Retail CV Examples, Templates and Writing Guide for 2024

Writing a perfect retail CV is not as hard as it may sound. Read on, to learn how to write a CV for a retail job that will get you hired fast.

Maciej Duszynski
Maciej Duszynski
Certified Professional Resume Writer, Career Expert
Retail CV Examples, Templates and Writing Guide for 2024

Careers in retail are not for the faint of heart.

But you don’t lack courage.

You lack a job-winning retail CV.

And that’s OK—

Because you’re about to learn how to make a CV for any retail career level.

From an inexperienced retail newbie to retail sales associate to retail manager.

This guide will show you:

  • Great retail CV examples that get jobs.
  • How to ace your retail CV job description on a CV.
  • How to write CV for retail that get the interview.
  • Expert tips and examples to boost your chances of landing retail jobs.

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CV Example for Retail

Glen Gary Ross 
Senior Store Manager

Phone: +1-288-546-7999
Email: g.g.ross@gmail.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ggross
Twitter: twitter.com/ggross

Summary

Customer- and goal-oriented retail manager with 7+ years of experience. Eager to join the Samsung Store team to lead the staff and operations, and seek solutions to create a high-performing work environment. In previous roles elevated a store to #1 statewide in staff and customer satisfaction surveys, brought an extra £250K profit in a single quarter, and reduced training time by 30%.

Experience

2015–2018
Apple Store
Store Manager

  • Guided 10+ leaders to inspire top performance from their teams.
  • Monitored multiple lines of business within the store to achieve operational objectives.
  • Collaborated with 30+ corporate business partners to report results.
  • Inspired the sales and customer support teams to create and maintain a high level of customer focus.
  • Fostered growth among the staff. Developed a gamification strategy that reduced staff turnover down to 10% yearly.

Key achievements:

  • Regularly exceeded quarterly goals in key metrics (e.g. profit and sales) by up to 200%.
  • Led a £1.5M store overhaul to accommodate workshop and live performance spaces that brought in an extra £250K profit in the first quarter of operation.
  • Elevated the store to #1 statewide in staff and customer satisfaction surveys.

2012–2015
Banana Republic
Assistant Manager

  • Supported the GM and Associate Manager in creating the conditions for success in all aspects of the store’s business.
  • Executed store strategy to deliver annual field priorities, and created a compelling customer-centric experience.
  • Devised and implemented in collaboration with the GM and Associate Manager a new LMS-based learning strategy that sped up retail training by 50%.

Key achievements:

  • Sourced and trained 30+ Brand Ambassadors, including 5 high-profile bloggers and influencers.
  • Assisted the GM in organising promotions that upped Q3 and Q4 sales 70% and 110% respectively year-over-year.

2011–2012
Banana Republic
Sales Associate

  • Provided courteous customer service in every area of the store.
  • Maintained an accurate, efficient and effective client book.
  • Monitored and maintained visual merchandising standards on a daily basis according to the Visual Standards Manual.
  • Followed procedures in the POS system for ringing up sales.

Key achievements:

  • Regularly exceeded the selling goal for each fiscal month by up to 15%.
  • Promoted to Assistant Manager within a year.

Education

2013
UCLA, Anderson School of Management, LA
Master of Business Administration (MBA), Marketing

Certifications

  • SPIN® Selling Certification
  • PMP—Project Management Professional
  • WHY Discovery Course

Interests

  • Consumer electronics
  • Postmodern architecture

Key Skills

  • Strategic planning
  • Relationship building
  • Leadership
  • Management
  • Collaboration
  • Oral and written communication
  • Interpersonal skills
  • Problem-solving
  • Adaptability
  • Organisation

Languages

  • Spanish (Bilingual)
  • French (Advanced)

1. Choose the Best Retail CV Format

Some behaviours are highly predictable:

90% of people turn right when they enter a store.

So, stores are laid out accordingly.

Hiring managers also act in a predictable way—

They spend only 6 seconds scanning CV headings.

So, you must format your CV to achieve maximum impact

Retail CV format

  • Lay out your retail CV in the reverse-chronological format. This way you highlight your achievements and retail experience on the CV.
  • Go for simple and readable CV fonts in the range between 10 and 14pt. Write simple headings. Don’t clutter your retail CV and use white space to your advantage.
  • Make it reasonably long. A good rule of thumb is one page for up to 10 years of retail experience on a CV.
  • Start with a retail CV objective or summary. Follow it up with the experience and education sections.
  • Put retail CV skillsin a key skills section to make them more visible. List your professional certifications, add sections on your interests and knowledge of foreign languages.

Expert Hint Want to be sure your retail CV looks just as good on the hiring manager’s device as on yours? Save it as a PDF file—its formatting will stay intact, and it will remain machine-readable.

2. Start with a CV Objective for Retail That Turns Heads

A professional retail CV summary (or objective) is a short paragraph about your retail experience, achievements and skills. A retail CV summary should include actual numbers and figures to achieve additional impact.

So—

Put your best foot forward and show off what you have to offer right from the start.

