Retail Sales Associate Skills for a Resume
Stores hire sales associates who help customers find what they need and raise sales along the way. Show your sales results, the products you know and the store tasks you handle.
Updated
12 skills at a glance
Hard skills
What the work takes, how a hiring manager judges each skill, and a bullet point that shows it.
Sales techniques
Show the approach you use, such as suggesting matching items, and its effect on your sales.
Example bullet pointSuggested complete outfits to customers, keeping my items per sale above the store average.
Visual merchandising
Describe displays you set up, to the store's guide or your own, and any lift in sales of those items.
Example bullet pointSet up the seasonal front table each month to the head office's visual guide.
Point-of-sale systems
Show that you handle sales, returns and exchanges at the register quickly and accurately.
Example bullet pointRang up sales, returns and gift receipts on the register through busy weekends.
Stock and inventory
Show how you kept products and sizes on the floor, from receiving deliveries to inventory counts.
Example bullet pointKept sizes refilled on the floor from the stock room, so fewer sales were lost.
Cash handling
Show that you balance the register correctly and follow the store's cash procedures.
Example bullet pointBalanced the register at close with no differences all season.
Product knowledge
Show how knowing the products helped customers.
Example bullet pointLearned the features of every running shoe in stock and fitted customers by their gait.
Loss prevention basics
Show what you did to prevent losses.
Example bullet pointFollowed fitting room and tagging procedures that helped cut theft in my department.
Soft skills
Shown through what you did, never claimed as adjectives.
Friendliness
Show customer feedback or returning customers.
Example bullet pointBuilt a list of regular customers who asked for me when new stock arrived.
Persuasion
Show sales that came from your recommendations.
Example bullet pointSigned up about 30 customers a month for the store card, among the highest in the store.
Teamwork
Show how you helped the team, such as covering other departments or training new associates.
Example bullet pointCovered other departments at peak times to keep lines short.
Energy
Show long, busy shifts handled well.
Example bullet pointKept up energy and service through ten-hour holiday shifts.
Reliability
Show your attendance and the responsibilities it earned, such as opening the store or taking deliveries.
Example bullet pointWas trusted to open the store and handle the morning deliveries.
Keywords from retail sales associate job postings
Use the ones that are true for you, in your bullet points as well as your skills list.
- sales targets
- customers
- average transaction value
- displays
- point-of-sale
- returns
- stock
- associates
Each posting has its own words. Our guide to tailoring your resume to a job description shows how to find them and where to put them.
Where to put your skills
- In a skills section: a short list of the hard skills the posting names, in its words.
- In your bullet points: every skill that matters should show up in something you did, with a result. That is where a hiring manager believes it.
- In your summary: two or three of the skills the job asks for most.
More on choosing them in how to choose and prove the skills on your resume.
Questions
What skills should a retail sales associate put on a resume?
Sales techniques, visual merchandising, point-of-sale systems, inventory, cash handling, product knowledge and loss prevention, plus friendliness and persuasion.
How do I show sales results?
Mention targets beaten, average transaction value, items per sale and store card sign-ups.
What if I have no retail experience?
Show customer-facing skills from other work, volunteering or school, and your reliability.
Put them to work
Start from a retail sales associate resume that already uses these skills, for an invented person, and make it yours in the builder.