A retail specialist is also known as a retail salesperson or sales associate. Regardless of what name they are called, they help customers find services and products they want to buy. To do this, they explain the essential features of an offering and often demonstrate its uses to potential buyers.
Besides telling customers about products and services, they may also process orders, wrap purchases, collect customer data, or handle coupons. However, this job description varies from one retail store to another.
Since a retail specialist's job is flexible and entails a more hands-on approach, potential candidates may not need an educational background to qualify as a retail specialist. However, most stores restrict qualification to those with high-school diplomas to ensure the availability of basic skill sets. Retail specialists are front line workers and often collaborate with customer service to ensure a positive shopping experience for all customers.
How to Become a Retail Specialist
What is a Retail Specialist
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a Retail Specialist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $15.79 an hour? That's $32,839 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -2% and produce -105,200 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Retail Specialist Do
There are certain skills that many Retail Specialists 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 Interpersonal skills, Math skills and Persistence.
How To Become a Retail Specialist
If you're interested in becoming a Retail Specialist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 49.8% of Retail Specialists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 3.2% of Retail Specialists have master's degrees. Even though most Retail Specialists have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a Retail Specialist. When we researched the most common majors for a Retail Specialist, we found that they most commonly earn Bachelor's Degree degrees or High School Diploma degrees. Other degrees that we often see on Retail Specialist resumes include Associate Degree degrees or Diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a Retail Specialist. In fact, many Retail Specialist jobs require experience in a role such as Sales Associate. Meanwhile, many Retail Specialists also have previous career experience in roles such as Cashier or Customer Service Representative.
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Retail Specialist Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a Retail Specialist can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as Specialist, progress to a title such as Team Leader and then eventually end up with the title General Manager.
Retail Specialist Jobs You Might Like
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Average Salary for a Retail Specialist
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5 Retail Specialist Resume Examples
Build a professional retail specialist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 5+ resume templates to create your retail specialist resume.
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Ashley Wagner Retail Specialist |
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Ashley Wagner Retail Specialist Experience Retail Specialist2020 - Present Dillard's•Jacksonville, FL
Retail Specialist2018 - 2020 Apple•Houston, TX
Merchandiser, Sales2017 - 2018 Walmart•Houston, TX
Skills Customer AccountsNew ItemsHRProper USECustomer ComplaintsApolloCompany PoliciesProduct InventoryInternetProduct Knowledge Education Bachelor's Degree Graphic Design2014 - 2017 Massachusetts College of Art and Design•Boston, MA |
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Learn How To Write a Retail Specialist Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Retail Specialist resumes and compiled some information about how to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Retail Specialist Resume Examples And TemplatesAnd if you’re looking for a job, here are the five top employers hiring now:
Choose From 10+ Customizable Retail Specialist Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Retail Specialist templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Retail Specialist resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Retail Specialist Demographics
Retail Specialist Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among Retail Specialists, 57.2% of them are women, while 42.8% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among Retail Specialists is White, which makes up 61.7% of all Retail Specialists.
- The most common foreign language among Retail Specialists is Spanish at 57.0%.
Find the best Retail Specialist job for you
Retail Specialist Jobs You Might Like
- High Paying Retail Specialist Jobs - $40K and Up
- Work From Home Retail Specialist Jobs
- Entry Level Retail Specialist Jobs
- Part Time Retail Specialist Jobs
- Actively Hiring
- No Degree Retail Specialist Jobs
Find the best Retail Specialist job for you
Retail Specialist Jobs You Might Like
- High Paying Retail Specialist Jobs - $40K and Up
- Work From Home Retail Specialist Jobs
- Entry Level Retail Specialist Jobs
- Part Time Retail Specialist Jobs
- Actively Hiring
- No Degree Retail Specialist Jobs
Online Courses For Retail Specialist That You May Like
Create Inventory POS System Project With Billing by use of Bootstrap Responsive AdminLTE Dashboard With PHP PHP7 MYSQL...
In this course, part of the Retail Management Professional Certificate program, you will learn the four key components of the retail business: Demand forecasting, Inventory management Assortment planning Pricing decisions You will learn about the different challenges that retailers face and have the opportunity to explore methods and techniques available to address these challenges. You will also have access to simulation tools to better internalize the concepts. The course will take a...
Learn the key principles of great Visual Merchandising & Window Dressing...
Top Skills For a Retail Specialist
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, 38.0% of Retail Specialists listed Store Management on their resume, but soft skills such as Interpersonal skills and Math skills are important as well.
Best States For a Retail Specialist
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a Retail Specialist. The best states for people in this position are California, Montana, Washington, and North Dakota. Retail Specialists make the most in California with an average salary of $44,095. Whereas in Montana and Washington, they would average $40,147 and $40,127, respectively. While Retail Specialists would only make an average of $39,616 in North Dakota, 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. North Dakota
$39,616
Avg. Salary
2. California
$44,095
Avg. Salary
3. Montana
$40,147
Avg. Salary
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Retail Specialist Videos
