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What does a retail product manager do?

Updated January 8, 2025
7 min read
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Retail product manager responsibilities

Here are examples of responsibilities from real retail product manager resumes:

  • Hire and task several industry experts to define customer requirements; manage collection and prioritization of customer requirements and overall VOC.
  • Lead cross-functional team in pioneering the application/game download ecosystem with the implementation of Java games and generating significant new revenue stream.
  • Develop and implement PowerPoint and Webinar sales training for all products.
  • Utilize SQL to support data-driven analysis and decision processes to inform project prioritization, assess feature effectiveness, and troubleshoot issues.
  • Coordinate with the QA team to develop test plans.
  • Hire and task several industry experts to define customer requirements; manage collection and prioritization of customer requirements and overall VOC.

Retail product manager skills and personality traits

We calculated that 25% of Retail Product Managers are proficient in Digital Marketing, Product Management, and PowerPoint. They’re also known for soft skills such as Creativity, Interpersonal skills, and Organizational skills.

We break down the percentage of Retail Product Managers that have these skills listed on their resume here:

  • Digital Marketing, 25%

    Coordinate to perform comprehensive digital marketing situation analysis to customize digital marketing strategy and tactics for prostate marketing team.

  • Product Management, 14%

    Assisted department managers with questions concerning product management.

  • PowerPoint, 12%

    Created customer presentations in PowerPoint with product information market trends and analysis.

  • Product Development, 7%

    Developed product development briefs that focused direction to the project teams/agencies to develop best-in-class programs.

  • Product Lifecycle, 5%

    Managed the B&W product line and related product lifecycles from launch through EOF.

  • POS, 4%

    Major accomplishments: Got approval for major investment in new POS implementation; to replace 20-year-old custom POS solution.

"digital marketing," "product management," and "powerpoint" are among the most common skills that retail product managers use at work. You can find even more retail product manager responsibilities below, including:

Creativity. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a retail product manager to have is creativity. Their role and responsibilities require that "advertising, promotions, and marketing managers must be able to generate new and imaginative ideas." Retail product managers often use creativity in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "managed responsibilities for servicing products, advertising, product knowledge, stocking, and inventory control. "

Interpersonal skills. Another essential skill to perform retail product manager duties is interpersonal skills. Retail product managers responsibilities require that "managers must deal with a range of people in different roles, both inside and outside the organization." Retail product managers also use interpersonal skills in their role according to a real resume snippet: "possess strong analytical, communication and interpersonal skills. "

Organizational skills. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of retail product managers is organizational skills. This skill is critical to many everyday retail product manager duties, as "advertising, promotions, and marketing managers must manage their time and budget efficiently while directing and motivating staff members." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "created business development organizational framework and processes. "

Analytical skills. retail product manager responsibilities often require "analytical skills." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "advertising, promotions, and marketing managers must be able to analyze industry trends to determine the most promising strategies for their organization." This resume example shows what retail product managers do with analytical skills on a typical day: "supervised product development from ideation through vendor selection and production, merchandising and advertising, and sales analysis. "

Communication skills. Another common skill required for retail product manager responsibilities is "communication skills." This skill comes up in the duties of retail product managers all the time, as "managers must be able to communicate effectively with a broad-based team made up of other managers or staff members during the advertising, promotions, and marketing process." An excerpt from a real retail product manager resume shows how this skill is central to what a retail product manager does: "coordinated all factory communication through product development stages. "

Most common retail product manager skills

Compare different retail product managers

Retail product manager vs. Brand marketing manager

A brand marketing manager is an individual who ensures that efficient execution of business plans is achieved to meet future brand expectations and targets of a company. Brand marketing managers need to ensure brand integrity by guiding efforts across multiple media channels such as television, radio, and paid social media. They are required to work closely with the brand marketing management team to review and approve all branded elements for advertising and launch materials. Brand marketing managers must also provide reports of brand performance and distribute them to the management and stakeholders.

If we compare the average retail product manager annual salary with that of a brand marketing manager, we find that brand marketing managers typically earn a $9,606 higher salary than retail product managers make annually.While the two careers have a salary gap, they share some of the same responsibilities. Employees in both retail product manager and brand marketing manager positions are skilled in digital marketing, product development, and pos.

