Sales Assistant resume example & writing guide

Landing a sales assistant position can be the first step in a successful and rewarding career in retail. Store owners and managers want a sales assistant who is personable, organized, reliable, and great at customer service. A well-crafted sales assistant resume can help you shine a spotlight on your skills and position you as the top candidate for any company.

This resume guide, along with our corresponding sales assistant resume example, will cover the following topics:

• What a sales assistant resume should include

• Advice on each section of your resume (summary, work history, education)

• Adding relevant key skills to your resume

• Choosing the right resume template for a sales assistant

What should your sales assistant resume include?

Your sales assistant resume should highlight your organization, reliability, and customer service skills. When you work in retail, you’re in a people-facing environment. So you need to strategically arrange your retail skills, work experience, and education in a way that demonstrates these skills effectively, leaving no doubt about your ability to handle anything that comes your way.

Your sales assistant resume should contain the following elements:

• The resume header with your contact information

• The resume summary

• The employment history section

• The education section

• The resume skills section

How can you create a professional summary?

When you’re a sales assistant, you need to present yourself as the ideal retail employee—friendly, helpful, knowledgeable, and skilled—and your resume’s professional summary is a great place to start. It’s a brief, two-to-three sentence synopsis of your career that highlights your relevant skills, work experience, and value you’d bring to the organization. 

This short paragraph ties together your core strengths as an employee with your relevant work experience. This could include your accuracy in sales transactions, commitment to customer service, or interest in shop displays and merchandising.

You can also add a list after your professional summary with targeted bullet points that illustrate your unique qualifications. If you don’t have any practical retail experience, this can be an effective way to demonstrate your transferable skills.

See our adaptable sales assistant resume summary below:

How should you describe your work experience as a sales assistant?

The work experience section is the main inventory of your resume, where you demonstrate to the hiring manager why you’re the best sales assistant to hire. The job description is your friend here, helping you to provide a job history that aligns with the skills and retail experience that the hiring manager is looking for.

List your work experience in reverse chronological order—meaning your most current position first—and include your job title, how long you worked there, and your core job responsibilities. 

Under each job title, list your accomplishments in bullet points, using quantifiable data (e.g., sales figures, percentages) when possible. Highlighting these accomplishments demonstrates that you’re someone who gets results. You can also include awards, customer feedback, or commendations from management.

For example, if you have a history of increasing customer satisfaction rates, you could phrase it like this:

• "Maintained a consistent customer satisfaction rate of 97% through personalized service and proactive problem solving."

Take a look at our adaptable sales assistant resume employment history section below:

What can you do without any relevant experience as a sales assistant?

If you’re a recent graduate or don’t have any retail experience, that’s okay! The key is to focus on your transferable skills that would make you a good fit for the position. 

Soft skills such as problem solving, listening, empathy, and organization are very helpful skills to have when working in retail. Make sure to illustrate how you’ve used these skills in your other positions or volunteer work, rather than simply listing them out.

How to include a fitting sales assistant resume education and certifications section?

Your education can be helpful and relevant to your sales assistant resume, even if you don’t have a degree in marketing or business. A hiring manager is much more interested in your knowledge base, ability to complete tasks, and attention to detail. 

When crafting your resume education section, consider the following:

• Keep it simple. Create a concise list of degrees and certifications, with only relevant details listed under each.

• List your education in reverse order with the highest degree first. If it seems unrelated to retail, don’t leave it out—it’s still important!

• List any certifications you’ve completed or are working towards—such as Certified Professional Sales Person (CPSP), or Salesforce Associate Certification—as they demonstrate your commitment to professional growth.

Which key skills are relevant for a sales assistant resume?

Retail work experience is great, but a hiring manager will also be looking for other key skills and attributes for a sales assistant position. The key is to tailor your resume to the job you’re applying for, incorporating its required skills and experience. 

The job description will usually provide guidance on the specific keywords and skills that you can include, or at least adjacent skills if you’re new to the field. Your resume might also be scanned by an applicant tracking system (ATS) that searches resumes for certain keywords and ranks them by how closely they match the job description. (To learn more about conquering the ATS, check out our article on resume ATS optimization.)

Even if the company you’re applying to doesn’t use an ATS, it’s still important to include these keywords from the job description, as the person reading your resume will be looking for them. 

Our career.io resume templates include a key skills list with common skills for a sales assistant. Don’t limit these skills to your professional summary—incorporate them throughout your resume, including your work history and education sections. 

For a sales assistant resume, a few important skills might include:

• Customer service

• Communication

• Attention to detail

• Organization

• Patience

• Product knowledge

• Merchandising

• Cash handling

How to select the most impactful sales assistant resume template

A good resume should be professional, organized, concise, yet impactful—just like you. Use a simple, modern, and easy-to-read layout for your sales assistant resume. 

If you’re looking to work in a more creative environment, a dash of color is fine to include, but don’t don’t overdo it. In most cases, a sales assistant resume should also be limited to one page, so be concise and to the point!

When exploring our many resume templates in our career.io resume builder, start by selecting the resume layout that best fits your situation. You can also find inspiration with our over 100 available resume examples.

Copyable sales assistant resume example

Key takeaways for writing a sales assistant resume

1. If you’re looking to get a foot in the door of the sales or retail industry, a sales assistant might be a great position for you.

2. When creating your sales assistant resume, you want to demonstrate that you’re a capable, organized, and reliable worker with a flair for customer service.

3. Target your resume by including keywords from the job description in each section to pass an ATS and capture the hiring manager’s attention.

4. Get stuck? Use our online resume builder to create your sales assistant resume with adaptable, eye-catching templates and AI powered content.