Retail Sales Associate Resume Sample

1. Write a winning career objective

Hiring managers read through resumes quickly. If you don’t impress them right off the bat, your application is in jeopardy — especially as an aspiring sales associate. There’s just too much competition.

One way to make an impression and help you land an interview is to write an awesome resume objective. Comprised of three sentences that contain a surprising amount of information, a career objective is a great tool in a job applicant’s arsenal.

1. Your first sentence serves as an introduction, where you state your name and elaborate on your relevant experience.

• Sales associate of eight years, working at both Trader Joe’s and Bed Bath & Beyond in a variety of retail roles.

2. The second sentence gives you a chance to highlight your strengths & abilities. You can also mention the role you’re applying for specifically if applicable.

• An innate ability to connect with customers has helped me thrive in these environments, where I’ve been able to boost sales and strengthen brand loyalty by providing quality service.

3. You wrap things up in the third sentence, where you explain why your experience & skill-set make you the perfect candidate for the position.

• My commitment to customers and a passion for the retail industry will help me transition comfortably to your team, and quickly become an asset to your business.

If you can write a concise, informative career objective, you’ll be sure to get the attention of an employer.

2. Highlight relevant experience

Think about those days working in customer service. In your experience section, kick off each job description with your greatest accomplishment. Hiring managers will be skimming resumes quickly, so this is a good way to make sure your top experiences and achievements are noticed.

Some common verb-phrases that you’ll see on a sales associate resume are:

• “Respond to customer complaints…”
• “Provide information to guests…”
• “Sell services to customers…”
• “Listen to customer suggestions…”

Try to give the hiring manager an idea of how big your company is, and how many guests you took care of on a daily basis. Also, try to include numbers as often as possible. How many customers did you work with every day? How many sales did you make on average each month? This kind of concrete information is valuable proof of your ability to work in this industry.

It is important you keep this section focused – do not include mundane details like “watered the plants” or “threw away the trash.” Your resume needs to be a powerful and concise summary of your main responsibilities and achievements, so avoid fluffing it up with irrelevant content.

If you haven’t worked a single day in your life, that’s fine too. Entry-level candidates can include extra curricular activities such as volunteer work, club memberships, social chairs, and anything else of that variety. Your lack of work experience can be downplayed by the fact that you’re social and active, which represents confidence and competence.

3. Emphasize customer service-related soft & hard skills

Got people skills? Write them down. Have some concrete abilities? Include those as well. By incorporating some excellent hard skills and soft skills into your resume, you’ll look much more hirable. Plus, it will help you make an make your ATS resume which is Applicant Tracking System software friendly.. Here are some examples of skills that should appear in a sales associate resume:

Bilingual Ability | Point of Sale (POS) Software | Microsoft Office Suite | Loss Prevention | WPM | Interpersonal Communication | Leadership | Management

There are many, many more. However, keep them within the realm of the position you want. You don’t need to be able to swallow a flaming sword!

Sales associates are the face of the company – they interact with customers and are there to provide support, guidance, and a whole range of services on behalf of the organization.

On a personal level, if you are considering a career in customer service, there are a few core skills you need to possess to succeed:

1. Interpersonal skills – You must feel relaxed and confident communicating with people from all backgrounds. You may also need to quickly develop and maintain relationships.
2. Communication skills – It is essential you communicate clearly and efficiently when dealing with customers. This includes being able to speak on the phone and face to face. You also need reliable written skills since a lot of customer service involves responding to written correspondence.
3. Patience and empathy – A large portion of customer service work evolves resolving customer complaints. An angry customer needs to feel you are listening and that you understand their complaint. You need to remain patient when looking to resolve a customer issue – remember you will be dealing with people from all walks of life.
4. Problem-solving skills – Your key responsibility is to ensure customer satisfaction. This means resolving any issues presented by a customer, no matter how unexpected they are – you need to think quickly and act.

The general entry requirement is a high school diploma, and a great thing about customer service work is that each company has it’s own unique customer service ‘ethos’, or set values. This means you can expect in-house training. If you can prove your personality meshes well with that of your target company, you’ll be called in for an interview (and hopefully land the job).

Are you ready to put your application together? Our free, downloadable resume templates can help you get things started. For anyone worried about time, our professional resume builder can help you write & format yours in minutes. Happy job hunting!