Retail Management Interview Questions And Answers

A retailer purchases goods or products in large quantities from manufacturers directly or through a wholesale, and then sells smaller quantities to the consumer for a profit. Retailing can be done in either fixed locations like stores or markets, door-to-door or by delivery.

Retail is the sale of goods and services from individuals or businesses to the end-user. Retailers are a part of an integrated system called the supply chain.

A process of promoting greater sales and customer satisfaction by gaining a better understanding of the consumers of goods and services produced by a company. A typical retail management strategy for a manufacturing business might research the retail process that distributes the finished products created by the business to consumers to determine and satisfy what buyers want and require.

Management refers to the process of bringing people together on a common platform and make them work as a single unit to achieve the goals and objectives of an organization. Management is required in all aspects of life and forms an integral part of all businesses.

You just can't afford to make the customer wait for long. The merchandise needs to be well organized to avoid unnecessary searching. Such situations are common in mom and pop stores (kirana stores). One can never enjoy shopping at such stores.

Retail management makes shopping a pleasurable experience and ensures the customers leave the store with a smile. In simpler words, retail management helps customers shop without any difficulty.

Identify some of your main attributes and memorize them. Describe your qualifications, career history and range of skills, emphasizing those skills relevant to the job on offer.

Select an achievement that is work-related and fairly recent. Identify the skills you used in the achievement and quantify the benefit it had to the company. For example, 'my greatest achievement has been to design and implement a new sales ledger system, bringing it in ahead of time and improving our debtors' position significantly, saving the company £50,000 a month in interest'.

This question is really about your self-esteem, confidence and career aspirations. The answer must be 'yes', followed by a brief explanation as to what it is about your career so far that's made you happy. If you have hit a career plateau, or you feel you are moving too slowly, then you must qualify your answer.

The purpose of this question is to find out what your definition of difficult is and whether you can show a logical approach to problem solving. In order to show yourself in a positive light, select a difficult work situation which was not caused by you and which can be quickly explained in a few sentences. Explain how you defined the problem, what the options were, why you selected the one you did and what the outcome was. Always end on a positive note.

State how you are looking for a new challenge, more responsibility, experience and a change of environment. Do not be negative in your reasons for leaving. It is rarely appropriate to cite salary as your primary motivator.

The employer is looking for evidence that the job suits you, fits in with your general aptitudes, coincides with your long-term goals and involves doing things you enjoy. Make sure you have a good understanding of the role and the organisation, and describe the attributes of the organisation that interest you most.

Since they tend to view their employees as little more than working automatons, bad managers think their staff should focus 100 percent of their attention on their jobs, says Les Stockett, store manager of the Bridge water, New Jersey, Circuit City.
"These managers don't take associates' time away from work into consideration," he says. "But a lot of retail associates are going to school, for example. They need time for classes and homework. If you act like your store is the only thing that should be important to them, they'll see that as a lack of respect, and performance will suffer."

On the surface, it might seem like a good idea to treat all your employees alike. That way you're not showing favoritism, right? Wrong, What you're really doing is failing to acknowledge them as individuals.
"Every employee has unique needs and desires, and they want to feel valued," says Connor. "Treating employees without regard for these personal needs sends a clear message that they are not special to you. If you want the labor of a person's heart and not just his hands, you must treat people with respect."

Employees often won't live up to expectations if you never tell them what you're looking for," Stockett says. "Take the employee who shows up a few minutes late for work every day. The store manager keeps letting it slide but inside is getting frustrated until one day it boils over, and he brings the associate into the back and chews him out. But the associate never knew he was doing anything wrong. To avoid this, managers need to be consistently setting and resetting expectations.

Tell me a little about yourself?
How are you customer orientated?
Tell me about yourself academically and socially, any hobbies, other awards or skills you may have?
What have you got to offer the company?
What skills can you offer the company?

► Why should we pick you?
► What are your strengths?
► What are your weaknesses?
► How would you deal will employees who are older than you and don't like you because of your age?
► Why do you want to work for us?

► Why do you want to work in retail management?
► Who are our main competitors?
► What differences do you see between us and our competitors?
► What differences do you see between our stores and our competitors' stores?
► Who are our customers?

► What do you know about our company?
► If you were CEO of our company , what would you do?
► Why Supply Chain?
► Why you want to be a retail buyer?
► How many hours per week do you think you will be working?

► What do you already know about the company?
► How do you meet the changing demands of customers?
► What changes would you make to?
► How do manage to break into other markets?
► What would you take into consideration when deciding what product to supply?

► What are your key strengths as a communicator?
► How have you successfully managed conflict?
► When was the last time your plans were disrupted due to an unexpected event? How did you react?
► Tell me about a time when there was an unpopular change in an organisation?
► How do you ensure goals are reached?

► How do you set vision and direction for your team?
► Describe a situation where you were:
Under pressure?
Able to influence someone?
Creative?
Able to plan something?
for each of these:
► Why?
► How?
► What did you do?

► Describe a situation where you showed motivation?
► Have you made any presentations? When? How? Why? Do you enjoy making them?
► Describe a situation where you demonstrated team work?
► Tell me about a situation were you have had to stay calm?
► Tell me a situation that you had to take control of?

► Give an example of when you had to make a difficult decision. Explain all aspects of coming to this decision?
► What leadership experience do you have?
► How flexible are you?
► How do you work under pressure?
► Can you adapt easily to different people and environments?

► An employee has been arriving 30 mins late to work everyday. Why do you think this is? What would you do?
► A certain product is being sold at the same price, same quantity, etc. (i.e. same product) as the competitors, but the product at our stores is not selling well as compared to the competitors. Why do you think this is? What would you do about it?
► You had to give a presentation with other colleagues. The others got "good" as their grade, but you got "acceptable". Why do you think this is? What would you do about it?
► The interviewer pretended he was a customer and I had to sell him a few things?