Behind every successful store hides in the background a retail manager. They are outstanding leaders to the other store employees and are actually the reason why most stores manage to do 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 management skills, retail is a career field with many opportunities. To help you land your next big job, our team has prepared a cover letter for retail managers with some additional writing tips.
Retail Manager Letter Example (Word Version)
Download example (.docx)
Retail manager letter example (text version)
Hi Peach Pit Retail Team,
I am applying in response to your job ad for the position of retail manager, posted on LinkedIn. I have nearly 8 years of experience working in both retail and customer service – a background that would be a great addition to your team.
In my previous retail roles, I developed strong marketing and product analysis skills, as well as people management experiences. In my current role at a Hallmark store, I recruited, promoted and trained 15 new sales associates, of which 85% stayed with the brand for two years or more. I’m a strong believer in employee retention and engagement, especially now that turnover rates are at an all-time high due to the mass attrition. If hired, my priorities will not only be around improving store margins and stock turnover rates, but also around employee retention and re-engagement with a new rewards-based system.
However, I also understand the importance of cash flow management in the current retail climate. I think analytically and proactively look for strategies to optimize profits. During my two years at Stephanie’s Jewelry Counter, I have:
- Reduce the annual budget by 18%
- Increased our annual sales for my location by nearly $100,000
I believe I can achieve equally impressive results for Peach Pit. My CV further details my retail management skill set as well as other achievements.
Looking forward to hearing back from you.
Best,
Maria Jason
Tips for writing cover letters for retail managers
Retail managers need to display a diverse skill set. Besides showing strong people and administrative skills, you should also show your analytical side. Retail managers are good strategists. They are comfortable with data analysis, trend analysis and optimization of sales processes. Essentially, you have a lot to pack into your cover letter.
To ensure your cover letter fits on one page and tells a compelling story to a potential employer, use the following tips.
Say more by writing less
Retailers are incredibly busy. So no one will read a long rambling letter of 500+ words. The same goes for a resume—you need to fit your career history into one page. For experienced sales managers, brevity can be a difficult act to muster.
To keep your job application materials short but compelling, try these tips:
- Use bullet points and “implied first person” structure to cut sentence length.
- Remove weak words – words with (-ly), filler words like “really”, “personally”, “actually”, etc.
- Try an app like Hemingway or Word melody Increase your writing for clarity and length.
Finally, don’t repeat the same things in your cover letter and resume. Highlight different achievements or examples of different skills across them to tell the reader more about yourself.
Go for the “hard” sell.
Don’t be afraid to brag about 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. You may have found a better way to display items that have resulted in an increase in revenue for the business.
Or maybe you were able to significantly reduce operating costs by deactivating old software and eliminating unnecessary operating processes?
Think about all your past work through the prism of concrete results. Then move the best parts to the work experience section of your resume.
Combine keywords from the job description
Because 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 tip the odds in your favor, re-read the job description and pay attention to the “key words” the employer uses to describe the desired skills. Keywords can include the number of years in the industry, specific software knowledge and a host of other hard and soft skills. Add some of these to your cover letter and resume.
Final tip: Show that you understand the employer’s needs
Do your research. Make sure you understand the products the store sells and their approach to branding, customer experience management or employee retention. State that you understand what the company is likely struggling with (eg a high turnover rate as the example above indicates) and suggest how you can help them solve the problem. This action is a surefire way to tickle the reader’s curiosity and motivate further action!
