The retail industry is fast-paced and competitive: fashion shops change their stock every few weeks and online shopping means customers expect great service around the clock. The industry is booming, with TV, internet and catalogue retailers offering great opportunities and fast progression for dynamic graduates.

Graduate jobs in retail

Whether you want to buy goods to stock supermarket shelves, run a department store, or focus on the logistics involved in the supply chain, retail management is an exciting option.

In addition to buyers, retail managers and supply chain managers, retail chains also recruit graduates to work in departments such as finance, human resources and marketing.

Buying / purchasing graduate jobs

Buying (also called purchasing) is a vital retail function. Buyers need to understand about marketing, to predict what the demand for new products is likely to be and what the effects of a promotion or special offer will be.

They must be confident with numbers and IT, in order to detect emerging trends in the huge volume of data generated by, for example, EPOS (electronic point-of-sale, the tills that instantly report a sale back to a central computer) and backed by some of the most sophisticated IT systems around.

Buyer / purchaser job description

Supply chain management graduate jobs

Supply chain managers must also have excellent IT and organisational skills. They are responsible for getting products onto the shelves, which is a challenging job that often involves making contact with the individuals and businesses around the world.

Supply chain manager job description

Retail management graduate jobs

Retail managers take responsibility for a single shop or group of shops, and are the public face of retail companies. They know exactly where their goods are, who is buying what, and what margin or profit they are making.

Retail manager job description

Getting a graduate job in retail

Specific degrees are not usually required for work in retail, although experience of customer service is important.

A successful career requires entrepreneurialism, the willingness to take risks, to develop and follow an intuition about customers’ future wants and needs, which is not solely driven by what has happened in the past.

In a cut-throat world, retailers need to be able to reconcile the needs of customers, staff and shareholders.

Above all, working in retail requires good interpersonal skills. Supply chain managers have to deal with suppliers, transport companies and head office, and buyers must be skilled negotiators.

Retail managers and their staff (of whom many will be part-time employees) have to give customers an enjoyable shopping experience. Staff on the shop floor are the only part of the company that the customer is likely to meet and will be their first port of call when they have a complaint.