Retail Management

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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'.

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.

► 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 many employees do you manage in your current position?

► How do you hire employees?

► What questions do you ask during interviews?

► What statistics do you use to measure employee performance?

► Do you do employee performance reviews?

► How have you sold product X in the past?

► What objections did you hear, and how did you overcome those objections? What did you say, and what did you do?

► What have you done successfully to get people to try on clothes or to interact in other ways with the products?

► Tell me about the most difficult customer you've ever had to serve.

► What were your units-per-transaction or average-dollar-per-transaction stats in your prior positions?

► 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?

► How does your job fit in to your department and company?

► What do you enjoy about this industry?

► Give an example of when you have worked under pressure.

► What kinds of people do you like working with?

► Give me an example of when your work was criticized?

► Give me an example of when you have felt anger at work. How did you cope and did you still perform a good job?

► What kind of people do you find it difficult to work with?

► 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?

► 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?