What does a store associate do?
A store associate is responsible for assisting customers with the products they need and recommending alternative goods that would fit their budget. Sales associates also market promotional offers and provide product descriptions to the customer. They also monitor inventories, stock supplies on the appropriate shelves, and ensure the cleanliness and orderliness of the store. Store associates also perform other administrative tasks as needed, such as creating sales reports, assisting in the counter, and helping customers on carrying their items.
Store associate responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real store associate resumes:
- Manage the appearance of the store in conjunction with the store priorities to present a desirable image of Aldi.
- Work on the cash register, used calculators, POS machines and mental math.
- Ensure that all cash handling are accurate and work with Ross' point-of-sale systems.
- Put out freight as well as restocking the stock room, carrying 50 pound boxes up ladders.
- Operate POS register and provide exceptional customer service.
- Regulate profit margins, payroll, loss-prevention control and inventory management.
- Experience sales associate known for exemplary customer service, multitasking, team player mindset and exceptional cash-handling accuracy.
- Assist with pet selection and sales.
- Associate in lawn and garden and plumbing.
- Highlight benefits of all dealership product lines to clients.
- Climb ladders, lift 200 pound items such as furniture.
- Provide care in a pet store or pet care business.
- Assist in the training of center team members to ensure FedEx employee compliance.
- Perform accounts receivable duties including invoicing, researching charge backs, discrepancies and reconciliations.
- Call patients to confirm appointment dates and to give them follow ups from previous appointments.
Store associate skills and personality traits
We calculated that 25% of Store Associates are proficient in Sales Floor, Retail Store, and Inventory Management. They’re also known for soft skills such as Interpersonal skills, Math skills, and Selling skills.
We break down the percentage of Store Associates that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Sales Floor, 25%
Conducted inventory management, ensuring proper merchandise levels for sales floor.
- Retail Store, 12%
Addressed customer concerns and provided support for customer dissatisfaction with Microsoft retail store experiences.
- Inventory Management, 9%
Operated point of sale register, restocked shelves and assisted visually impaired associates with inventory management logistics.
- Cleanliness, 7%
Maintained proper pharmacy and general safety procedures and standards, including department cleanliness.
- Math, 5%
Provided instruction to individual students to improve academic performance in math and reading comprehension.
- Strong Customer Service, 5%
Delivered strong customer service including advising customers on project needs, helping them select appropriate products and troubleshooting errors.
Most store associates use their skills in "sales floor," "retail store," and "inventory management" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential store associate responsibilities here:
Interpersonal skills. The most essential soft skill for a store associate to carry out their responsibilities is interpersonal skills. This skill is important for the role because "a friendly and outgoing personality is important for these workers because the job requires almost constant interaction with people." Additionally, a store associate resume shows how their duties depend on interpersonal skills: "utilized attention to detail and interpersonal communication skills to successfully stock and organize store products. "
Math skills. Many store associate duties rely on math skills. "retail sales workers must have the ability to calculate price totals, discounts, and change owed to customers.," so a store associate will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways store associate responsibilities rely on math skills: "cashier, money handling, cleaning, customer service, restocking, problem saving, basic math and computer skills. "
Selling skills. store associates are also known for selling skills, which are critical to their duties. You can see how this skill relates to store associate responsibilities, because "retail sales workers must be persuasive when interacting with customers." A store associate resume example shows how selling skills is used in the workplace: "managed all store operations when manager was out of store on sales calls which consisted over 50% of the time. "
Customer-service skills. A big part of what store associates do relies on "customer-service skills." You can see how essential it is to store associate responsibilities because "retail sales workers must be responsive to the wants and needs of customers." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical store associate tasks: "detected suspicious activity that could compromise customers or store operations by using methods to deter incidents from happening. "
The three companies that hire the most store associates are:
- CVS Health8,450 store associates jobs
- ALDI USA4,434 store associates jobs
- Sherwin-Williams2,117 store associates jobs
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Compare different store associates
Store associate vs. Retail sales associate/cashier
A cashier is responsible for ensuring all the products and goods sold are well recorded and paid for as well as answering customer inquiries and recommending products. They also help the other sales team when needed and process payment for all goods bought. Their duties and responsibilities include processing payments, ensuring all goods bought are accurately scanned and recorded, and bagging purchases.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a store associate are more likely to require skills like "compassion," "inventory management," "cleanliness," and "strong customer service." On the other hand, a job as a retail sales associate/cashier requires skills like "retail sales," "loss prevention," "credit card payments," and "store sales." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Retail sales associate/cashiers tend to make the most money working in the retail industry, where they earn an average salary of $27,103. In contrast, store associates make the biggest average salary, $29,472, in the retail industry.retail sales associate/cashiers tend to reach similar levels of education than store associates. In fact, retail sales associate/cashiers are 0.1% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.0% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Store associate vs. Sales associate sporting goods
An Associate Retailer is responsible for keeping the sales area up to standard and assisting customers while inside the store's premises. Most of the tasks revolve around keeping items on shelves clean and well-organized, greeting and offering assistance to customers, responding to inquiries and locating products, and even providing suggestions or recommendations when necessary and in adherence to the store's policies and regulations. In other stores and retail outlets, the Associate Retailer may also process payments and returns while still putting importance to customer satisfaction.
Each career also uses different skills, according to real store associate resumes. While store associate responsibilities can utilize skills like "compassion," "retail store," "math," and "strong customer service," sales associates sporting goods use skills like "background checks," "pallets," "loss prevention," and "goods sales."
In general, sales associates sporting goods achieve similar levels of education than store associates. They're 0.1% more likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.0% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Store associate vs. Associate retailer
A sales associate and cashier is an employee who takes on the dual role of helping customers with their product inquiries and facilitating the purchase of the customer. As a sales associate, the employee must be familiar with the different products offered by the company and should be able to direct customers to the product that best suits their needs. As a cashier, the employee must be familiar with the cash register and the system that the company uses to manage sales and facilitate payment. He/She or she must be able to work the equipment needed for a smooth checkout process.
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, store associates are more likely to have skills like "compassion," "inventory management," "strong customer service," and "patients." But a associate retailer is more likely to have skills like "loss prevention," "pet," "work ethic," and "good time management."
Associate retailers earn the highest salary when working in the hospitality industry, where they receive an average salary of $29,543. Comparatively, store associates have the highest earning potential in the retail industry, with an average salary of $29,472.When it comes to education, associate retailers tend to earn similar degree levels compared to store associates. In fact, they're 0.7% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.1% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Store associate vs. Sales associate and cashier
Updated January 8, 2025
