Ever been into a store with no idea of what you're getting (phew, what a hassle!)? Or have you a hard time picking between two beautiful-colored sneakers (why not get both anyway)? Worry no more! A sales clerk might be who you need to get your shopping spree done.
Sales clerks are usually those employees walking around the store to assist customers with their store experience. They know a lot about certain products, so you can trust them to give you advice on which is the best one for you. They even demonstrate the features of these items and recommend alternatives, if you're on a tight budget. Pretty cool, right? They interact with people for over eight hours, as needed, probably even during weekends, as their job requires. But really, being a sales clerk can be an awesome job. I mean, believe me, if it wasn't for sales clerks, it would be hard to look for your favorite baseball cap or fashion tee.
Being a sales clerk gives you so much exposure interacting with different people and gaining your self-confidence. If you're into customer service, this might be a good stepping stone for gaining professional expertise!
What is a Sales Clerk?
What Does a Sales Clerk Do
There are certain skills that many sales clerks 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 customer-service skills, interpersonal skills and math skills.
How To Become a Sales Clerk
If you're interested in becoming a sales clerk, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 33.8% of sales clerks have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 2.2% of sales clerks have master's degrees. Even though some sales clerks have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Sales Clerk Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of office assistant you might progress to a role such as executive assistant eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title operations manager.
Average Salary for a Sales Clerk
What Am I Worth?
Roles and Types of Sales Clerk
The role of a sales clerk includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general sales clerk responsibilities:
- Approach, acknowledge and assist customers promptly; handle multiple customers effectively. Assess
- Assists in the preparation and review of sales catalogs
- Responsible for overall operations of sale department; may order merchandise, receive, price
There are several types of sales clerk, including:
Clerk
Role:
Clerks have a lot of administrative roles in their day-to-day job responsibilities. From answering the phone to typing up documents, and even filing and speaking with clients, clerks have a lot on their shoulders.
For the most part, you only need to graduate from high school before becoming a clerk but some clerk positions may require you to complete a certification course beforehand. The majority of your knowledge of the job will come from the on-the-job training you'll be taken through.
You may not have a lot of stress in your day or you could feel a lot of stress, it really depends on what industry you choose to start your career in. Speaking of, you have a lot of options. On the plus side, you'll never work more than 40 hours a week so you can leave work at the office and enjoy your time off.
- Average Salary: $31,163
- Degree: Bachelor's Degree
Services Clerk
Role:
A service clerk usually works in retail or for service-oriented companies such as banks, consulting firms, repair businesses, or telecommunications. They provide customer service in person, answering questions, providing information on services, retrieving products, or handling the cash register.
Service clerks are outgoing and friendly employees with great communication skills, an organized mindset, and attention to detail. Being good with numbers is a great asset to have as well, as you will be dealing with money and keeping track of payments.
Working as a service clerk is an entry-level position that does not require specific education, other than a high school diploma. You will be trained on the job, and the work is easy to learn. You will be a member of a team following the instructions of a department manager or a supervisor. Salaries average around $15.17 an hour, with many opportunities to grow and advance.
- Average Salary: $31,246
- Degree: Bachelor's Degree
Sales Team Member
Role:
Sales team members represent the company and assist customers by assessing their needs and helping them find the right products and services to meet those needs. The scope of their duties include utilizing company sales approaches to develop an improved customer experience, maintaining a well-stocked and neat store, and identifying and handling client orders quickly, appropriately, and in a friendly manner. Sales team members must be able to ensure they follow proper refund and error correction procedures, maintain accurate and precise cash control, and interact closely with sales floor guests as well as cash register personnel. They also must comply with all organisation policies, guidelines, and standard practices. Depending on the particular position, they may also be in charge of maintaining suitable checking stands and bagging stations and keeping the store's workstation and front area neat and clean.
Sales team members must have excellent written and verbal communication skills. They also need great interpersonal skills in order to work effectively on a team. Sales team members should have a genuine desire to help their customers and be polite and patient as they assist customers with finding what they need. They should also be proactive and try to predict what a customer needs before they ask.
A high school diploma or GED is usually sufficient for becoming a sales team member, but some form of experience in sales might be helpful as well. Some employers provide training for new employees to let them learn the ropes of the job. Most sales team member positions pay roughly $14 an hour, which translates to $32,000 per year.
- Average Salary: $33,827
- Degree: Bachelor's Degree
States With The Most Sales Clerk Jobs
Mouse over a state to see the number of active sales clerk jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where sales clerks earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.
Number Of Sales Clerk Jobs By State
Top Skills For a Sales Clerk
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, 26.0% of sales clerks listed customer service on their resume, but soft skills such as customer-service skills and interpersonal skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Sales Clerk Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Sales Clerk templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Sales Clerk resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Sales Clerk diversity
Sales Clerk Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among sales clerks, 64.7% of them are women, while 35.3% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among sales clerks is White, which makes up 57.6% of all sales clerks.
- The most common foreign language among sales clerks is Spanish at 63.6%.
Online Courses For Sales Clerk That You May Like
1. The Complete B2B Sales Masterclass: 6 Courses in 1
1. Generate Leads, 2. Pitch, 3. Close & Handle Any Objection: Get Certified in Cutting Edge, Non-Pushy B2B Sales System...
2. Sales Training: Practical Sales Techniques
Sales Hacking: Essential sales skills, sales strategies and sales techniques to sell just about anything!...
3. Sales Training: How To Close More Sales
Closing Sales: Sales Training Course: Sales Skills; Selling Techniques; Sales Strategies for B2B, B2C Direct Sales...
Best States For a Sales Clerk
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a sales clerk. The best states for people in this position are New York, Massachusetts, Idaho, and California. Sales clerks make the most in New York with an average salary of $30,830. Whereas in Massachusetts and Idaho, they would average $30,527 and $30,102, respectively. While sales clerks would only make an average of $29,854 in California, 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. New Hampshire
$27,064
Avg. Salary
2. New York
$30,830
Avg. Salary
3. Pennsylvania
$25,960
Avg. Salary
How Do Sales Clerks Rate Their Jobs?
Top Sales Clerk Employers
Most Common Employers For Sales Clerk
Sales Clerk Videos
Becoming a Sales Clerk FAQs
How Long Does It Take To Become A Sales Clerk?
It takes one year or less to become a sales clerk. That is the time it takes to learn specific sales clerk skills, but does not account for time spent in formal education.