Retail Resumes: Resume Tips for Retail Personnel

As per a recent survey conducted by America’s Research Group, casualties of the economy will continue to escalate among national retail chains.  Zales, the large vendor of fine jewelry, and Eddie Bauer, the sportswear purveyor, both closed at least 8% of their locations in 2008 and are projecting more closures in ’09.  Forced to shut down 150 stores last year, Charming Shoppes (Lane Bryant’s parent company), expects to padlock the doors of another 100 locations by year’s end 2009.  The Sears-Kmart merger seemed a sound business decision in 2005, engineered on the merits of the stores’ real estate.  Less than four years later, the mega-retailer appears headed for the chopping block as lagging sales at check-out lines exacerbate a 30% plunge in real estate values.

Meanwhile, Starbucks’ brew is proving too rich for general consumers feeling the pinch.  Retailers such as Sprint-Nextel will continue to decline as the specialty nature of their cellular products has created a finite market.  Both corporations are scheduled to close hundreds more locations in the wake of the hundreds that have disappeared from the market last year.

If you are a retail employee, how secure is your position?  Given the facts, it would be wise to create or update your resume and cover letter before the economy inevitably worsens.  Buyers, assistant buyers, district managers, store managers, assistant store managers, visual merchandisers, sales associates, cashiers, and stock/inventory/ receiving clerks will continue to flood the market as retailers downsize and close doors.  Without professional resumes and cover letters, you will be left ashore on the ever-widening sea of candidates vying for available positions.

To gain the edge, consider and then highlight what makes your position unique.  Buyers and assistant buyers, for instance, will want to indicate their level of experience by listing their Open-to-Buys (purchasing budgets) and the number of retail locations and/or the region that their efforts impact (i.e., 83 locations along the Eastern Seaboard).  For purchasing professionals seeking to enter completely new industries, dollar amounts of Open-to-Buys may be construed as “apples versus oranges”.  Therefore, it is beneficial to list the average number of units shipped annually against purchase orders:  numbers that, indicating overall volume, will be more meaningful to employers in fields beyond retail.  Employers, of course, also view the ability to engineer cost savings as a meritorious trait among buyers and assistant buyers.  In this regard, one can mention dollar amounts as well as strategies applied (i.e., effective inventory analysis, planning, and bulk purchasing and/or creative negotiation with vendors).

Job seekers in sales-driven positions, such as district managers, store managers, assistant store managers, and sales associates, would do well to specify yearly sales volumes produced by their region or individual store locations, either in terms of dollars or percentages, and to qualify these figures by indicating the original goals (i.e., “increased annual sales by $42K against goal of $35K.”).  As inventory shrinkage is a critical issue to retailers, equating to lost revenue, managerial staff within this group should also list verifiable reductions; for example, “decreased shrinkage within a six-month period, bringing losses to 0.75% against the region’s average of 1.5%.  In retail organizations where CSI’s (Customer Satisfaction Indexes) constitute measurable metrics and infer generation of ongoing revenue, these figures are also viewed as accomplishments, particularly at the individual retail unit level.

While visual merchandisers, cashiers, and stock/inventory/receiving clerks may assume that there is little that is unique to indicate on their resumes, that is not always the case.  Merchandisers may have been pressed to implement new visual initiatives as mandated by Corporate, or to support openings of new locations.  Such projects completed within budget and/or under deadlines can easily be highlighted on one’s resume.  Accuracy and integrity are essential to the job functions of cashiers and stock/inventory/receiving clerks and should be specified.  Accomplishments such as “assisted in stemming the source of a $2.5K loss due to discovery of internal/cashier error or misappropriation of funds” and “reconciled an error in February’s inventory audit resulting in $1,725 in cost savings” are exactly what employers wish to read in the resumes of retail employees at this level.  Even if one is transitioning into another industry, specific achievements speak volumes about a candidate’s commitment, focus, and industrious work ethic.