Free Downloadable Retail Resume Templates and Expert Writing Tips
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Resume Help
The consumer-driven retail industry can’t function without store managers, clerks, and sales and retail associates. When deciding on your next retail role, emphasize your managerial skills, customer service expertise, sales skills and product knowledge. We’ll help secure your desired retail job through role-specific resume examples, downloadable templates and our list of top retail skills.
Best Free Downloadable Resume Templates for Retail Jobs
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Great Experience
This simple yet visually striking resume has all the key sections you need to communicate your professional abilities. Download this template and customize it by inserting your skills, qualifications and professional summary. -
List Expertise
You can customize this impactful resume design on your preferred word processing software. Put your skills in the limelight by placing them on the distinctive sidebar. Download and personalize this template to highlight your work expertise in the retail industry. -
Offset
This efficient resume design equally showcases your professional history and skills with each section clearly demarcated. Download and customize this template to underline the hard, soft and technical skills you’ve acquired through professional experience in the retail industry. -
Overture
This traditional yet effortless resume design puts your work history front and center. A seasoned retail professional would benefit from populating the work history section with quantifiable achievements. Download it and customize it on your favorite word processor. -
People Say
This elegant resume design ensures that your abilities as a retail professional stand out by positioning the skills section before the work history. Download and personalize this template to align with your professional skills. -
Personal Brand
This simple yet modern resume design allows you to showcase your experience, education and skills equally. Download and customize this template on Word or Google Docs and be ready to apply to any retail position.
9 Retail Resume Examples
There is no one single way of writing a resume that works for every type of candidate. Depending on your level of experience, amount of skills and your position in your career, you will write your resume using one of the three resume formats: chronological, combination and functional. These formats help you demonstrate the depth of your retail skills and accomplishments, and at the same time downplay your limitations.
To understand the pros and cons of each of these formats, we have included a retail resume example to aid your learning.
Chronological Resume
If you have more than a decade of experience in the retail industry, the chronological resume is ideal for you. This format focuses on your extensive work history by listing your accomplishments and achievements over the years.
We’ve included a few examples for various retail positions depicting different employee circumstances, which you can use as a reference when writing your resume.
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1. Retail manager: Retail managers must possess the right balance of managerial, administrative and people skills for the smooth operation of their shop. This resume example efficiently utilizes design to highlight a professional experience of five years by detailing accomplishments and achievements.
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2. Store manager: Store managers are highly trained individuals with a knack for handling all aspects concerning store operations. This compact chronological design reveals Taylor Brown’s extensive work history, skills and education concisely. If your professional situation is similar to Taylor Brown's, personalize this format befitting your profile.
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3. VIP sales manager: This role demands intricate attention to customer relationship building and maintenance for a personalized shopping experience. In Leslie Torres’ case, this layout is ideal as it helps to highlight her consistent career growth and skills acquired through different roles. Use this design if you want to demonstrate the extent of your role as a retail professional.
Combination Resume
Similar to a chronological format, the combination resume also includes the same sections. However, the difference lies in positioning the skills section before the work history, stressing the importance of both equally. Unlike the chronological format, this layout exposes the employer’s attention first toward your supervising, customer-centric and management skills and then to your professional experiences.
A combination retail resume is most suitable for candidates with less than a decade of experience but with a strong skill set. We’ve shared a few examples to understand the utilization of this layout below:
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1. Cashier: This straightforward resume example highlights Xavier Evans' extensive skill set and then proceeds to display his work experience. If you have some experience that doesn't quite relate to a cashier position, you might want to choose the combination format to show employers you have all the skills needed to excel.
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2. Greeter: In Avery Smith’s case, this combination resume equally highlights her diverse skill set and work history. The skill section preceding the work history familiarizes the recruiter with the applicant's abilities without ignoring the work experience. If your professional scenario aligns with this case, choose this resume.
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3. Retail sales associate: Highly organized individuals who help perform routine clerical and administrative tasks such as scheduling and organizing appointments, supporting staff with organizational tasks, and managing office files.
Functional Resume
The functional format is the least known format, but it works wonders for inexperienced candidates. Instead of listing your work history accomplishments as the most important information, the skills section becomes the focus of this resume.
Candidates that need to downplay their little to no experience — think: recent graduates, applicants to entry-level positions and students — benefit from this skills-based resume. Check out the following functional resume examples to get a better idea of how to write one.
We strongly recommend using this format for the following scenarios:
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1. Cashier entry-level: This smart, functional design is ideal for Scott Wilson who has minimal experience as a cashier. This format draws the focus away from work history by showcasing his professional skills in a detailed manner. You can adopt this design to list your abilities while drawing focus away from limited professional exposure relevant to the role.
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2. Fitting room associate: The functional format is a favorite for entry-level roles like a fitting room associate. Through a detailed description of qualifications and professional skills, the attention is pulled away from the candidate's limited experience.
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3. Retail sales associate: This modern and compact functional resume demonstrates relevant professional abilities and qualifications for a retail sales associate position. Erica Jones maximizes her role-specific skills by including quantifiable metrics to support her claims. If you are a retail professional with minimal expertise, go with this resume example.
What Can You Earn as a Retail Professional?
