15 Highest Paid Retail Jobs | All You Need to Know

No industry pays more than retail, this behemoth is worth an estimate of over 5 trillion dollars as of 2017, that’s four years ago.

Now imagine how far this industry must have grown not minding the Covid19 pandemic that destroyed literally 60% of the world global finance. During this period, retail sales grew an estimated of 6.7%.

In this article, we will be talking about 15 highest-paying retail jobs in 2023.

But before we hit the nail, let’s understand what a retail job is all about.

What is a retail job?

This job involves the presenting, marketing, organizing, stocking, and selling of products and services to customers in a store or over the phone

In simpler terms, it includes every activity required to run a store successfully.

From opening and closing a store during and after operational hours to operating the cash register, ordering new stock whenever there is a shortage, communicating with customers, cleaning the building, etc.

Working in a retail store requires basic skills of sales, communication, multitasking, etc.

Read: WHO IS THE HIGHEST PAID SALESMAN? TOP 10 HIGHEST PAID CAR SALESMEN

Salary Scale of Retail Jobs

Such a basic requirement for an industry that according to Payscale pays a minimum of 10 dollars per hour and bonuses reaching from $20to $500 to a simple sales assistant those guys that greet you whenever you enter the store and sometimes points you to a product

How profitable is a retail job?

Quick research on Quora explains that when a retailer buys goods from a wholesaler at a particular price, they then add up the cost at which they believe the customer will pay

Out of this concluded margin are the costs of running the business I.e employee wages, utilities, rents, etc.  Anything that is left is their profit

Thinking they are ripping their customers off. Think again

You see, they are not always making profits on each major sale but the minor ones

Let me explain you bought a fridge from an electronic retail store, they might not make a profit from the sale of the fridge

Even If they did, it would be a very small margin but they would have some nice profit on the adapter, cable lines, dust cover, extended warranty you bought along with it

According to the bureau of labor statistics, the median pay for an average retail worker is 13$ per hour and 27000$ per year with entry-level education

15 HIGHEST PAYING RETAIL JOBS IN 2023

The great thing about becoming a retail worker is the fact it doesn’t require any experience whatsoever or even any formal educations,

Heck, you can even learn on the job

But to be able to earn more and secure these high paying retail jobs

P.S: You are required to have a very good experience in the retail industry, either through training or formal educations

Here are the 15 highest-paid retail jobs in 2023:

  1. Beauty consultant
  2. Pharmacy technician
  3. Purchasing agent  
  4. Loss prevention manager
  5. Regional loss prevention manager
  6. Cosmetics manager
  7. Purchasing manager
  8. Customer service supervisor
  9. Customer service manager
  10. Retail account manager
  11. Store manager
  12. General manager
  13. Regional manager
  14. Sales associate
  15. Retail franchise owner

1. Beauty consultant

Average salary: $43,000 per year

Duties: As a beauty consultant in the retail industry, your primary duty is to help customers to choose various beauty products, which include skincare products, makeup cosmetics, hair-care products, etc, while also teaching them how to use and apply the product.  

Responsibilities as a retail beauty consultant 

  • Answer customer questions
  • Offer cosmetic consultation
  • Provide test samples
  • Demonstrate how products work
  • Make product recommendations
  • Close sales of products

Qualification

  • Retail experience
  • High school diploma
  • A Cosmetology license can give you a wedge
  • Broad knowledge on cosmetics trends
  • Broad knowledge on skincare, makeup, stylish brands and products
  • Great sales skills

Companies that offer these retail jobs include:

Ulta beauty, Oriflame, Nordstorm, Sephora, Purplle, Sally beauty

Read: 17 Highest Paid Recruiters In The USA | Best Companies And State

2. Pharmacy technician 

Average salary: $33,000 per year at entry level

Duties: As one of the most paid jobs in the retail industry, your primary duty as a pharmacy technician is to assist pharmacists during their entire shifts.

This can include filing prescriptions, handling paper-works, answering phones, interacting with customers etc.

Responsibilities as a retail pharmacy technician

  • Handling telephone conversation
  • Assist other pharmacy staffs  
  • Operating the cash register
  • Directing customers to the right staff for their medical concern  
  • Helping customers to fill forms
  • Operating laboratory equipment and computers
  • Processing prescriptions and insurance claims

Qualifications

  • High school diploma
  • Formal education or training program
  • Great attention to details
  • Listening skills
  • Organizational skill
  • Basic maths skills
  • Excellent customer service

Companies that offer this high paying retail job includes

Cvs pharmacy, PharMerica, Walmart, Safeway, Walgreens

3. Purchasing Agent:

Average salary: $60,000 per year

Duties: a buyer is tasked with the responsibility of filling up the shelves of the store, that is he buys the clothing, materials for the store to sell.

This could include making a purchase order from vendors, building relationships with these vendors, tracking the deliveries of the purchased material to make sure it arrives successfully.

