 340 | $36,348 |
| 43 | Idaho | 317 | $36,730 |
| 44 | Hawaii | 254 | $45,407 |
| 45 | Montana | 242 | $36,547 |
| 46 | North Dakota | 192 | $36,587 |
| 47 | Vermont | 188 | $36,849 |
| 48 | South Dakota | 162 | $34,205 |
| 49 | Wyoming | 118 | $35,253 |
| 50 | Alaska | 112 | $35,060 |
Top Skills For a Merchandising 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, 25.7% of merchandising associates listed cleanliness on their resume, but soft skills such as selling skills and interpersonal skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Merchandising Associate Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Merchandising Associate templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Merchandising Associate resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Merchandising Associate diversity
Merchandising Associate Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among merchandising associates, 56.2% of them are women, while 43.8% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among merchandising associates is White, which makes up 56.4% of all merchandising associates.
- The most common foreign language among merchandising associates is Spanish at 60.9%.
Online Courses For Merchandising Associate That You May Like
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Best States For a Merchandising Associate
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a merchandising associate. The best states for people in this position are Hawaii, New York, Washington, and Oregon. Merchandising associates make the most in Hawaii with an average salary of $45,407. Whereas in New York and Washington, they would average $42,374 and $41,382, respectively. While merchandising associates would only make an average of $39,786 in Oregon, 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 York
$42,374
Avg. Salary
2. Wisconsin
$36,514
Avg. Salary
3. Michigan
$35,423
Avg. Salary
How Do Merchandising Associates Rate Their Jobs?
Top Merchandising Associate Employers
Most Common Employers For Merchandising Associate
| Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Target | $36,142 | $17.38 | 72 |
| 2 | Meijer | $35,536 | $17.08 | 111 |
| 3 | Best Buy | $35,054 | $16.85 | 294 |
| 4 | Macy's | $34,334 | $16.51 | 797 |
| 5 | Gap Inc. | $34,062 | $16.38 | 72 |
| 6 | The Home Depot | $33,295 | $16.01 | 589 |
| 7 | Saks Fifth Avenue | $32,855 | $15.80 | 66 |
| 8 | The Walt Disney Company | $32,824 | $15.78 | 137 |
| 9 | Kohl's | $32,795 | $15.77 | 231 |
| 10 | Walmart | $32,611 | $15.68 | 227 |
Merchandising Associate Videos