When you’re applying for a new role, it’s important to analyze your potential wages so you can organize your finances and plan accordingly. Your earnings will vary depending on your role, experience, specialization, location and the company.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the annual and hourly wages for different roles in the retail industry are as follows:
Top Retail Skills for Your Resume
Skills determine the strength of your resume, and they are essential in securing your desired role in the retail industry. Below you’ll find a list of resume sections where you can include skills:
- Professional summary: Include one or more skills while writing your brief professional summary. For example, cashiers may highlight their proficiency in customer assistance, billing and restocking merchandise. In comparison, retail associates may emphasize their customer relations, sales strategies and time-management skills.
- Skills Section: This section of your resume envelops your diverse skill set. Mention your skills (preferably six to eight) in a bulleted list. For example, if your desired role is retail manager, you can include skills like scheduling, employee training, POS system proficiency, staff management, leadership and inventory control.
- Work History: When describing your work experiences, include skills and keywords that will help specify your accomplishments even more. For example, a sales associate could mention "Utilized product knowledge and memorized daily promotions to accurately assist customers with their shopping experience"
To ease your journey, we’ve prepared a list of retail skills for your resume.
Soft skills
Soft skills are essential in any role as they help you work smoothly and communicate effectively with peers, customers and other staff. The following soft skills are necessary for any retail professional:
- 1. Interpersonal skills
- 2. Excellent communication skills
- 3. Active listening
- 4. Flexibility
- 5. Patience
- 6. Teamwork
- 7. Decisiveness
- 8. Helpfulness
- 9. Endurance
- 10. Friendly disposition
Hard skills
Hard skills represent the skills you've gained through training, education and practical experience which enable you to perform particular tasks. The hard skills of a retail professional vary according to your role’s scope. However, we’ve listed a few hard skills that will strengthen your retail resume:
- 1. Customer service and satisfaction
- 2. Billing and budgeting
- 3. Product knowledge
- 4. POS proficiency
- 5. Accounting skills
- 6. Business or store management skills
- 7. Marketing
- 8. Employee management and training
- 9. Problem-solving
- 10. Sales reporting
- 11. Vendor management
Technical skills
Technical skills describe your proficiency using the technologies and tools of your profession or industry. Retail professionals depend on the following technical skills:
- 1. Working knowledge of computers, tablets and laptops.
- 2. Microsoft Office (i.e., MS Excel, MS word, Outlook).
- 3. Social media knowledge for product promotion.
- 4. Proficiency in POS software.
- 5. Efficient in digital payment gateways.
- 6. Working knowledge of devices like printers, scanners and e-pens.
- 7. Database management.
- 8. Other basic IT knowledge.
- 9. Proficiency in account software like QuickBooks.
Best 5 Certifications for Your Retail Resume
Certifications have the power to enhance the credibility and worth of any role in the retail profession. Being professionally certified allows you to advance in your career and take on more responsibilities in your role. Depending on your position, you can opt for the following certifications:
- Certified Manager Certification (CM)
- Certified Sales Professional (CSP)
- Certified Advertising Specialist (CAS)
- Certificate course in Retail Management
- Certified Management Accountant (CMA)
Improve Your Writing Speed With a Resume Builder
Take advantage of the benefits of our Resume Builder, a program developed to help you with all your resume-building needs. Our Builder provides you with role-based content suggestions, writing advice, professionally designed templates and unlimited online storage so you can create multiple resumes for various roles. Differentiate yourself from the average job-seeker by crafting your resume and cover letter with our Builder's help.
This simple layout features a traditional font and the clever use of section borders to help each section of your resume stand out.
This distinctive two-column resume template identifies your name and professional experience in a bold color and clean presentation.
A clever design that breaks each of your professional accomplishments into distinct sections while following a format that will pass applicant tracking systems.
The elegant initials, simple header and strategic use of bullet points in this template help keep your professional accomplishments well-organized.
The bold use of a colorblocked heading paired with an elegant resume layout helps your name and contact information stand out.
This structured design combines a two-column approach with bullet points to highlight your key accomplishments and professional history.
A traditional template uses a crisp combination of dark text and thin borders to radiate professionalism. Your name sits prominently above your professional history.
This template’s design features plenty of whitespace neatly divided by gray bars to make the information on your resume easy to read for employers.
This two-column resume conveys a very clear breakdown of its sections that allows a hiring manager to quickly scan your resume.
The subtle color accents in this template add visual pizzazz in a classy way, a great option for most traditional industries.
This resume’s modern design and bold use of color make it pop. Its uniqueness is well-suited to those seeking jobs in creative industries.
Everything about this template is assertive from the boxy layout to its all-caps heading text that gives the impression that you’re all about business.
The understated contact information at the top puts attention front and center on your professional summary, skills, work experience and education sections.
The subtle use of red alongside black gives this template a bold feel while still featuring plenty of white space to make it easy to read.
Customer Reviews
Retail FAQ
What are the top three soft skills of retail professionals?
The top three soft skills in retail professions are dependent on factors like role expectation and experience. Regardless of role expectations, any retail professional should possess and include the following soft skills in their resume:
- Communication skills
- Decision-making
- Friendly and welcoming disposition
What do retail managers mention under a summary statement?
As indicated earlier, your professional summary must contain your top qualifications for the job. For example, you could mention your years of experience, an impressive quantifiable achievement related to the job requirements, one or two top skills (try and match them to skills in your desired job's description) and a certification that can make you stand out from the applicant pool.
What are examples of duties of a retail professional?
Retail professionals perform an array of duties; some examples of these duties include:
- Client servicing and care
- Product knowledge and promotion
- Database maintenance
- Budgeting and billing operations
- Inventory restocking and control
- Store and staff management
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