3 Skills You Want on Your Retail Resume
Preparing your retail resume? Here are three retail skills to include on your resume that will set you apart from the competition and impress employers.
The retail sector is one of Australia’s biggest employers, with 180K+ retail businesses employing over 1.3M people.
However, the retail industry in Australia is also undergoing rapid transformation.
The upsurge of e-commerce is putting pressure on physical stores and has caused some retailers to close their doors permanently.
Big brands to succumb last year included Esprit, Diana Ferrari, Toys R Us, Max Brenner, Roger David, and Laura Ashely.
To remain viable retail stores, are taking action to enhance their e-commerce presence, to reduce the size of store space, and to re-imagine the purpose of their stores.
These changes have implications for retail employees, to the way they are employed and to the role they perform.
So what skills do you need in today’s modern retail sector, and how do you prove you have these retail skills on your resume?
Contents
3 Essential Skills for Your Retail Resume
1. Content with change
The retail industry needs people who are comfortable with change.
Retailers as they innovate, explore new strategies, new store formats and new technology need people with resilience, adaptability, and flexibility.
On your retail resume, you need to prove you’re comfortable with change.
You can do this by providing examples of when you have experienced change or uncertainty and remained composed and focused. Â
Use your examples as achievement stories on your resume.
An achievement story describes a past accomplishment. These stories act as evidence to prove that you have the skills or expertise to perform the role you are applying.
A simple format to structure your story is: Accomplished (X) by doing (Z)
Here is an example:
Learnt new Point of Sale (POS) system; swiftly adapted to new system despite having minimal experience with system. Took detailed notes during training session. After just two weeks was asked to train weekend casual staff.
Use these prompts to help you think of your own example for your retail resume:
When have you embraced a new process at work? What was the outcome?
Have you been required to deal with unexpected events/requests on the job? How do you respond?
How have you encouraged others to deal with change? What was the situation and outcome?
Have you experienced a situation where the workload was too much? How did you respond?
You can also take this further and prove you are willing and capable of driving change.
Use examples to show that you can problem solve, that you can develop fresh ideas and provide solutions to workplace challenges.
2. Capable of delivering an elevated store shopping experience
Delivering an elevated  in-store consumer experience is becoming increasingly important for traditional retailers. Â
An essential component of the in-store experience is customer service.
Retailers are looking for the ultimate ‘people person’.
Someone who can build rapport within minutes, remain calm and composed even when dealing with frustrated customers, and importantly, someone able to determine and meet the needs of the customer.
Being a ‘people person’ requires several skills; interpersonal, communication, active listening, along with confidence, empathy, and patience.
Again, use achievement stories within your retail resume to show your success applying your customer service skills, with a focus on the times you have provided a memorable in-store experience.
Think about:
How you provide service above and beyond facilitating the transaction? How you make sure customers have a positive experience in-store?
Examples of when you have succeeded in creating a positive customer experience? What did you do? What was the outcome?
You can also focus on specific skills; for example, when have you used your active listening skills to determine and respond to customer needs?
Have you ever felt frustrated while dealing with a customer? How did you respond?
3. Tech-savvy
Retail stores embracing e-commerce are also leveraging technology in store.
Retailers are using technology to deliver innovative shopping experiences, and ensure a consistent and cohesive experience across the online and physical store.
It will be increasingly common for physical stores to have virtual look books, interactive product displays, purchase apps, digital price tags, and virtual reality showrooms.
This means that retailers are not only looking for skills in the operation of point of sale systems, but a retail employee also needs the technical skills to operate in-store digital technology.
Check out this example of technology in use at Specsavers (Video:40sec)
On your resume provide achievement stories that demonstrate your success applying technology, but also include a technical skills section to list specific applications and software you are proficient.
Additional Skills for your Retail Resume
In addition to these skills be sure to also include evidence of your other skills; communication, initiative, organisation & planning, problem solving, teamwork, and a result focus.
Use the position description or job ad to guide you to the specific skills and experience the employer is seeking.
For each skill make sure you include achievement stories.
Where possible you should quantify your achievements, however an achievement story should also go beyond the result and include details of how you went about accomplishing the outcome.
Here is an example:
Oversaw delivery of three-day in-store promotion and achieved 24% increase in sales; accountable for organisation of event and promotion on social media. Creative social media strategy generated significant interest. Increased in-store traffic by 50% on previous year’s event. Â
If you have found this advice helpful, I have a Retail Resume Template & Blueprint product; which includes detailed guidance on how to write a resume, and how to demonstrate the required skills for a role in retail. Also included is a sample retail resume and retail resume template.
Are you looking for your first role in retail? You might like to take a look at my article How to Write First Resume with No Work Experience.
References
Retail Trade – Australia Market Research Report IBISWorld
