Behind every successful store looms a retail manager in the background. They are salient leaders to the other store employees and are actually the reason why most stores can do either so well or so poorly. After all, they say that employees don’t quit because of bad jobs, they leave because of bad managers.
If you are a leader with strong managerial skills, retail is a career field with plenty of opportunities. To help you land your next big job, our team prepared a sample cover letter for retail managers with some extra writing tips.
Retail Manager Letter Sample (Word version)
Retail Manager Letter Example (text version)
Hi Peach Pit Retail Crew,
I am reaching out in response to your job ad for the Retail Manager role, published on LinkedIn. I have almost 8 years of experience working in both retail and customer service — a background that would make an excellent addition to your team.
In my past retail roles, I have developed strong merchandising and product analytics skills, as well as people management experiences. In my current role with Hallmark’s store, I have recruited, onboarded, and trained 15 new sales associates, of whom 85% stayed working with the brand for 2+ years. I’m a strong believer in employee retention and engagement, especially now as the turnover rates are all-time high due to the Great Resignation. If hired, my priorities would not only be around improving store profit margins and stock turnover rates but also around employee retention and re-engagement with a new award-based system.
That said, I also realize the importance of cash flow management in the current retail climate. I’m an analytical thinker and proactively look for profit optimization strategies. During my two year tenure at Stephanie’s Jewelry Counter, I have:
- Reduced the annual budget by 18%
- Increased our annual sales for my location by nearly $ 100,000
I believe I could accomplish equally impressive results for Peach Pit. My resume further details my retail management skill set, as well as other accomplishments.
Look forward to hearing back from you.
Best,
Maria Jason
Cover Letter Writing Tips for Retail Managers
Retail managers need to present a diverse skill set. Apart from showing strong people and administrative skills, you must also showcase your analytical side. Retail managers are good strategists. They are comfortable with data analytics, trend analysis, and sales process optimization. Essentially, you have a lot to pack in your cover letter.
To ensure your cover letter fits one page and tells a compelling story to a potential employer, use the following tips.
Say More By Writing Less
Retail people are incredibly busy. So no one’s going to read a long rumbling letter of 500+ words. The same goes for resumes — you need to fit your career history into one page. For experienced sales managers, brevity can be a tough act to muster.
To keep your job application materials short, but persuasive, try these tips:
- Use bullet points and “first-person implied” construct to cut sentence length.
- Eliminate weak words — adverbs with (-ly), filler words like “really”, “personally”, “actually”, etc.
- Try an app like Hemingway or Wordtune to punch up your writing for clarity and length.
Finally, don’t repeat the same stuff in your cover letter and resume. Spotlight different accomplishments or skills examples across them to tell the reader more about yourself.
Go for a “Hard” Sell
Don’t be afraid to brag in your cover letter. You need to close the deal, so a more “aggressive” sales push is perfectly acceptable. Employers want to see confident and capable people in management positions.
So come up with a list of your biggest accomplishments and bragging rights. Possibly, you found a better way to display items that resulted in an increase in revenue for the business.
Or maybe you managed to cut operating costs by a sizable notch by retiring some legacy software and eliminating redundant operating processes?
Think about all your past work through the prism of concrete results. Then transfer the best bits into the work experience section of your resume.
Incorporate Keywords From the Job Description
Since retail jobs attract a lot of applicants, many companies use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to pre-process all applications. This software scans resumes and cover letters for relevant keywords and ranks submissions based on them.
To get the odds in your favor, re-read the job description and pay attention to “the keywords” the employer uses to describe desired qualifications. Keywords can include the number of years in the industry, specific software knowledge, and a multitude of other hard and soft skills. Add some of these to your cover letter and resume.
Final Tip: Show You Understand The Employer’s Needs
Do your research. Ensure you understand the products the store sells and their approach to branding, customer experience management, or employee retention. Indicate that you understand what the company’s probably struggling with (e.g. high employee turnover rate as the sample above mentions) and suggest how you could help them solve the issue. Doing so is a surefire way to tickle the reader’s curiosity and prompt further action!
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