Responsibilities  of a purchasing agent

  • Managing stock levels
  • Reviewing what product is selling and not
  • Keeping in trend with new hot products hitting the market
  • Negotiating price, and delivery timescales

Qualifications

  • Business or technical bachelor degree
  • Work experience in purchasing
  • Negotiating prowess to make better deals for the company
  • Ability to work with a team
  • Organizational skills
  • Comprehensive commercial awareness
  • Ability to work under pressure
  • Interpersonal communicating skills

Companies that offer positions as purchasing agents or planners in their retail stores

Applied material, Boart Longyear, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Arrow Electronic, Plato Closet, Wr group,

4. Loss prevention manager

Average salary: $38000 per year

Duties: Every retail store has measures in place to prevent and minimize thefts and these measures are overseen by a loss prevention manager.

He is tasked with coming up with various ways to prevent shoplifting, looting, break-ins, etc.

Responsibilities of a Loss prevention manager

  • Investigate the violation of these measures
  • Communicate with governmental bodies to act appropriately
  • Training security personal
  • Monitoring the inventory
  • Coming up with up to date technological solutions for the store safe security
  • Limit the financial losses of a retail store because shoplifting, thefts. 

Qualifications

  • Bachelor degree in any criminal related field
  • Experience
  • Loss prevention Certificates
  • Great communication skills
  • Ability to work in Team oriented environment
  • Detail oriented
  • Computer literacy

Companies that offer the is high paying retail job includes

Target, GAP, Walmart, Autozone, harbor freight tools

5. Regional loss prevention manager

Average salary: $86,000

This job is literally the most top paying retail jobs in 2022

It is a senior category of being a loss prevention manager, he or she is tasked with preventing losses in multiples of stores while ensuring profitability

It shares the same duties and responsibilities with a loss prevention manager

Companies that offer this high paying retail job includes

Burlington stores, Sears,GAP

6. Cosmetic manager:

Average salary: $52,000 per year

Duties: a cosmetic manager is tasked with overseeing a beauty department of a retail store, he or she is in incharge of monitoring the inventory, managing the beauty consultants, assisting customers

Responsibilities of a cosmetic manager:

  • Manage employees within the cosmetic department, from taking inventory to giving guidance to beauty consultants
  • Assisting customers when the regular staffs finds it difficult
  • Recommending helpful products and tips to customers
  • Balance the register and store funds safely
  • Ensure stores shelves remains stocked up with up to date products

Qualifications

  • Broad knowledge of cosmetics
  • Experience as a cashier
  • Great communication skills
  • Conflict resolution skills
  • A diploma is a plus

Read: 25 Highest Paid Jobs In Florida

7. Purchasing manager:

Average salary: $121,000

Duties: Duties is the same as that of a purchasing agent but unlike the latter, a purchasing manager works for big companies.

Responsibilities include:

  • Managing chains of purchasing agents or buyers
  • Negotiating contracts
  • Reviewing products qualities
  • Maintaining database of quality vendors

Companies that offer this high paying retail job includes mega retail franchise, such as

Walmart, Target, GAP, amazon

8. Customer service supervisor

Average salary: $47,000 per year

Duties: a retail customer service supervisor manages a company’s team of customer service staff in order to make sure they carry out their work in full capacity

Responsibilities of a customer service supervisor

  • Hire and trains new customers staffs
  • Monitoring team’s job performances
  • Resolving complaint from staffs and customers alike
  • Handling paperwork and refunds etc

Qualifications:

  • High school diploma
  • 2+ years of work experience
  • Broad knowledge of customer service
  • Computer literacy
  • Listening skills
  • Problem-solving skills
  • Effective teamwork skill

Companies that offer this high paying retail job includes

Whole foods market, office depot OfficeMax, Kohl 

9. Customer service manager

Average salary: $94,000

Duties: a customer service manager duties have some similarities with that of a customer service supervisor, he is of a higher leadership position than the latter; he manages the supervisor and the customer team in its entirety

Responsibilities of a customer service manager

  • Assist customers buying from your store
  • Investigate and solve customer’s problem
  • Handle refunds and compensation
  • Use statistics to determine how well your customer service is
  • Train customer service supervisor to keep up to date with your organization products or services

Qualifications: 

  • A degree in business, consumer, management and marketing is a plus
  • Experience
  • Communication skills
  • Listening skills
  • Creative thinking
  • Ability to work under pressure

Companies that offer positions in this top-paying job are

Walmart, Kroger, 7eleven, spar, one-stop

10. Retail account manager

Average salary: $48,000 per year

Duties: a retail account manager is tasked with the responsibilities of acting on behalf of a supplier to sell goods and materials to retail companies.

