Retail Assistant CV Example (UK)

Supermarkets and convenience stores hire Retail Assistants in volume, often for part-time contracts of 12 to 24 hours with evenings and weekends. The shift leader reading your CV wants three answers quickly: which hours you can work, whether you can be trusted on a till and with age-restricted sales, and whether you will keep the shelves full and the fresh counters in date without being chased. A CV that answers those in the first few lines gets a phone call before the online assessment closes.

The Sample CV below is for a Retail Assistant with three years in a large supermarket and a convenience store in Stockport, working around college and then a part-time evening contract. Its bullets describe the jobs a grocery store actually runs on: checkouts and self-checkout supervision, picking online orders against a time slot, rotating chilled and fresh stock, Challenge 25 refusals logged properly, and covering the kiosk for lottery and tobacco.

Tailor it to the store. A large supermarket wants checkout speed, online picking and flexible hours over Christmas; a convenience store wants someone who can run the shop alone on a quiet evening, take a delivery and cash up; a discount grocer wants pace on replenishment. The US counterpart of this page is the sales associate resume example, written for American stores on a Letter page; a UK supermarket CV keeps to one side of A4 for most applicants and the Brief template keeps it that tight.

Updated . The person and employers in this Sample CV are fictional. Written for applicants in the UK; the page for applicants in the US is the sales associate resume example.

Retail Assistant sample CV

Drawn at A4 proportions, the paper a UK CV is printed on.

Shannon Ormerod

Retail Assistant, Grocery and Convenience, Checkouts, Online Picking and Fresh

Stockport, SK4shannon.ormerod@example.com07700 900314

Summary

Retail Assistant with three years in grocery retail, currently on a 20-hour evening and weekend contract in a large supermarket. Trained on checkouts, the self-checkout area, the customer service desk and online order picking, and trusted to close the kiosk and cash up. Keep the chilled and bakery aisles rotated and in date, refuse age-restricted sales calmly and record every refusal. Free to add Christmas and holiday shifts at short notice.

Experience

Retail Assistant (part-time, 20 hours), Mersey Vale Foodstores

– Present

Stockport

  • Work checkouts and supervise a bank of eight self-checkouts on busy evenings, clearing unexpected item alerts, approving age checks and keeping the queue moving.
  • Pick online grocery orders against timed delivery slots with a handheld scanner, choosing the longest-dated fresh items and recording substitutions the customer will accept.
  • Rotate chilled, dairy and bakery stock on every shift, reduce short-dated lines to the store's markdown times and log waste accurately for the department manager.
  • Run the customer service desk on Sunday mornings: refunds, lottery, parcel collections and gift cards, balancing the till at handover without a variance in the last year.
Customer Assistant (weekend and holiday), Heaton Corner Convenience

–

Heaton Moor

  • Ran the shop alone on Sunday evenings once trained: till, kiosk, Paypoint, a late bread delivery and closing down the hot food counter.
  • Applied Challenge 25 on alcohol, tobacco and knives, recording refusals in the log; the store passed both test purchases during my time there.
  • Faced up and replenished aisles from the cage delivery, checking date codes and moving older stock to the front.

Education

BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma in Business

Tame Meadow College of Further Education, Stockport

GCSEs including English Language (5) and Maths (5).

Skills

  • Checkouts and self-checkout supervision
  • Cash handling and till balancing
  • Online order picking with handheld scanners
  • Stock rotation and date checks
  • Waste and markdown recording
  • Challenge 25 and refusals log
  • Customer service desk and refunds
  • Kiosk, lottery and Paypoint
  • Food hygiene
  • Evening and weekend availability

Certifications

  • Level 2 Food Hygiene and Safety for Retail, Accredited online training provider,
  • Age-restricted sales training (Challenge 25), In-store training,

Start yours from this example

Opens this sample in the editor, in one of the templates below. Swap in your details, then tailor it to each vacancy in about two minutes.

Use this example

How a UK CV differs

A UK Retail Assistant CV is short, plain and built around availability. Most supermarkets recruit through an online application with a short situational test, so the CV is often uploaded as a supporting file or brought to an assessment day; it should be one side of A4 for most applicants, two at most. Write the hours and days you can work near the top, describe each store by type rather than assuming the reader knows it, and expect a right to work check and, for anyone under 18, questions about which tasks you are allowed to do.

For a retail assistant in the UK

  1. Availability in the profile

    Say which hours, evenings and weekends you can work and whether you can add Christmas cover. Store managers shortlist part-time applicants on availability before anything else.

  2. Name the departments

    Grocery stores train colleagues department by department: checkouts, customer service desk, online picking, bakery, fresh counters, nights replenishment. List the ones you are signed off on.

  3. Age-restricted sales and the refusals log

    Mention Challenge 25 or Challenge 21, the refusals log and any test purchases the store passed while you worked there. It is one of the few compliance points a Retail Assistant owns personally.

  4. Under 18s and licensed products

    If you are 16 or 17, say so plainly and note what you have done within the rules, such as replenishment and customer service. Some stores need an adult to authorise alcohol sales on your till.

  5. Assessment days and trial shifts

    Many supermarkets invite applicants to a group assessment or a paid trial shift. Keep your CV consistent with the online form, because the interviewer reads both side by side.

Every CV in the UK

A4 paper
Set the page to A4, 210 by 297 millimetres. A Letter-sized PDF prints with odd margins on A4 and reads as imported from the US.
Two pages is normal
Most UK CVs run to two pages. One page suits a first job; three is rare and only for senior roles with a lot to show.
No photo, no date of birth
UK employers do not expect a photo, a date of birth, marital status or nationality on a CV, and most prefer not to see them.
Dates as DD/MM/YYYY
Day first where a full date appears, and month and year for each role: "Mar 2022 – Present". Never the US month-first order.
British English
Organise, programme, centre, licence, specialise. A CV in American spelling reads as written for somewhere else.
Town and postcode area, not a street address
A line such as "Manchester, M4" is enough. A full postal address, and the US-style "City, ST 12345" line, are not expected.

