How To Become A Retail Account Executive: What It Is and Career Path

What is a retail account executive and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Laura Sansoni

Retail account executives help their companies grow by generating leads, servicing existing clients, closing sales, and developing sales strategies in the retail field. Apart from these responsibilities, a retail account executive also prepares presentations for clients, conducts market research, analyzes trends that are relevant to the company, maintains client information databases, and reaching out to prospects.

When clients have complaints, they are usually the first contact points and are responsible for resolving the issues. As such, they must have exemplary skills in client relations, communications, customer service, and time management to be successful in this role. You can qualify for this role with a high school diploma or a bachelor's degree. Either way, you must have substantial industry experience to prove that you have the skills and knowledge to bring considerable value to your potential clients, and ultimately, the company as a whole.

Depending on your employer and industry, you can make an average salary of $45,000 a year, but your earning potential can become as high as $100,000 or more.

What general advice would you give to a retail account executive?

Laura Sansoni

Director, Career Development, CBA Career Center, University of Nebraska at Omaha

Whenever I work with a new graduate, I see them experiencing many emotions ranging from excitement from completing their education to anxiety about starting their careers.

For the graduates that have a job, I highly encourage them to take advantage of any opportunity presented to them. Participate in workplace events, take advantage of professional development opportunities like attending conferences or trainings, and volunteer to work on projects when asked to. Taking advantage of these opportunities in your workplace will increase your skills and experiences while deepening your connections to your colleagues and growing your personal network.

For graduates that are still looking for jobs, I remind them that the worst things that can happen in the job search are an employer saying "no", "we went with another candidate", or not responding to your application at all. While that can be scary and defeating at times, think about the positives of the situation. You didn't get the interview or the job, but you didn't lose anything either. Instead, you gained more experience in the job search process that you can improve upon for the next time. I also remind new grads to let the employers decide if they are the right fit for the job instead of counting yourself out too early. If you meet 75 percent of the qualifications in the job description, apply for the job and let the recruiter decide whether to set up an interview. Don't be so afraid of the next "no" that it prevents you from finding the next possible "yes".

ScoreRetail Account ExecutiveUS Average

Salary

5.5

Avg. Salary $70,523

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.4

Growth rate 5%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.24%

Asian 4.07%

Black or African American 3.24%

Hispanic or Latino 9.82%

Unknown 4.41%

White 78.23%

Gender

female 50.41%

male 49.59%

Age - 46

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 - 46

Stress level

6.4

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.7

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.4

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a retail account executive

Explore retail account executive education requirements

Most common retail account executive degrees

Bachelor's

72.7 %

Associate

15.1 %

Master's

6.8 %

Start to develop specific retail account executive skills

Skills	Percentages
Customer Service	23.87%
Sales Objectives	7.08%
Sales Process	6.09%
Sales Associates	5.11%
PowerPoint	5.11%

Complete relevant retail account executive training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New retail account executives 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 retail account executive based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real retail account executive resumes.

Research retail account executive duties and responsibilities

Manage inter-company reconciliations, corporate credit card reconciliations, expense reports and purchase order approvals.
Manage retail accounting month-end processes, including account reconciliations and retail sales tax reporting and compliance, ensuring data integrity.
Process accounts payable, accounts receivables and payroll transactions, and monitor collection activity within compliance of SOX utilizing customize software.
Serve as primary troubleshooter for all retail systems (process, POS issues, etc .).

Prepare your retail account executive resume

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