Retail Manager

On a retail manager apprenticeship course, you’ll help supervise staff, their work and sales within a retail environment.

A retail manager is responsible for achieving sales targets while delivering a positive customer experience that promotes repeat business and loyalty.

It is a diverse profession that entails managing and developing a team to achieve corporate objectives and interacting with a broad range of people, which requires excellent communication skills.

Your job will need you to maximise income while minimising waste; thus, you must have a strong understanding of business and people management principles to achieve corporate objectives.

You will be a champion of personal development, training, and continuous improvement, encouraging your team to develop their skills and abilities to enhance performance and productivity.

This apprenticeship would lead to a position in a retail store as a senior retail employee or as an area manager.

What you’ll learn

On a retail manager apprenticeship course, you’ll learn to:

• Manage the customer experience, even if it is done remotely, such as online, by ensuring that the team delivers a pleasant experience to customers that compares well to its main competitors and meets customer service objectives.
• Lead the team to achieve and exceed corporate objectives via planning, analysis, and evaluation of one’s business sector. 
• Manage the team’s overall performance to achieve financial objectives while keeping the retail calendar year in mind. Analyse reports to identify and prioritise critical tasks and recommendations. 
• Produce and report on financial plans as required by the business and identify and implement opportunities to increase profit and reduce waste.
• Provide clear guidance and leadership to the team, as well as open and honest feedback. 
• Communicate marketing objectives to team members and encourage them to accomplish results.
• Analyse and evaluate the impact of marketing activities, such as sales and customer feedback, and provide the results to senior management with suitable recommendations.
• Establish clearly stated communication objectives, then drive communications in a style and manner that applies to the target audience and results in a successful business outcome.
• Manage the team to achieve sales objectives by regularly assessing performance against outcomes, identifying high and low-performance products/services, and quickly identifying and implementing appropriate solutions.
• Analyse and analyse product/service sales data to provide recommendations for future planning, such as personnel and resource allocation and new project ideas. Investigate and propose new products, services, or initiatives to the team.
• Ensure that the team’s activities align with the company’s and brand’s values and actively promote the firm, boost competitiveness, and assist in achieving business objectives. Identify possible brand reputation risks and take measures to prevent or reduce their impact.
• Ensure that your department installs, monitors, and maintains effective merchandising. Measure the impact of merchandising on sales and report the findings to colleagues and senior management, offering recommendations for improvements and implementing changes within the extent of one’s duties.
• Monitor the stock management system to minimise the cost of stock damage and loss to the business.
• Maintain business standards and stock requirements by verifying audit compliance and reacting to issues as soon as possible.
• Ensure that technology is acquired, discovered, made accessible, maintained, and protected in line with business needs; monitor technology use in accordance with corporate policy. 
• Collaborate with team members to help them reach their full potential and achieve the organisation’s objectives. 
• Implement accurate and effective education on products, services, and sales regulations such as age limits, trade standards, and weights and measures.
• Recruit the right people for the proper job, track team performance, recognise excellence, and deal with poor performance efficiently.
• Implement a diversity policy that ensures the team is aware of and knows how to work effectively with colleagues, customers, and other stakeholders from various backgrounds and cultures.

Entry requirements

You’ll usually need:

• Previous experience in a supervisory role with retail or a similar sector.
• Apprentices without level 2 English and maths will need to achieve this before taking the end-point assessment.

Assessment methods

The End Point Assessment comprises three distinct assessment methods: 

• Written
• Retail business project
• Professional discussion

Duration, level, subjects and potential salary upon completion

Apprenticeship standard

More information about the Level 4 Retail Manager Apprenticeship standard can be found here.

Apprenticeship end point assessment

For more information about the End Point Assessment Process, please read the Institute of Apprenticeships’ information page.