A sales clerk is responsible for assisting customers in purchasing products, responding to customer inquiries, and providing product recommendations. Sales clerks require excellent customer service and communication skills to offer the best services to the customers and maintain good customer feedback for the business. They also check inventories, request supplies as needed, and organize product displays on the appropriate shelves. A sales clerk must have strong verbal communication skills to manage customer concerns and excellent time-management skills to perform tasks within the fast-paced work environment.

Sales Clerk Responsibilities

Here are examples of responsibilities from real sales clerk resumes representing typical tasks they are likely to perform in their roles.

  • Supervise women's department, manage jewelry department, assist customers on finalizing purchases
  • Process monetary transactions POS system.
  • Follow POS procedures daily and complete appropriate paperwork.
  • Prepare quality food products, process accurate register transactions, maintain general appearance and cleanliness of store premises.
  • Improve customer solicitation pitch to increase Kohl's credit card application solicitations.

Sales Clerk Skills and Personality Traits

We calculated that 26% of Sales Clerks are proficient in Customer Service, Stock Shelves, and Sales Floor. They’re also known for soft skills such as Customer-service skills, Interpersonal skills, and Math skills.

We break down the percentage of Sales Clerks that have these skills listed on their resume here:

  • Customer Service, 26%

    Provided professional customer service, performed sales transactions, and displayed ability to communicate with a variety of people

  • Stock Shelves, 9%

    Stock shelves, racks, cases, bins, and tales with new or transferred merchandise as well as keeping inventory.

  • Sales Floor, 8%

    Increased customer satisfaction by delivering helpful and insightful suggestions on sales floor.

  • Retail Sales, 6%

    Performed retail sales activities and made transactions involving money accurately and quickly.

  • Product Knowledge, 5%

    Developed a loyal following of customers by providing exceptional product knowledge, combined with top-quality customer service.

  • POS, 5%

    Followed POS procedures daily and completed appropriate paperwork.

"customer service," "stock shelves," and "sales floor" aren't the only skills we found sales clerks list on their resumes. In fact, there's a whole list of sales clerk responsibilities that we found, including:

  • Customer-service skills can be considered to be the most important personality trait for a sales clerk to have. According to a sales clerk resume, "retail sales workers must be responsive to the wants and needs of customers" sales clerks are able to use customer-service skills in the following example we gathered from a resume: "assisted customers with purchase selections* managed inventory and loss prevention* maintained sales floor and assured customer satisfaction"
  • Another commonly found skill for being able to perform sales clerk duties is the following: interpersonal skills. According to a sales clerk resume, "a friendly and outgoing personality is important for these workers because the job requires almost constant interaction with people." Check out this example of how sales clerks use interpersonal skills: "backed by excellent interpersonal skills and a commitment to customer service that has been described as "second-to-none" by customers. "
  • Sales clerks are also known for math skills, which can be critical when it comes to performing their duties. An example of why this skill is important is shown by this snippet that we found in a sales clerk resume: "retail sales workers must have the ability to calculate price totals, discounts, and change owed to customers." We also found this resume example that details how this skill is put to the test: "placed special merchandise customer orders for shipping in accordance with safe production practices skills used *good reading and math skills. "
  • A thorough review of lots of resumes revealed to us that "selling skills" is important to completing sales clerk responsibilities. This resume example shows just one way sales clerks use this skill: "retail sales workers must be persuasive when interacting with customers" Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical sales clerk tasks: "provided person-to-person sales and loss prevention. "
  • See the full list of sales clerk skills.

    The three companies that hire the most prestigious sales clerks are:

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    What Fine Jewelry Sales Associates Do

    Commissioned sales associates are professionals who conduct sale transactions that can generate additional compensation by increasing selling operations. These associates are must collaborate successfully with fellow associates in regard to sales and commission distribution. They must provide excellent customer service so that they can establish long term relationships with customers and ensure high satisfaction. Commissioned sales associates must also assist the department managers with visual merchandising to arrange racks so that they can place and stock new merchandise.

    We looked at the average sales clerk annual salary and compared it with the average of a fine jewelry sales associate. Generally speaking, fine jewelry sales associates receive $6,308 higher pay than sales clerks per year.

    While the salaries between these two careers can be different, they do share some of the same responsibilities. Employees in both sales clerks and fine jewelry sales associates positions are skilled in customer service, sales floor, and retail sales.

