How to become Retail Salesperson in 2024

Retail Salesperson Sell merchandise, such as furniture, motor vehicles, appliances, or apparel to consumers.

Retail Salesperson is Also Know as

In different settings, Retail Salesperson is titled as

  • Car Salesman
  • Customer Assistant
  • Retail Salesperson
  • Sales Associate
  • Sales Clerk
  • Sales Consultant
  • Sales Person
  • Sales Representative
  • Salesman

Education and Training of Retail Salesperson

Retail Salesperson is categorized in Job Zone Two: Some Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Retail Salesperson

Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is usually needed. For example, a teller would benefit from experience working directly with the public.

Education Required for Retail Salesperson

These occupations usually require a high school diploma.

Degrees Related to Retail Salesperson

Training Required for Retail Salesperson

Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Retail Salesperson in different industries are

What Do Retail Salesperson do?

  • Greet customers and ascertain what each customer wants or needs.
  • Open and close cash registers, performing tasks such as counting money, separating charge slips, coupons, and vouchers, balancing cash drawers, and making deposits.
  • Maintain knowledge of current sales and promotions, policies regarding payment and exchanges, and security practices.
  • Compute sales prices, total purchases, and receive and process cash or credit payment.
  • Maintain records related to sales.
  • Watch for and recognize security risks and thefts and know how to prevent or handle these situations.
  • Recommend, select, and help locate or obtain merchandise based on customer needs and desires.
  • Answer questions regarding the store and its merchandise.
  • Describe merchandise and explain use, operation, and care of merchandise to customers.
  • Ticket, arrange, and display merchandise to promote sales.
  • Prepare sales slips or sales contracts.
  • Place special orders or call other stores to find desired items.
  • Demonstrate use or operation of merchandise.
  • Clean shelves, counters, and tables.
  • Exchange merchandise for customers and accept returns.
  • Bag or package purchases and wrap gifts.
  • Help customers try on or fit merchandise.
  • Inventory stock and requisition new stock.
  • Prepare merchandise for purchase or rental.
  • Sell or arrange for delivery, insurance, financing, or service contracts for merchandise.
  • Estimate and quote trade-in allowances.
  • Estimate cost of repair or alteration of merchandise.
  • Estimate quantity and cost of merchandise required, such as paint or floor covering.
  • Rent merchandise to customers.

Qualities of Good Retail Salesperson

  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.

Tools Used by Retail Salesperson

  • Adjustable widemouth pliers
  • Adjustable wrenches
  • Barcode scanners
  • Cash registers
  • Clothing irons
  • Clothing steamers
  • Computerized cash registers
  • Credit card processing machines
  • Desktop computers
  • Electronic funds transfer EFT terminals
  • Gas consoles
  • Hammers
  • Handheld calculators
  • Ladders
  • Lottery machines
  • Magnetic card readers
  • Personal computers
  • Point of sale POS computer terminals
  • Price guns
  • Screwdrivers
  • Sewing machines
  • Tape measures
  • Telecheck processing terminals

Technology Skills required for Retail Salesperson

  • Adobe Acrobat
  • Adobe Creative Cloud software
  • Adobe Illustrator
  • Adobe InDesign
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Advanced Retail Management Systems Retail Pro
  • American Precision Instruments Regit
  • Apple macOS
  • ASI Point of Sale
  • Attitude POS itive AccuPOS Retail
  • Autodesk AutoCAD
  • Bibase 4POS Retail
  • Blink
  • CAP Automation SellWise
  • Comcash ERP
  • CompuTant CounterPoint
  • CyberMatrix
  • Data entry software
  • Database software
  • Datasym SYMFINITE
  • Eclipse IDE
  • Exact business software
  • EZ Software Solutions
  • Facebook
  • FileMaker Pro
  • Gift registry software
  • Google Docs
  • Google Drive
  • Google Meet
  • GroupMe
  • Handheld computer device software
  • IBM Notes
  • Infocorp Computer Solutions $mart System
  • Infocorp Softwear/POS
  • Internet browser software
  • Intuit QuickBooks
  • Inventory management systems
  • iQmetrix RQ4 Retail Management System
  • LinkedIn
  • LOB RetailPoint
  • Logisoft Positive Pos System
  • ManageMore Cellular Manager
  • Master Merchant Systems Music Store
  • MicroBiz
  • Microsoft Access
  • Microsoft Dynamics
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft SharePoint
  • Microsoft Windows
  • Microsoft Word
  • Millennium Software Atrex
  • Oracle PeopleSoft
  • Plexis Software Plexis POS
  • Point of sale POS bookstore software
  • Point of sale POS parts and services software
  • Point of sale POS software
  • RiscStation POSSum
  • Sage 50 Accounting
  • Sage 50 Accounting Software
  • Salesforce software
  • SAP software
  • SBS Keystroke
  • Semicron Systems
  • SmugMug Flickr
  • Social media sites
  • Softpedia ShopInvo
  • System3 POS software
  • The General Store
  • The Retail Solution
  • TokenWorks Magnetic Card Reader
  • True North Computer Retail Plus
  • VeriFone PC Charge Pro
  • Vigilant
  • Visual Retail Plus
  • WinMan SureSell
  • YouTube