How To Become A Retail Marketing Manager: What It Is and Career Path

What is a retail marketing manager and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted experts

Tobias Sellier,

Richard Tate

The chief duty of a retail marketing manager is to boost sales through various marketing campaigns and techniques, particularly in retail operations. That said, this job requires an extensive background in marketing as well as a deep understanding of customer behavior.

The typical work responsibilities of a retail marketing manager revolve around conducting marketing analysis, observing retail operations, and staying on top of current market trends. After gathering relevant information, a retail marketing manager then develops marketing strategies that help products and services reach their target audiences, usually alongside the marketing team.

When hiring for this role, most employers prefer candidates with a background in marketing, ideally a four-year degree at the minimum. Furthermore, they want candidates with at least a few years of experience working in a retail setting to ensure that they understand retail operations and customer behavior at the store level.

As for the salary, retail marketing managers make $58,000 a year or $28 per hour, on average.

What general advice would you give to a retail marketing manager?

Tobias Sellier

Senior Director, American Public Power Association

There are exciting opportunities to work for community-owned, not-for-profit, hometown public power. From engineers and customer service representatives to lineworkers and administrative professionals, there are many opportunities. And utility employees, being essential workers, even during these challenging times, there are still many jobs that will need to be filled.

ScoreRetail Marketing ManagerUS Average

Salary

4.9

Avg. Salary $62,972

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.5

Growth rate 10%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.23%

Asian 8.15%

Black or African American 3.04%

Hispanic or Latino 8.67%

Unknown 5.32%

White 74.58%

Gender

female 56.09%

male 43.91%

Age - 38

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 - 38

Stress level

7.5

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.5

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a retail marketing manager

Explore retail marketing manager education requirements

Most common retail marketing manager degrees

Bachelor's

76.4 %

Master's

13.7 %

Associate

6.3 %

Start to develop specific retail marketing manager skills

Skills	Percentages
Digital Marketing	13.52%
Marketing Campaigns	6.90%
Channel Marketing	6.72%
PowerPoint	5.94%
ROI	4.39%

Complete relevant retail marketing manager training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New retail marketing managers 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 marketing manager based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real retail marketing manager resumes.

Research retail marketing manager duties and responsibilities

Lead the CRM lifecycle from purchase to service.
Manage store signage program including design, custom options and co-op incentives.
Lead cross-platform rebranding with aesthetic continuity, fresh content and increase video use.
Lead internal recognition of how RMD is complimentary but additive to more traditional functions within CPG manufacturing.

Prepare your retail marketing manager resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your retail marketing manager 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 retail marketing manager resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable retail marketing manager resume templates

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