There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a retail product manager. For example, did you know that they make an average of $39.58 an hour? That's $82,334 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 8% and produce 21,800 job opportunities across the U.S.

What Does a Retail Product Manager Do

There are certain skills that many retail product managers 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 creativity, interpersonal skills and organizational skills.

Learn more about what a Retail Product Manager does

How To Become a Retail Product Manager

If you're interested in becoming a retail product manager, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 68.4% of retail product managers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 14.5% of retail product managers have master's degrees. Even though most retail product managers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Retail Product Manager Career Paths

Average Salary for a Retail Product Manager

Retail Product Managers in America make an average salary of $82,334 per year or $40 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $139,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $48,000 per year.
Average Retail Product Manager Salary
$82,334 Yearly
$39.58 hourly

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Roles and Types of Retail Product Manager

There are several types of retail product manager, including:

Product Manager

Role:

Do you ever wonder how products sell in the marketplace? Or how come your favorite artist is on the television, advertising the item you could see on a shopping stall, but didn't think of buying until now? That's a product manager's job. Simply put, product managers handle the product's presence in the market to persuade a person, like you, to take those items home.

Needless to say, the product manager is a senior position. And for you to qualify, you should have extensive experience and skills under your belt to handle sales strategies and the team's performance. You'll be the team's "know-it-all" - meaning, you'll never run out of ideas and techniques to make the account successful. Basically, that's your objective - to help the business grow by achieving your client's highest satisfaction.

Being a product manager is actually not a smooth-sailing journey, because you will be accountable for whatever results your strategies might create. But the self-accomplishment it brings is priceless, especially when you know that you contribute so much to the company's goals. Everyone has their own starting point. It's just a matter of hard work and patience to get to the top of the game. And maybe, the business owner of the cereal you're eating every morning needs someone like you to lead that brand. We'll never know.

  • Average Salary: $111,729
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Product Marketing Manager

Role:

Product marketing managers are responsible for developing effective marketing strategies and plans to communicate the features and benefits of new products to customers. You are to handle market research on current trending products, establish timescales for upcoming products, influence pricing and packaging, guide sales teams, develop messaging, and market positioning around products, and participate in presentations and events. Frequently, you are referred to as the 'voice of the customer' within the company, precisely researching consumer needs and experiences. You will work mainly in private sector companies, but you can be employed by any company that promotes and sells products.

You need to have a bachelor's degree in business administration or marketing for this job. As a product marketing manager, your job requires you to work with multiple teams, and you need to have collaborative skills. You should also have excellent product management skills. Your average salary per annum is $92,174.

  • Average Salary: $112,220
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Product Development Manager

Role:

A Product Development Manager, also known as a PDM, is an expert, often in software engineering or UX design or both, tasked with designing, developing, and improving new products and services that can be sold to the public and other companies and organizations.

They must be able to do market and technological research, develop proposals, supervise the design and development projects and processes, cooperate and collaborate with specialists and employees working in other parts of the company, and often must present and explain the product to investors, higher management, and customers alike.

Generally, a person hoping to begin working as a Product Development Manager must have at least a Bachelor's in Industrial Design, Engineering, or a similar field of study, along with some experience in similar and related positions, and a good understanding and proficiency in prototype and design software and platforms, such as 3D printers and Autodesk.

Depending on the level of the positions, further education, experience, and specialties may be necessary.

  • Average Salary: $113,437
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

States With The Most Retail Product Manager Jobs

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

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Retail Product Manager Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1California11,735$104,160
2Texas5,196$83,464
3New York4,479$79,879
4Florida4,283$68,635
5Illinois3,739$71,915
6Washington3,149$94,242
7Massachusetts3,124$96,997
8Georgia2,936$65,177
9Pennsylvania2,807$79,186
10New Jersey2,682$82,794
11Ohio2,656$64,249
12Virginia2,539$70,523
13North Carolina2,512$70,183
14Michigan2,404$67,522
15Colorado1,960$57,542
16Minnesota1,740$57,049
17Indiana1,732$63,771
18Arizona1,709$79,706
19Maryland1,628$73,901
20Oregon1,522$90,242
21Wisconsin1,499$59,915
22Tennessee1,362$58,606
23Missouri1,283$59,995
24Utah1,119$72,202
25Kentucky1,034$56,771
26Alabama922$64,083
27South Carolina890$62,526
28Iowa888$54,865
29Connecticut886$85,595
30Arkansas714$59,108
31Kansas709$52,887
32Louisiana639$66,774
33New Hampshire558$72,219
34Oklahoma522$64,692
35Nebraska519$53,875
36Nevada508$79,550
37Mississippi475$66,452
38New Mexico463$79,397
39Idaho433$76,719
40Rhode Island357$90,822
41Maine337$82,124
42Montana335$57,227
43Delaware293$80,958
44West Virginia273$69,614
45Vermont270$69,085
46North Dakota235$51,927
47South Dakota187$48,355
48Hawaii184$59,407
49Alaska170$61,919
50Wyoming162$57,824