Here’s how to write an effective intro that commands the recruiter’s attention:

  1. An adjective
  2. Job title
  3. Years of experience
  4. What you can offer and how it will help
  5. Your biggest achievement

Retail CV Summary—Examples

Good example
Customer- and goal-oriented (1) retail manager (2) with 7+ years of experience. (3) Eager to join the Samsung Store team to lead the staff and operations, and seek solutions to create a high-performing work environment. (4) In previous roles elevated a store to #1 statewide in staff and customer satisfaction surveys, brought an extra £250K profit in a single quarter, and reduced training time by 30%. (5)
Bad example
Experienced retail manager who’d love to join your company. Seeks opportunities to develop professionally within a thriving organisation.

The good example is more than a simple attention grabber. It shows what the candidate has to offer. And proves this with numbers.

Now, take another look at the bad example. It’s clear what the candidate wants.

But—

What do they have to offer?

What About Retail CV with No Experience?

Listen:

If you’re looking for your very first retail job, a simple conversation with the store manager might turn out to be enough.

It doesn’t mean you can simply ignore writing your retail CV, though.

No.

Your retail sales associate CV for an entry-level position must deliver right off the bat, regardless.

Here’s how to get it right—

Start with a CV objective for retail. Not a summary.

What’s the difference between the two?

Retail CV objectives bring forward your skills and relevant achievements, rather than your professional experience. You’re free to mention your educational wins, volunteer experience, and the like.

Take a look at the examples of retail CV objectives below:

CV Objective for Retail—Examples

CV Objective for Retail Sales Associate

Good example
Customer-oriented retail sales associate with 2+ years of experience. Eager to join the team at Apple the Grove to use outstanding communication skills and Apple product knowledge to create an unforgettable customer experience. In previous roles exceeded selling goals for each fiscal month by up to 15%.
Bad example
An enthusiastic and reliable sales associate who’d love join your team to keep developing professionally.

CV Objective Retail—No Experience

Good example
Personable and customer-focused PR student at UCLA (GPA 3.7) with a knack for wildlife photography. Eager to support the Electro Superstore team as a sales assistant, and deliver great customer experience. Extensive product knowledge of 5+ mainstream photography equipment systems (bodies, lenses, and accessories).
Bad example
A personable student looking for a first job. Would like to join your store and develop sales skills.

Remember:

Focus on what you can give, not what you want in return.

Such an attitude will take you much further.

Expert Hint: Write your retail CV objective or summary last. The idea behind the CV intro is to summarise everything that follows and bring out the best bits. Without the actual CV ready, it may be hard to summarise anything.

3. Write the Perfect Retail CV Skills and Job Description Sections

It doesn’t matter if you’re a seasoned retail pro or a newbie.

If your retail CV job description underdelivers—

You stand no chance.

So, follow this three-step formula to nail it every time:

  1. Go back to the job ad.
  2. Fish out for retail CV skills the employer needs.
  3. Describe your experience with retail CV keywords from the job ad.

Retail Job Description for CV

Good example
  • Guided 10+ leaders to inspire top performance from their teams.
  • Monitored multiple lines of business within the store to achieve operational objectives.
  • Collaborated with 30+ corporate business partners to report results.
  • Inspired the sales and customer support teams to create and maintain a high level of customer focus.
  • Fostered growth among the staff. Developed a gamification strategy that reduced staff turnover down to 10% yearly.
Bad example
  • Responsible for team management
  • Responsible for monitoring business
  • Responsible for business collaboration
  • Responsible for customer support
  • Responsible for staff growth

Retail Sales Associate CV Job Description

Good example
  • Provided courteous customer service in every area of the store.
  • Maintained an accurate, efficient and effective client book.
  • Monitored and maintained visual merchandising standards on a daily basis according to the Visual Standards Manual.
  • Followed procedures in the POS system for ringing up sales.
Bad example
  • Responsible for customer service
  • Responsible for client book
  • Responsible for merchandising
  • Responsible for POS

Here’s the thing:

If you’re applying to a large company, your retail CV is likely to have a hurdle to clear before a hiring manager has a chance to read it.

The ATS.

The Applicant Tracking System (ATS) helps recruiters sift through the deluge of retail CVs they receive. In fact, about 75% of recruiters rely on such systems.

In short—

ATSs look for retail CV keywords to divide the candidates into the qualified and unqualified ones.

If the relevant keywords are absent from your retail CV, well, guess what the ATS will think of your application.

This is why your retail CV must answer a specific job ad, and use the phrases from the ad.

Simple.

Or is it?

Nope. If it was that easy, mindless copy-pasting would land you any retail job in the world.

The next step for your retail CV is to impress the recruiter.

Here’s how—

First off, use strong action words.

Strong verbs, such as guided, inspired, monitored, collaborated, created, fostered, or reduced not onlytell the recruiter what you did but also reflect your retail skills.

In contrast, if your retail CV job description falls back on the “responsible for” cliché, well, you can’t be expecting much.

