Sales Associate Job Description and Information

03/14/2012 22:34

Congratulations on taking the primary stage towards a job as a sales associate! Before we commence the sales associate job description, here are a few facts and statistics:


Employment prospects in this domain are great due to the need to replace employees who depart each year or so. Sales associates often work weekends and nights, particularly during optimum retail cycles such as the holiday time of year. This is the ideal profession for a large range of persons of all proficiency levels. While teens may find it to be the perfect initial profession, young people with university or college experience have a good opportunity to progress into management placements. Sales associates get paid approximately an average of $10 an hour.

The standard and retail sales associate job description will be recognizable to anyone who’s ever stepped into a shop. Odds are that you’ve met and interacted with a sales associate in a grocery store, a car or truck dealership, a clothing store, a book store, or even a hardware store. They are the general store personnel who do everything from handling products, preparing merchandise on the shop floor, motivating consumers to buy a product or service, helping them find what they’re hunting for, and eventually ringing them up at the cash register. A sales associate’s job also may comprise of management tasks such as stopping theft, organizing the store for opening or closing, and even basic assignments such as cleaning racks and counter-tops.

There are a few facets to this classification of a sales associate’s responsibilities: stock and shop floor. In the behind-the-scenes operation of the shop, a sales associate may carry out tasks such as unloading trucks and keeping overflow stock arranged in the back room or warehouse area. For merchandise that will be featured on the store floor, a sales associate will be involved in tagging products with labels (price labels, size tags, sales decals, etc.). Prices often change, and sales associates are expected to carry out price changes by retagging and/or relocating merchandise. Once this is performed, they will organize the product on the store floor. This means putting the items in an organized fashion on cabinets, holders, counter tops, and sales exhibits.

Aside from products, sales associates are also involved in setting up promotional displays, such as posters, mannequins, window displays, display cases, and general periodic display materials. You know the type: “On sale!”; “50% off!”; “New arrivals!” etc. Every once in a while, the retail store format may change and the sales associates will aid in shuffling tables around.

Once all of the merchandise is ready to go, the marketing displays are up, and the shop opens, the sales associate is in charge of maintaining the quality of the store’s presentation. This means watching and maintaining the inventory stock on the shop floor by replenishing any draining shelves with new merchandise. Shoppers will often relocate products around as they look through the shop, and a sales associate must fix this by reorganizing things so that customers aren’t hindered in locating what they’re searching for, or just to have a more pleasurable shopping experience in general. Refolding garments is a popular instance of this type of activity for a retail sales associate. Maintaining a neat and tidy store front is a fundamental task that you will come across in many a sales associate job description.