How To Become A Shop Clerk: What It Is and Career Path

What is a shop clerk and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

A shop clerk is also often called a sales clerk, a retail associate, or a shop assistant. These workers assist in the daily running of a store and are under the direct supervision of a store manager. Store clerks are in charge of selling products and providing customer service to consumers in the store. Apart from selling and providing customer services, they help maintain the store by regularly cleaning and restocking shelves. They share information about the availability of products and nutritional information with customers. A shop clerk keeps a sales record, stock inventory, and reorder merchandise. They also help customers in billing and processing payments at the counter.

A store clerk must have communication, organizational, time-management, interpersonal, and customer service skills. They work flexible hours and are excellent multitaskers. All you need to become a store clerk is in-store operations experience.

ScoreShop ClerkUS Average

Salary

2.7

Avg. Salary $34,468

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

6.6

Growth Rate -5%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.12%

Asian 6.90%

Black or African American 9.37%

Hispanic or Latino 19.79%

Unknown 4.81%

White 58.01%

Gender

female 65.44%

male 34.56%

Age - 50

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 50

Stress Level

6.6

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

4.3

Complexity Level is basic

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

7.1

Work Life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a shop clerk

Explore shop clerk education requirements

Most common shop clerk degrees

Bachelor's

36.1 %

High School Diploma

27.6 %

Associate

24.8 %

Start to develop specific shop clerk skills

Skills	Percentages
Basic Math	25.35%
Math	16.59%
Top Quality	13.55%
Cash Handling	12.55%
WIC	6.98%

Complete relevant shop clerk training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New shop clerks learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a shop clerk based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real shop clerk resumes.

Research shop clerk duties and responsibilities

Demonstrate strong math skills in managing inmate s accounts and calmly and effectively deescalating outbursts of belligerent inmates.
Assist with bagging groceries when need.
Learned great time management and leadership skills.
Implement effective time management and leadership skills.

Prepare your shop clerk resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your shop clerk resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a shop clerk resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Shop Clerk Resume templates

Build a professional Shop Clerk resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Shop Clerk resume.

Apply for shop clerk jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a shop clerk job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do shop clerks rate their job?

-/5

5 Stars

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1 Star

Shop Clerk reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Feb 2024

Pros

Good work life balance, low stress and responsibility