They are also tasked with the duty of maintaining relationships with the company’s retail clients

Responsibilities:

  • Maintaining great relationship with key retail customers
  • Answer customer queries
  • Track key account metrics
  • Create new business opportunities with existing customers

Qualification:

  • Diploma in business administration, sales
  • Work experience
  • Ability to communicate and influence decision
  • Broad knowledge of CRM software
  • Multitasking
  • Strong interpersonal relationship

Companies that offer positions in this top-paying job are Vineyard vines, AT&T

11. Store manager

Average salary: $48000 per year

Duties: a store manager is tasked with the daily running of a retail store, this includes the hiring and training of staff, reviewing financial records, etc.

Responsibilities of store manager

  • Achieving high level of customer satisfaction
  • Reaching profit margins by mentoring, motivating feedback in the store’s staffs
  • Maintain an excellent condition of the store
  • Resolve issues within the store’s organizational structure
  • Innovate creative ideas to increase sales

Qualification

  • Bachelor’s degree is a plus
  • Great customer management skills
  • Organizational skills
  • Great people management skill
  • Proven experience as a manager

Starbucks, T-Mobile, and dollar general offer positions in this top-paying job.

READ ALSO: 15 Highest Paid Graduate Jobs in 2023| Best Review

12. General manager

Average salary: $54,000

Duties: a general manager is tasked with the duty of coordinating the activities of several stores and storage facilities etc.; they oversee various administrative tasks like payroll, accounting

Responsibilities of a general store manager

  • Overseeing daily business operations
  • Training store managers and staff
  • Improving the store’s revenue
  • Hiring employees
  • Creating reports and presentations

Qualification

  • Degree in business
  • Broad knowledge of how retail stores functions
  • Great leadership skills
  • Effective vocal and communication skills
  • Detail oriented
  • Computer literacy

Companies that offer positions in this top-paying job are Adidas, Gap, Domino, and Gamestop.

13. Regional manager

Average salary: $77,000

Duties: regional managers supervise all operations within a particular area. They inspect and ensure staff complies with the company’s policies while managing budgets.

Responsibilities of a regional manager

  • Marketing the company’s products after in-house meetings
  • Organizing sales goals and communicating them to key individuals
  • Responding quickly to customer’s requests
  • Establishing long and profitable relationships with clients
  • Store financial performance for the report to senior management teams

Qualifications

  • High school diploma
  • Management and leadership experience
  • Exceptional communication skills
  • Capability to multitask

Companies that offer positions in this top-paying job are Pizza hut, Domino, Ulta.

14. Sales associate

Average salary: $46,000 per year

Duties: As a sales associate, you must help customers find products, respond to questions, etc. In simple terms, he is required to aid the customer in completing the buying process.

Responsibilities

  • Suggest ways to implement sales.
  • Broad knowledge about products offered in the store so as fully aid the customer
  • Build trust among customers.
  • Operate cash register and handle financial transactions.

Qualification

  • Basic maths skills
  • Basic sales skill
  • Good command of English  
  • Energetic personality
  • Ability to perform under pressure

Companies that offer positions in this top paying retail jobs are

Nike, staples, Macy, Adidas

Read: 10 Highest Paid Software Engineers in the World | 2023

15. Retail franchise owner

Average salary: $64000

No matter how much any retail job pays, nothing beats being a retail store owner.

This role requires you to open a retail chain store under a popular brand while maintaining a huge amount of operational control.

You can choose to remain actively involved in the day-to-day running of the business, or you can hire a store manager to run the location, all these variations on the location, niches, and target market.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ON HIGHEST-PAID RETAIL JOBS

What areas of retail can I work in?

You can find employment in the following departments  
Loss prevention and security
Customer services
Online retails
Visual management
Merchandising and allocation
Warehouse, distributions and logistics
Retail management

How to get a job in retail?

A quick step-by-step guide to help you gain a job in retailing
Search for vacancies
Figure out what your prospective employer wants
Work on your resume
Write a cover letter
Get ready for an interview

Who are the main graduate employers in retailing

Aldi
Morrisons
GAP
Walmart
E-bay
Amazon
Marks & Spencer
Shop direct
Nike
Adidas

What qualifications do I need to work in the retail industry?

Qualifications can be anything you have that can set you aside from the competition, they are;
High school diploma or a college degree
English language proficiency
Strong interpersonal skills
Multitasking
A friendly and energetic vibe

Yes, most high-paying jobs do require university qualifications but you can start from the entry-level and work your way up the ladder with as little as a high school diploma

Why are retail jobs so stressful? 

The only thing stressful about retail is the range of people you meet daily.

What are the pros and cons of a career in retail?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of having a career in retailing

Pros 
Physical activity
Merchandise discount
Interpersonal communication
Overcome social anxiety
Room for growth

Cons
Weekend and holiday work
Indoor environment
High turnover

Conclusion

These jobs above qualify as the highest-paid retail jobs in the world; sometimes, you can start immediately with your high school diploma. Or, you can work up your way to the top without gaining a college degree. But, having one can open up many doors in this trillion-dollar industry.

Use the information in this article as your guide on your journey to the retail market

Good-luck

References

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