Sales Clerk Job Description, Key Duties and Responsibilities

This post provides detailed information on the sales clerk job description, including the key duties, tasks, and responsibilities they commonly perform.

It also highlights major requirements that you may be expected to fulfill to be hired for the sales clerk role by most recruiters/employers.

What Does a Sales Clerk Do?

A sales clerk is responsible for processing of sale orders with customers by receiving and following up on customer inquiries in person, by telephone, or by electronic means.

The sales clerk job description involves making immediate corrections to any problems encountered in completing orders and ensuring that the requirements of customers are met in a friendly manner.

It also entails assisting customers in making important purchases.

The sales clerk duties also include planning out layouts and scanning pictures for promotional purposes.

It involves facilitating personalized production needs for customers and providing them with the information on the manufacturing process and cost to produce their product at a certain level of quality without sacrificing any quality standards or specifications that are unique to their business or departments.

Sales clerks also process returns, exchanges, and adjustments to items purchased.

Ringing up purchases of customers, making change, and accepting credit or debit cards, and processing checks, are also part of their tasks.

Sales clerks also accept payment for the services of a financial institution and hand out receipts, change, or credit card receipts.

Their duties also involve assisting customers in making important purchases by suggesting possible items they might be interested in buying, discussing the details of such items with them, and offering assistance in selecting appropriate items.

It also includes suggesting accessories that go well with such items.

The sales clerk work description also entails answering questions of customers or providing assistance to customers as they shop by locating items on shelves, asking stockroom personnel for assistance, retrieving shopping carts, and keeping aisles clear of obstructions.

It also involves providing assistance in purchasing items like candy, gum, and cigarettes.

Other important duties sales clerks perform are inspecting merchandise for damage, checking price tags and security stickers for accuracy and completeness, counting stock on hand, and comparing prices on tags to the cost at sale prices to ensure their correctness.

The sales clerk has a duty to provide quality customer service to every customer, improving their knowledge about the products and services of their company or department and promoting the image of the company.

They provide special attention to customers that require special assistance or direction in making certain purchases, including items with unusual features, such as those with feature-driven prices, such as appliances, tools or glassware.

Sales clerks make sure that proper procedures are being followed, that mistakes are not being committed and that all cash receipts, merchandise returns, and exchanges, errands, and other transactions are properly documented.

They are also involved in answering or initiating customer inquiries by telephone.

They also refer customers to the proper personnel for help and inform them of other company services available to them, such as shipping, delivery, or a pick-up service.

Sales Clerk Job Description Sample/Example/Template

The sales clerk job description consists of the following duties, tasks, and responsibilities:

• Processes sales transactions by receiving payment for and issuing receipts for merchandise sold
• Prepares sales shelf tags by recording the price and description of items
• Coordinates layaway sales by locating and processing merchandise orders; issuing payments to customers, as requested; submitting requests to store manager for approval
• Obtains credit information on customers, using computer, to determine eligibility for charge accounts or credit accounts, using standards set by store policy; forwards information to credit department representative as requested
• Utilizes computer for inventory control, including pricing; stays current on new merchandise, product trends and promotional programs
• Maintains records of inventory of merchandise by entering data into computerized system; maintains price list
• Organizes sales department to insure effective operation of the department
• Makes minimum amount of investment necessary to meet individual sales quotas required by store standards; determines daily sales levels and reports daily to supervisor/manager as requested
• Maintains confidentiality of customer information
• Ensures timely completion of sales transactions by customers; attempts to resolve problems encountered with customers and assists in resolution as appropriate
• Maintains a clean, neat appearance and well groomed while on duty; cleans work area when necessary
• Completes required training offered by the employer, if any, according to employee’s duties; indicates completion of training for supervisor/manager as requested by supervisor/manager.

Sales Clerk Job Description for Resume

If you have worked before as a sales clerk or are currently working in that role and are making a new resume or CV, then you can make a compelling Professional Experience section for your resume by applying the sales clerk job description example provided above.

You can express the duties and responsibilities you have performed or are presently performing as a sales clerk in your resume’s Professional Experience by utilizing the ones in the above sales clerk job description sample.

This will show to recruiters/employers that you have been successful performing the job of a sales clerk, which can greatly enhance your chances of being hired, especially if the new position that you are seeking requires the right candidate to have some sales clerk work experience.    

Sales Clerk Requirements: Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities for Career Success

Here are important requirements you may be expected to fulfill to be hired for the sales clerk role by most recruiters/employers:

• Can operate Microsoft Office applications (Excel, Word, PowerPoint) etc.
• Hard-worker skill and must be able to work long hours to get sales done
• Excellent communication skills
• Must be very punctual and have good attendance
• Ability to work alone and not with other people’s sales duties
• Problem-solver with ability to deal with other people easily
• Computer-literate and team player, with ability to work under pressure and stress
• Ability to lift boxes of sales items weighing 10 pounds or more and be standing on feet for a long time as required in the job description above without complaining are necessary for this position.

Sales Clerk Salary

In the United States, the national average compensation for a sales clerks is $28,313 per year as reported by Glassdoor.

Conclusion

This post is helpful to individuals interested in the sales clerk career. They will be able to learn all they need to know about the duties and responsibilities of a sales clerk to decide if that’s the job they want to do.

It is also beneficial to recruiters/employers in making a detailed job description for the sales clerk position for use in hiring for the role.