Skills
Retail Store Manager Skills & Tools
The technical skills, people skills and tools employers look for in retail store managers, and how to build and show them.
What skills do retail store managers need?
Retail Store Managers need technical skills such as sales management, scheduling and payroll, and inventory and shrink control, plus people skills like leadership and coaching. They also use tools such as POS and reporting systems and Scheduling software.
Technical (hard) skills
- Sales management
- Scheduling and payroll
- Inventory and shrink control
- Merchandising
- Hiring and training
- Retail KPIs
People (soft) skills
- Leadership
- Coaching
- Problem solving
- Communication
Tools, equipment and technology
- POS and reporting systems
- Scheduling software
- Inventory systems
- Planograms
- Email and messaging apps
- Spreadsheets
Skills in action: common tasks
These step-by-step guides show how retail store managers put their skills to work:
How to show these skills on a resume
- Lead your skills section with the technical skills from the job posting, for example, “Sales management” and “Scheduling and payroll.”
- Prove soft skills with results: instead of listing “leadership,” describe a situation where you used it.
- List credentials such as NRF Foundation retail certifications near the top, with the issuing organization and date.
- Use the employer’s vocabulary. Our retail store manager glossary covers the terms hiring managers expect.
How to build these skills
Formal training, supervised practice and certification are the most direct routes. Our Retail Store Manager training introduces each of these skills with plain-language lessons, procedures and a final knowledge check: a strong foundation before hands-on training or your first day.