Supervising employees, achieving sales objectives, overseeing the day-to-day running of the store – the store manager’s job is demanding and comes with heavy responsibilities. There are also many challenges and they require versatility and good responsiveness. Mélissa Lauzon, manager for five years in various retail stores (including Le Château and BCBG Max Azria) tells us more.
What is the manager’s role?
In the first place, he is responsible for the store’s profitability. He must achieve the objectives that the company sets (often 10 to 15% more than last year’s revenues). He is also responsible for human resources and has to take care of training employees as well as administration of the store. In order to have a good team, the manager has to target the strengths and weaknesses of each member to put them in the right positions. This applies as much on the floor as in the back of the shop.
What tasks does he have to accomplish?
There are many and various tasks. They range from hiring employees to cleaning the toilets! But the most common are training employees, setting up work schedules, supervising floor staff, customer service, receiving merchandise, coordinating the products in the display window and in the shop, holding cash, ordering cash, being involved in the shopping centre if applicable, reports to the store supervisor or owner.
What daily issues does a store manager face?
It is necessary to know how to manage customer service according to the store’s traffic. It varies according to the seasons, time of year and the weather. It is therefore necessary to quickly adjust the number of people who have to be present in the store. On the other hand, facing competition from the internet, the team has to offer outstanding service so customers will want to return. Getting people out of their homes has become the challenge of the times with internet shopping.
More generally, what challenges does a manager face?
One of the challenges is to always keep a cohesive and stable team. Training an employee is expensive for the company. If the person is not suited to the position or leaves after a few months, the company will have lost a lot of money. Yet there is a relatively high turnover in the retail sales sector. Many students work in it part time. But finding competent full-time personnel is becoming more and more difficult.