Find Affordable College Courses

What Do You Want to Study?

Retailing and Retail Operations Major

Retailing and Retail Operations

1 Master's Degrees Annually
#1,071 in Popularity (Master's)

What Retailing and Retail Operations Majors Need to Know

In an O*NET survey, retailing and retail operations majors were asked to rate what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important in their occupations. These answers were weighted on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the most important.

Knowledge Areas for Retailing and Retail Operations Majors

Retailing and Retail Operations majors often go into careers in which the following knowledge areas are important:

undefined
  • Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
  • English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
  • Sales and Marketing - Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
  • Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
  • Mathematics - Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.

Skills for Retailing and Retail Operations Majors

When studying retailing and retail operations, you’ll learn many skills that will help you be successful in a wide range of jobs - even those that do not require a degree in the field. The following is a list of some of the most common skills needed for careers associated with this major:

undefined
  • Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
  • Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
  • Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
  • Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
  • Persuasion - Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.

Abilities for Retailing and Retail Operations Majors

Retailing and Retail Operations majors often go into careers where the following abilities are vital:

undefined
  • Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.

What Can You Do With a Retailing and Retail Operations Major?

Below is a list of occupations associated with retailing and retail operations:

Job Title Job Growth Rate Median Salary
Demonstrators and Product Promoters 6.5% $28,960
Energy Brokers 9.7% $54,550
First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers 3.8% $39,630
Sales and Related Workers 10.6% $33,220

Some careers associated with retailing and retail operations require an advanced degree while some may not even require a bachelor’s. In general, the more advanced your degree the more career options will open up to you. However, there is significant time and money that needs to be invested into your education so weigh the pros and cons.

Find out what the typical degree level is for retailing and retail operations careers below.

undefined
Education Level Percentage of Workers
Less than a High School Diploma 14.7%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED) 39.0%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production) 5.0%
Some College Courses 5.8%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree) 11.2%
Bachelor’s Degree 26.0%
Master’s Degree 0.2%

Online Retailing and Retail Operations Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level Colleges Offering Programs Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year) 0 0
Certificate (1-2 years) 25 3
Certificate (2-4 Years) 0 0
Associate’s Degree 24 2
Bachelor’s Degree 1 0
Post-Baccalaureate 0 0
Master’s Degree 1 0
Post-Master’s 0 0
Doctor’s Degree (Research) 0 0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice) 0 0
Doctor’s Degree (Other) 0 0

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to retailing and retail operations.

Major Number of Grads
General Sales, Distribution, and Marketing Operations 3,378
Professional Sales 1,267
Other General Merchandising, Sales, and Related Marketing Operations 226
Merchandising and Buying Operations 134

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

Find Graduate Schools Near You

Our free school finder matches students with accredited graduate schools across the U.S.