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To land a store manager position, you’ll require a powerful resume highlighting the complex aspects of your role. Our professional expertise can guide you in displaying your supervising, performance-enhancing and managerial skills to potential employers. With our practical examples and resume-writing tips, you can design your resume in no time.
Choose from our array of free templates or dive into job-specific examples designed to write your resume with top-quality professionalism.
Store Manager Resume
This resume example aptly communicates a hypothetical candidate’s abilities and relevant work experiences to qualify for a store manager position. You can use this chronological resume example as a reference when writing your store manager resume.
Your resume should include the following sections:
Achiever
Scale
Taking the time to do some preparation work before you sit down to write your resume will save you time in the long run and provide a smoother writing process without unnecessary interruptions. Try these tips if you want to maximize your time:
Choosing the resume format that works for you is vital to emphasize your skills, eligibility and career history to hiring managers. Pick one from the three popular formats, chronological, combination and functional.
The chronological format focuses on your work history, so store managers with a long and consistent retail career will be the best fit.
The functional format highlights your skills while downplaying your experience, so it’s geared more toward entry-level positions and inexperienced retail professionals.
The combination format places equal emphasis on your skills and experience, making it a great choice if you perhaps want to get promoted from shift manager to a store manager position.
If you want to learn more about how to write these three types of resumes, check out our resume formats guide.
Chronological
Functional
Combination
Let’s begin writing your store manager’s resume with our stepwise assistance now that you’re geared up for the task.
1. Craft a compelling opening statement.
Your opening statement is the first thing the employer reads, therefore, it needs to leave an impact. You can choose between a summary statement or a career objective depending on your career situation.
In most cases, we recommend opening with a summary statement, also called a professional summary, as it celebrates your skills and abilities, presenting you as an ideal candidate for the role. A career objective comes in hand in specific scenarios, for instance, if you are applying for an entry-level store manager position, recently graduated and looking for a job in retail or you’re resuming your career after a long break.
Below you'll find a few examples of opening statements you can study so you're better equipped to make the right choice between a career objective or summary statement.
Let's first compare a poor and good example of a summary statement:
Poor example:
“Motivated store manager with work experience in various national retailers and skilled in merchandising, client relations, promotional ideas and staff management.”
Although the candidate aims to share valuable information, their claims fall short without quantifiable achievements or specific details about their work experience.
Good example:
“Dedicated, strategic-thinking and meticulous store manager with comprehensive experience managing a staff of over 40 employees, relationship-building resulting in a loyal personal customer base of 25 high-revenue clients and profit channel growth. Self-motivated leader with expertise in expanding network connections, persuasively introducing products, customer service, inventory control and projections, vendor relations and territory development. Talented at identifying customer needs to deliver effective solutions.”
This summary statement is packed with specific accomplishments and skills that directly respond to an employer's requirements for a store manager position. This statement provides a much more detailed description of the applicant.
If you deem your career situation demands a career objective instead, check out this example:
“Trustworthy and reliable store manager with a degree in retail merchandising, seeking a full-time position at your store. Acquainted with successful sales strategies and promotional ideas with a year of experience at Cloud Nine Superstore where I was top selling agent for 5 consecutive months.”
If you want to write an impactful career objective, follow these tips:
2. Display a diverse skill set.
The skills section in your resume should display six to eight skills that accurately describe your abilities to perform the job at hand. The question of how to build the skills section in your resume depends on the format you choose.
Chronological and combination resumes have skills section that consist of the bulleted list you're most likely used to seeing. Functional resumes instead have an expanded skills section where you list three main skills and support them with descriptions of accomplishments that demonstrate your abilities.
This example will help you visualize a functional skills section entry, so you can create one if you decide to do so:
Skills
Management
We suggest displaying a balanced mix of your soft, hard and technical skills, demonstrating the range of your store managing skills to potential recruiters. Learn what each skill type means and browse through our skills examples to pick some for your resume:
Soft Skills define the personal abilities you apply to your job to complete tasks more efficiently and collaborate with team members or clients. A store manager could have any of the following soft skills:
Hard skills display the job-specific skills you've acquired through formal training, education or on-the-job experience. You can add the following hard skills to your store manager resume:
Technical skills refer to your ability to use the digital tools and technologies of your industry. For example, some common technical skills for your store manager resume are:
Your work history section records your career trajectory and progression in a reverse-chronological order starting from your recently held position. Your work history promotes your professional exposure and skills, asserting your eligibility for the role.
Regardless of the format you choose, your work history should display:
This comparative example will help you better understand the representation of the work history section:
Poor example:
Although this example mentions the store manager's duties, it fails to give a descriptive account of how the candidate achieved them.
Good example:
In comparison, this example briefly explains how the candidate achieved product promotion and team collaboration.
To further enhance your work history section, follow these tips:
The education section displays your formal education, i.e., the degrees or diplomas you’ve acquired which substantiate your eligibility as store manager.
The following suggestion may help on how to showcase your qualifications:
The required qualifications for a store manager change with the industry you're applying to, the employer’s preference and role expectations. Due to a store manager's range of responsibilities, employers prefer a candidate with a bachelor’s degree in business or related fields. The following degree or programs may help you advance in your career:
You can create custom sections for your certificates, licenses or awards if you have more than two. If you want to advance your career even further, consider the following:
Certified Management Accountant
This certification validates your administration and accounting skills managing a business.
Retail Store Operation and Management
This program can enhance your knowledge of day-to-day retail store operations and how to supervise employees performing these tasks.
The National Retail Federation
This certifying entity offers various coursework and training that is crucial for the retail industry. Complete any certification from this site and add them to your resume to boost your eligibility.
Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS)
This certificate from Microsoft will prove your efficiency in handling various MS office software.
This certification from Oxford Home Study will prove your ability to lead and manage a team of employees for successful business ventures.
Your resume’s header consists of your contact details. Ensure your contact details accurately mentions the following: your official name, your location, professional email and phone number.
Here are a few free downloadable store manager resume templates you can use to finalize customize your resume.
The pay scale for retail store managers depends on various factors like their level of experience, location of the company and the skills the candidate will bring to the role.
According to payscale.com, the average annual salary of retail managers with less than one year of experience is $40,907. The store managers with midlevel experience (i.e., five to 9 years) earn $48,943 and store managers with 10 to 19 years of experience earn $52,822.
Payscale.com also reveals that store managers with people management, operations and leadership skills earn more than managers with just sales and customer service skills.
The top three skills of store managers are dictated by the nature of their role, industry and experience. For instance, a store manager in a coffee shop should be equipped to train a new barista, manage the inventory and alter the menu as per customer preference. However, independent of the industry and role expectations, a store manager should possess the following skills:
A good summary statement for a store manager should promote their abilities and skills, and how these may benefit your future employer.
Check out this summary statement example, “Committed and results-driven manager specializing in the management of local stores, retail locations and sports and goods services settings. Experienced professional adept at training over 30 employees in exceptional customer service etiquette and sales techniques. Ability to oversee all facets of customer-facing and back-end operations.”
This statement demonstrates how a candidate's skills in managing a local store with exceptional sales techniques benefits the employer.
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