Second of all, quantify your retail duties. Numbers speak louder than words and show how well you performed your responsibilities.

Mind you, though—

You don’t need need to quantify every single CV bullet.

Focus on up to 2-3 achievements that you’re proud of and put them in a key achievements subsection.

Retail CV—Key Achievements

Key achievements:

  • Regularly exceeded quarterly goals in key metrics (e.g. profit and sales) by up to 200%.
  • Led a £1.5M store overhaul to accommodate workshop and live performance spaces that brought in an extra £250K profit in the first quarter of operation.
  • Elevated the store to #1 statewide in staff and customer satisfaction surveys in 2017.

Retail CV Example—Key Achievements

Key achievements: 

  • Regularly exceeded the selling goal for each fiscal month by up to 15%.
  • Promoted to Assistant Manager within a year.

Remember:

Responsibilities + Numbers = Achievements

And one more thing.

Put your retail CV skills in a separate section to give them the visibility they deserve.

A word of caution:

Make sure the skills you put on a CV for retail are the right ones. So, revisit the job listing to see what retail skills are mentioned.

Have those skills?

Put them on your retail CV.

Top Retail Skills

Soft Skills

  • Customer service
  • Oral and written communication
  • Collaboration
  • Interpersonal skills
  • Problem-solving
  • Interpersonal skills
  • Sales techniques
  • Customer service
  • Relationship building
  • Leadership
  • Adaptability

Hard Skills

  • Product knowledge
  • Inventory management
  • Merchandising
  • POS (Shopify, Quickbooks, Loyverse)
  • Conflict resolution
  • MS Office
  • Team management
  • Budgeting
  • Negotiating
  • Conflict resolution
  • Strategic planning
  • Sales techniques

Expert Hint: Don’t put too many skills on your retail CV. Limit yourself to up to ten, and stick to the ones you’re really good at. This way you’ll avoid the so-called presenter’s paradox.

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4. Turn Boring Education Into a Reason to Hire You

Education matters.

Especially on an entry-level retail CV whose experience section looks like it’s awaiting a major delivery.

So—

Make sure your CV education section lists the relevant coursework, extracurricular activities, and show off your GPA if it’s higher than 3.5.

Entry-Level Retail CV—Education

Good example

2017—present
DePaul University, Chicago, IL
Organisational Communication, Student
GPA: 3.9

Relevant coursework:

  • Communication and Organisational Change
  • Diversity, Leadership and Team Building
  • Communication and Corporate Culture
  • Conflict Management and Negotiation

Expert Hint: As your career progresses, the recruiter’s attention will naturally turn to your professional experience. If you’re making a retail manager CV, limit the education section to the graduation date, school name, and degree.

5. Sprinkle Your Retail CV With These Extra Sections

BOGOF is the way to go.

So—

Throw in a couple of extras to your retail CV.

But don’t just add anything.

Pick out the relevant things that show you’re a well-rounded candidate, and a cool person to hang around.

Consider the following sections:

  • Certifications on a CV—they prove you’re serious about your professional development.
  • Interests on a CV—you’ll be spending a lot of time at work, it’s nice to have interesting people around.
  • Knowledge of foreign languages—this always comes in handy. Always.

Retail CV—Certifications

  • SPIN® Selling Certification
  • PMP—Project Management Professional
  • WHY Discovery Course

Retail Associate CV—Interests

  • Consumer electronics
  • Postmodern architecture

Retail Salesman CV—Languages

  • Spanish (Bilingual)
  • French (Advanced)

Expert Hint: Make your application twice as effective with a retail CV cover letter. Less than 50% of the candidates write retail CV cover letters. Yet, more than 50% of the hiring managers would like to read one.

Double your impact with a matching CV and cover letter combo. Use our cover letter builder and make your application documents pop out.

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Want to try a different look? There’s 18 more. A single click will give your document a total makeover. Pick a cover letter template here.

Key Points

To write a retail CV that lands you an interview, make sure to:

  • Choose the best retail CV template. A retail sales associate CV doesn’t need to have such a spacious experience section as a retail manager CV.
  • Make your retail sales CV look great. Keep it short and sweet. Use white space to your advantage. Include only your relevant retail experience.
  • Reply to a particular job ad. The retail CV skills you put on your CV must target a specific job opening.
  • Make the most of your education. Use this section to your advantage on a retail CV with no (or little) experience.
  • Throw in something extra. Prove to the recruiter you’re a candidate to be reckoned with. Your professional certifications, interests, and knowledge of foreign languages testify to your professionalism and growth mindset

Questions on how to write the best retail CV? Want to share advice on how to prepare a CV for retail jobs (store clerk CV or sales associate CV)? We’d love to hear from you. Leave your comment below.

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Maciej Duszynski
Written byMaciej Duszynski
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Maciej is a career expert with experience in the education management field. He delivers professional advice concerning every step of the job hunt, starting with finding internships to landing executive positions. His mission is to help readers spot the right job opportunity and write a CV that gets them exactly where they want to be.

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