    There are some key differences in responsibilities as well. For example, a sales clerk responsibilities require skills like "stock shelves," "store displays," "professional selling," and "customer orders." Meanwhile a typical fine jewelry sales associate has skills in areas such as "provide customer assistance," "cleanliness," "excellent organizational," and "customer profile." This difference in skills reveals how truly different these two careers really are.

    On average, fine jewelry sales associates reach similar levels of education than sales clerks. Fine jewelry sales associates are 1.6% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.1% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

    What Are The Duties Of a Commissioned Sales Associate?

    Sales and customer service associates are employees who are responsible for closing out sales deals and attending to customer needs. They are in charge of selling company goods and services to potential clients, often citing the common needs of prospective clients to ensure sales. They also handle customer inquiries and complaints and try their best to mitigate any problems that would arise. They are expected to be experts on company products to ensure that they can provide the best service to customers. Sales and customer service associates should have strong interpersonal skills, customer service skills, and communication skills.

    Next up, we have the commissioned sales associate profession to look over. This career brings along a higher average salary when compared to a sales clerk annual salary. In fact, commissioned sales associates salary difference is $11,210 higher than the salary of sales clerks per year.

    While the salary may be different for these job positions, there is one similarity and that's a few of the skills needed to perform certain duties. We used info from lots of resumes to find that both sales clerks and commissioned sales associates are known to have skills such as "customer service," "sales floor," and "retail sales. "

    But both careers also use different skills, according to real sales clerk resumes. While sales clerk responsibilities can utilize skills like "stock shelves," "store policies," "store displays," and "exceptional guest," some commissioned sales associates use skills like "excellent organizational," "excellent interpersonal," "customer relationships," and "commission sales."

    On average, commissioned sales associates earn a higher salary than sales clerks. There are industries that support higher salaries in each profession respectively. Interestingly enough, commissioned sales associates earn the most pay in the manufacturing industry with an average salary of $38,946. Whereas, sales clerks have higher paychecks in the energy industry where they earn an average of $28,784.

    When it comes to the differences in education between the two professions, commissioned sales associates tend to reach similar levels of education than sales clerks. In fact, they're 1.2% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

    How a Sales Associate And Customer Service Compares

    A furniture sales associate is, basically, responsible for selling furniture. They have to keep their sales pitch polished, because they are required to make customers buy products, even if they are unwilling. Selling is not their only responsibility, however. They also do the job of an advertiser to promote the products of the business and attract new customers. Good communication and interpersonal skills will be a strong asset in this role, since it involves face-to-face or phone communication with potential customers.

    The third profession we take a look at is sales associate and customer service. On an average scale, these workers bring in higher salaries than sales clerks. In fact, they make a $2,915 higher salary per year.

    By looking over several sales clerks and sales associate and customer services resumes, we found that both roles utilize similar skills, such as "customer service," "stock shelves," and "sales floor." But beyond that the careers look very different.

    There are many key differences between these two careers as shown by resumes from each profession. Some of those differences include the skills required to complete responsibilities within each role. As an example of this, a sales clerk is likely to be skilled in "store displays," "professional selling," "exceptional guest," and "engraving," while a typical sales associate and customer service is skilled in "plumbing," "sales associates," "phone calls," and "booking."

    Sales associate and customer services make a very good living in the manufacturing industry with an average annual salary of $30,394. Whereas sales clerks are paid the highest salary in the energy industry with the average being $28,784.

    Sales associate and customer services typically study at similar levels compared with sales clerks. For example, they're 0.2% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

    Description Of a Furniture Sales Associate

    The fourth career we look at typically earns higher pay than sales clerks. On average, furniture sales associates earn a difference of $23,978 higher per year.

    While both sales clerks and furniture sales associates complete day-to-day tasks using similar skills like customer service, stock shelves, and sales floor, the two careers also vary in other skills.

    Even though a few skill sets overlap, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a sales clerk might have more use for skills like "sales transactions," "professional selling," "exceptional guest," and "engraving." Meanwhile, some furniture sales associates might include skills like "sales associates," "furniture sales," "basic math," and "good communication" on their resume.

    In general, furniture sales associates make a higher salary in the manufacturing industry with an average of $42,717. The highest sales clerk annual salary stems from the energy industry.

    Furniture sales associates reach similar levels of education when compared to sales clerks. The difference is that they're 0.2% more likely to earn a Master's Degree more, and 0.1% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.