More on applying in the UK, with every CV example for it, on the UK page.

Templates for the retail assistant CV

All templates

Every template exports on A4. The previews are drawn on Letter; the editor sets the page size when you export.

How the CV changes with experience

The same retail assistant CV, written at three levels: a profile and three bullets for each.

Entry level

Zero to two years, or a first post in the title

School leaver looking for a first part-time Retail Assistant job in a supermarket, available evenings, weekends and all school holidays. Reliable, quick with numbers and used to helping in a busy family shop.

  • Helped in a relative's newsagent on Saturdays, serving at the counter, stacking papers and checking deliveries against the note.
  • Completed a week of work experience at a garden centre, watering stock, pricing plants and helping customers to their cars.
  • Captain of the school netball team, organising kit and lifts for away fixtures.

Mid level

Three to seven years, owns a process or a workload

Retail Assistant with five years in a large supermarket, now trained across the bakery, the fresh counters and online picking, and the colleague the team leader asks to cover any department.

  • Trained new colleagues on the checkout and the self-checkout area during two Christmas recruitment drives.
  • Run the bakery bake-off plan on early shifts so shelves are full for the morning rush and waste stays low at close.
  • Picked the store's highest volume of online orders in the week before Christmas while keeping substitutions accurate.

Senior

Eight years or more, leads people, budgets or programmes

Customer Team Leader with nine years in grocery retail, running evening shifts of fifteen colleagues across checkouts, replenishment and online, with keyholder duties.

  • Lead evening shifts in a large supermarket: break plans, staffing the checkouts to the queue, and the nightly cash office and safe count.
  • Coach new team members through their probation and sign off till and age-restricted sales training.
  • Brought the department's waste down over a year by tightening markdown times and the order for short-life lines.

Skills to put on the retail assistant CV

Hard skills

Checkouts and cash handling
Every grocery store tests till work at the trial shift, and a clean balancing record shows you can be left on a till from day one.
Self-checkout supervision
Most large stores now staff one colleague to a bank of machines, and someone who clears alerts quickly keeps the front end moving.
Online order picking
Picking against delivery slots is a whole department in a big supermarket, and accuracy on fresh items is what the customer remembers.
Stock rotation and date checks
Out-of-date food on the shelf is a legal problem as well as a waste one, so stores want colleagues who rotate without being told.
Age-restricted sales
A failed test purchase can cost the store its alcohol licence, and a candidate who applies Challenge 25 and logs refusals is trusted at once.
Food hygiene
Bakery, deli and hot food counters need a hygiene certificate, and holding one puts you on more rotas.

Soft skills

Reliability
A supermarket runs on its rota, and a team leader picks the applicant who will turn up for every shift and swap fairly.
Calm with customers
Refusing a sale or handling a complaint at the desk happens every week, and staying polite keeps it from escalating.
Flexibility
Extra hours over Christmas and summer are when stores need cover most, and availability is often the deciding point.

Mistakes that cost retail assistant interviews

  1. No hours or days anywhere

    A part-time role is filled around the rota gaps. A CV that never says when you can work is put aside for one that does, however good the experience.

  2. Writing 'customer service' and nothing else

    Every applicant writes it. Say what you actually did: self-checkout supervision, the customer service desk, online picking, the kiosk, the bakery bake-off plan.

  3. Copying a fashion shop CV

    Sales targets and visual merchandising suit a clothing store. A supermarket cares more about speed, accuracy, stock rotation and food safety, so lead with those.

  4. Leaving out cash and compliance

    Till balancing, refusals and passed test purchases are the trust signals a store manager looks for. One line on each is worth more than a list of personal qualities.

  5. A two-page CV for a first job

    With one or two short jobs, a second page only dilutes them. Keep to one side of A4 and add school, college and volunteering to fill it honestly.

Write bullets with the XYZ formula: what changed, the number that shows it, and how you did it, in one line.

Questions about the retail assistant CV

What should I put on a CV for a supermarket job with no experience?

Your availability, your school or college and grades in English and Maths, any part-time work such as a paper round or babysitting, volunteering, and team activities such as sport or Duke of Edinburgh. Show you are reliable and good with people.

Is a Retail Assistant the same as a Sales Assistant?

The titles overlap, but in the UK Retail Assistant or Customer Assistant usually means a supermarket or convenience store, with checkouts, replenishment and online picking. Sales Assistant tends to mean fashion, homewares or electronics, with selling to target. Use the title in the advert.

How long should a Retail Assistant CV be?

One side of A4 for most applicants. If you have several years and team leader duties, two sides is fine, but keep the current job and your availability on the first.

Do I need a food hygiene certificate?

Not to apply, and most stores train you. Holding a Level 2 certificate helps for bakery, deli and hot food counters, so list it with the year if you have one.

Should I mention night shifts or nights replenishment?

Yes, if you can do them. Nights colleagues fill the shelves for the morning and are often harder to recruit, so availability for nights can get you an interview faster.

How do I tailor my CV to each supermarket advert?

Copy the departments and hours the advert names into your profile and skills, and move the most relevant job first. Paste the advert into Resume Master and it rewrites the CV against it in about two minutes.

Related CV examples

All CV examples

Every application goes out fitting the vacancy.

Paste a vacancy, get a CV rewritten for it in about two minutes.

Tailor your CV — free

Free to start. No card. Same price on web, iOS and Android.