Retail Product Manager Education

Retail Product Manager Majors

36.8 %
10.4 %

Retail Product Manager Degrees

Bachelors

68.4 %

Masters

14.5 %

Associate

10.5 %

Top Colleges for Retail Product Managers

1. University of Georgia

Athens, GA • Private

In-State Tuition

$11,830

Enrollment

29,474

2. University of Wisconsin - Madison

Madison, WI • Private

In-State Tuition

$10,555

Enrollment

30,360

3. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

Minneapolis, MN • Private

In-State Tuition

$14,760

Enrollment

31,451

4. Purdue University

West Lafayette, IN • Private

In-State Tuition

$9,992

Enrollment

33,495

5. Howard University

Washington, DC • Private

In-State Tuition

$26,756

Enrollment

6,166

6. Ohio State University

Columbus, OH • Private

In-State Tuition

$10,726

Enrollment

45,769

7. University of Texas at Austin

Austin, TX • Private

In-State Tuition

$10,610

Enrollment

40,329

8. University of Southern California

Los Angeles, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$56,225

Enrollment

19,548

9. University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,584

Enrollment

10,764

10. SUNY at Binghamton

Vestal, NY • Private

In-State Tuition

$9,808

Enrollment

13,990

Top Skills For a Retail Product Manager

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, 25.4% of retail product managers listed digital marketing on their resume, but soft skills such as creativity and interpersonal skills are important as well.

Retail Product Manager diversity

Retail Product Manager Gender Distribution

Female
Female
50%
Male
Male
50%

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

  • Among retail product managers, 50.4% of them are women, while 49.6% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among retail product managers is White, which makes up 74.6% of all retail product managers.

  • The most common foreign language among retail product managers is Spanish at 36.4%.

Online Courses For Retail Product Manager That You May Like

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1. Product Management (Part Time)

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Balance business viability, technical feasibility, and customer desire to lead products and features toward long-term success. Learn from a seasoned expert. This course is offered in person and live online, in a remote classroom setting...

2. Digital Marketing (Part Time)

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Build confidence and capability to apply modern marketing strategies on the job. Drive growth with multichannel campaigns powered by data and customer insight. This course is offered in person and live online, in a remote classroom setting...

3. How to Build A Startup

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The main idea in this course is learning how to rapidly develop and test ideas by gathering massive amounts of customer and marketplace feedback. Many startups fail by not validating their ideas early on with real-life customers. In order to mitigate that, students will learn how to get out of the building and search for the real pain points and unmet needs of customers. Only with these can the entrepreneur find a proper solution and establish a suitable business model...

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Best States For a Retail Product Manager

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a retail product manager. The best states for people in this position are California, Massachusetts, Washington, and Rhode Island. Retail product managers make the most in California with an average salary of $104,160. Whereas in Massachusetts and Washington, they would average $96,997 and $94,242, respectively. While retail product managers would only make an average of $90,822 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. California

Total Retail Product Manager Jobs: 11,735
Highest 10% Earn:
$175,000
Location Quotient:
1.38

2. Washington

Total Retail Product Manager Jobs: 3,149
Highest 10% Earn:
$160,000
Location Quotient:
1.48

3. Massachusetts

Total Retail Product Manager Jobs: 3,124
Highest 10% Earn:
$172,000
Location Quotient:
1.17
Full List Of Best States For Retail Product Managers

How Do Retail Product Managers Rate Their Jobs?

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Top Retail Product Manager Employers

Most Common Employers For Retail Product Manager

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1Expedia Group$113,024$54.342
2Citi$112,966$54.312
3Levi Strauss & Co.$112,578$54.126
4IBM$105,528$50.732
5NCR$84,843$40.793
6Hewlett Packard Enterprise$83,917$40.343
7Hy-Vee$82,675$39.752
8Product Management Festival$80,809$38.853
9Kohler Co.$78,948$37.962
10Zions Ban$78,249$37.627

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