These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a retail product manager are more likely to require skills like "product management," "powerpoint," "product lifecycle," and "saas." On the other hand, a job as a brand marketing manager requires skills like "brand marketing," "marketing campaigns," "brand management," and "project management." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.

Brand marketing managers tend to make the most money working in the media industry, where they earn an average salary of $106,291. In contrast, retail product managers make the biggest average salary, $88,240, in the retail industry.On average, brand marketing managers reach similar levels of education than retail product managers. Brand marketing managers are 0.4% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.5% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Retail product manager vs. Product director

The duties of a product director depend on one's place or industry of employment. Typically, their responsibilities revolve around overseeing the product development operations to ensure smooth flow and efficiency, devise strategies to improve processes, gather relevant data such as sales and customer feedback, and coordinate with different departments in developing new products and services. Furthermore, as a director, it is essential to lead and encourage departments to meet goals, all while implementing the company's policies and regulations, including its mission and vision.

Product director positions earn higher pay than retail product manager roles. They earn a $66,576 higher salary than retail product managers per year.A few skills overlap for retail product managers and product directors. Resumes from both professions show that the duties of each career rely on skills like "digital marketing," "product management," and "product development. "

In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, retail product manager responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "powerpoint," "product lifecycle," "pos," and "inventory management." Meanwhile, a product director has duties that require skills in areas such as "product strategy," "project management," "product roadmap," and "product design." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.

On average, product directors earn a higher salary than retail product managers. Some industries support higher salaries in each profession. Interestingly enough, product directors earn the most pay in the internet industry with an average salary of $155,810. Whereas retail product managers have higher pay in the retail industry, with an average salary of $88,240.product directors earn similar levels of education than retail product managers in general. They're 4.8% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.5% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Retail product manager vs. Product lead

A product lead is responsible for monitoring the development of new products and services of an organization, starting from brand conceptualization to official market release and distribution. Product leads identify effective product management by conducting data analysis and evaluating market statistics of customer demands. They coordinate with the clients on their specifications and requirements, including the budget limit and timely deliverables. A product lead manages the brand promotion on media platforms, creating content that adheres to the target audience.

An average product lead eans a higher salary compared to the average salary of retail product managers. The difference in salaries amounts to product leads earning a $36,494 higher average salary than retail product managers.retail product managers and product leads both have job responsibilities that require similar skill sets. These similarities include skills such as "digital marketing," "product management," and "product development," but they differ when it comes to other required skills.

The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, retail product managers are more likely to have skills like "powerpoint," "product lifecycle," "competitive analysis," and "inventory management." But a product lead is more likely to have skills like "project management," "architecture," "lifecycle management," and "cloud."

Product leads make a very good living in the hospitality industry with an average annual salary of $129,039. On the other hand, retail product managers are paid the highest salary in the retail industry, with average annual pay of $88,240.product leads typically earn similar educational levels compared to retail product managers. Specifically, they're 4.7% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 1.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Retail product manager vs. Web manager

Web Managers are responsible for managing websites for organizations. Their duties include managing website upgrades, testing for website performance, implement a strategy to increase web traffic and subscribers, troubleshooting website issues, and responding to security breaches. They create content audits as well as ensuring the website has brand strategy alignment. A Web Manager ensures website compliance with all regulations and keeps abreast of the best practice of the industry. They must possess good problem-solving skills and knowledge in search engine optimization.

Web managers typically earn higher pay than retail product managers. On average, web managers earn a $362 higher salary per year.According to resumes from retail product managers and web managers, some of the skills necessary to complete the responsibilities of each role are similar. These skills include "digital marketing," "powerpoint," and "channel marketing. "While some skills are required in each professionacirc;euro;trade;s responsibilities, there are some differences to note. "product management," "product development," "product lifecycle," and "pos" are skills that commonly show up on retail product manager resumes. On the other hand, web managers use skills like wordpress, html css, b testing, and google analytics on their resumes.The average resume of web managers showed that they earn similar levels of education compared to retail product managers. So much so that theyacirc;euro;trade;re 4.7% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree by 0.6%.

Types of retail product manager

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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