To get in to retail, you need information. Read on to find out how this dynamic industry works, what you might earn and the variety of routes in.
With over 3 million people working in around 290,000 businesses, retail's success depends on many departments working efficiently together. In each there exist a variety of job roles from first rung to the top, but it doesn’t matter what level you start at, this is an industry that has opportunities to progress with transferable skills across all businesses. Take a look at the overview of the departments below and click each to download more information.
STORE OPERATIONS
No other part of retail carries more responsibility than the sales floor. With jobs ranging from sales assistants to store managers, operations deals with customers, ensures excellent service and keep the store a place where products turn into profit. Graduate trainees cut their teeth here and it is a department where hard work is rewarded with fast progression and early responsibility.
MERCHANDISING
The link between buyers and the sales floor, merchandisers supply departments with the lowdown on how products perform, making sure the right products are in the right place at the right time. This means keeping an eye on stock, checking out buying trends and predicting what will sell and in what amounts.
BUYING
Every product appears thanks to a careful process of selection and sampling from suppliers. Buyers are seen as having the glitzy job of jetting around the world, but the role comes with responsibility. Buyers live in the future and have to get it right, predicting tomorrow’s tastes and trends by trawling through the internet, travelling to see merchandise and attending trade shows.
HUMAN RESOURCES
Human Resources departments attract, hire and train the talent, making sure every department has the best people in the best positions. From interviewing potential staff to reviewing salaries and performance, HR professionals organise and motivate, identify skills gaps, build confidence and occasionally lay down the law to maximise the human potential in the business.
MARKETING AND PR
It’s all very well having the great products ready to go out, but if no one knows what or where they are, there’s not much point. Marketing and public relations (PR) departments are megaphones for the business and use TV, radio, online and print media to get the message across about their brand and their products.
VISUAL MERCHANDISING
Visual merchandisers create the best store layouts and the most eye catching shop windows, visual theatre that gets your buying impulses buzzing from the minute you walk past. Putting the ART into RETAIL, this department is the reason products look so good in their own worlds behind the glass.
IT
From the minute merchandise gets to the warehouse to it being scanned at the checkout, IT departments provide the most efficient systems that support the complete supply chain. When doing its job well, it goes unnoticed but IT departments are becoming increasingly high profile with the rise of online retailing.
LOGISTICS
Keeping the whole show on the road is an efficient chauffeur system for the products - logistics. This department transports everything from factory to front of store, through road, rail, sea and air, making sure it arrives on time, on schedule and in the right place.
FINANCE
In retail, the finance teams are more than just bean counters, they plan and secure the strategic and financial future of the business. They monitor each store’s performance, allocate the resources, look at risk, evaluate financial risk and work with the links in the chain to develop product range and pricing.
For more personal careers advice based, you can always contact your local retail skills shop through the National Skills Academy for Retail website or call 0207 462 5089.