Retail Store Manager and Evaluation
What is the role of a Retail Store Manager? And Evaluation.
Introduction
Useful Information
The roles of a Retail Store Manager
The responsibilities of a retail store manager are very vast and encompass a lot of jobs, which include:
managing a team and helping to motivate them
managing and making decisions about stock
using technology to analyse and interpret sales figures and to also record them
analysing trends so they know what to order and forecasting future sales
dealing with staffing issues such as interviewing and employing future staff members and also helping get sufficient training as well as informing colleagues of their performance
ensuring that standards of health and customer service are of a high quality and is constantly being met
resolving health and safety, legal and social problems
organising promotions, displays and events for customers
responding to complaints and comments from customers promptly as well as touring the sales floor on a regular basis to resolve issues
making changes to store times to ensure that the store can do its best in competing with the local market
and finally, dealing with sales when required
Salary
Like many jobs salaries vary depending on level of work and experience, below are some expamles of what to expect;
- Starting salaries are between £20,000-£30,000 dependant on the company
- Assistant position can earn between £17,000-£23,000 (a very wide range)
- With more experience comes more pay, ranging between £35,000-£60,000, and in some circumstances £70,000 in larger companies.
in some retailers a bonus or share (a proportion of a companies profit) can be rewarded as well as; pension schemes, company cars, discounts, private health care, professional training, gym membership and travel funds.
Hours
The normal working week can exceed 40 hours but during certain periods during the year (such as Christmas, sales and other holidays) many managers work more than 40 hours.
Night shifts, weekends, irregular shifts and bank holidays may also need to be worked as many stores operate on 'out-of-town sites and open seven days a week'.
Helpful Skills
- lead a team effectively
- motive others
- focus on customers and their needs and wants
- understand and grasp new concepts easily and quickly
- multi task and work under pressure
- have a well developed commercial awareness and business sense
- want to work as a part of a team and come up with new and fresh ideas
How to get the job
Qualifications
- accounting and finance
- business studies
- fashion management
- marketing
- retail management
Post graduate courses in retail management are sometimes required or can also help. Personal skills (below) can also help to promote your chances of gaining the job, and tend to be in favour over academic qualifications. Finally experience in retail whether it be part time work or holiday work can also help, as many retailers look for experience when recruiting new employees.
Personal Skills
- enthusiasm
- approachable
- good customer service
- confidence
- understanding
- knowledgeable
- bilingual(not required but very helpful)
- friendly
- patient
- polite
- committed
- and professinal, just to name a few
Where can you go After?
As you progress in this career you can move up the chain of roles and gain responsibility for a bigger group of people. Normally you start as a department manager, from this you move to deputy store manager then finally store manager. The company may offer more opportunities, such as, moving into regional sales and operations manager, bu this is dependant on the size of the company.
Overall Evaluation
In evaluation I believe that the project went a lot better than I expected. I believe that the bits of the project that I did well was the initial research that I did to find out what each role did and the responsibilities that they had. Along with this I believe that I wrote the smore’s well and the content was suitable for what I was writing about. There are some things that I think I could’ve done better in the project, such as, using a wider range of resources to find the information for the smore’s and this would have allowed me to write more information for some sections - as I couldn’t find all of the information on the internet. Another thing I could have done better was use the smart targets sheet a lot better to make sure I did things to a deadline, as instead I just ended up writing my own list either mentally or on a post-it. If I was to do the project again I would change how I did the research and how much I did, I would write more for each smore which would then allow me to go into further details about each job role. I believe that I planned effectively to meet the deadline as I had finished writing all 4 smore's 6 days before the deadline and only had to do the evaluation and organise the links in the bibliographies by the end of the project. In conclusion I think that the project was extremely successful and I learnt a lot about the roles of a: retail store manager, visual merchandiser, social media marketer, marketer, PR and supply chain manager.
Bibliography
AGCAS editors (2015) Retail Manager Available at: https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/retail-manager (Accessed:7 September 2016)
A service of the Skills Funding Agency on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (2016) Retail Manager Available at: https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/advice/planning/jobprofiles/Pages/retailmanager.aspx#sthash.Pjmym7TR.dpuf (Accessed: 20 September 2016)
Videos:
ALISwebsite. (2012). Occupational Video - Retail Store Manager. [Online Video]. 8 March 2016. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr2tHM2m8tU . [Accessed: 15 September 2016].
Photos:
http://www.bestofsampleresume.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/retail-store-manager-resume-sample.jpg (Best Of Sample Resume, 2016)
http://www.clipartpanda.com/clipart_images/clip-art-analogue-clock-1636404