Careers in Stores
Retail Stores
Retail has been a buoyant industry since the later 1990s. Working in this dynamic sector is exciting and very fast paced. Careers in retail management are wide and varied, encompassing anything from running a small department or store to running a hypermarket, a region, or another retail operation such as a warehouse. Retail management careers attract a diverse range of people and increasing roles are being filled by graduates. As a career choice retail management is very results driven. Success in this sector involves a lot of hard work with challenging work hours, often working weekends. The UKs major retailers offer great training and excellent career prospects with structured paths for those possessing the ability to deliver results.
A typical career path in retail management
Retail Management Trainees - £17,000 to £25,000 Your first job in retail is usually straight in at the deep end. It is feasible that after a few weeks of shadowing your manager you could be running a small department with 5 or more staff.
Department or Section Manager - £20,000 to £38,000 Most large department stores, supermarkets and out of town non-food retailers will have managers for their trading sections or departments. Salaries vary greatly depending on staff numbers and turnover responsibility.
Stores or Branch Manager - £30,000 to £90,000 To reach this level most managers will have a minimum of 8 years experience. This same title applies whether the position manages 5 or 100 people, hence the significant variance witnessed in salaries associated with this role.
Regional Manager / Director - £65,000 to £100,000+ The top retail management roles are more focused on strategy and delivering results across a region. People will not normally attain this level role with less than 15 years relevant experience.
Typical job responsibilities mid-level Store Managers
Day to day
• Monitoring sales
• Dealing with customers
• Maintaining merchandising standards
• Ordering stock and managing deliveries
• Team motivation and management
• Banking cash and receipt management
Longer term
• Meeting targets
• Staff recruitment
• Training and development
• Store development
• Rolling-out new initiatives
