Shop assistant CV: example and tips

What retailers in Norway look for

Retail chains and independent shops hire largely on attitude and reliability. They want people who approach customers, turn up on time and stay positive during busy periods such as weekends, holidays and sales. Job ads say the same thing in many ways: “service minded”, “solution oriented”, “sales driven”, “flexible” and “able to work evenings and weekends”.

Many chains use applicant tracking systems that sort applications by the words in the ad. Use the same words in your CV where they match what you have actually done. If the ad mentions “visual merchandising”, write that, not just “tidied shelves”. Our guide to an ATS-friendly CV explains how these systems read your CV. Most ads in Norway are in Norwegian, so it also helps to know terms such as kundeservice (customer service), kasse (till) and varemottak (goods receiving). These words come up again and again:

• Customer service and the customer experience.
• Sales, upselling and add-on sales.
• Till work, cashing up and handling cash and card payments.
• Goods receiving, restocking and stockroom work.
• Visual merchandising and running the shop according to the chain concept and campaign plan.
• Shrinkage, price labelling and stocktaking.
• Flexible, responsible and reliable, able to work evenings and weekends.

Formal requirements: a trade certificate helps but is not required

There are no formal requirements for working in a shop, and according to utdanning.no the skills required vary from one part of retail to another. Many chains run their own training programmes for staff. If you have completed such courses, list them under courses with the name and year, for example “Chain training level 2, customer service and sales, 2024”.

If you hold a trade certificate (fagbrev) in sales, known as salgsfaget, make it clearly visible under education. The training takes two years at school and two years in a company. If you have worked in retail for a long time without a trade certificate, you can take it as an experienced worker through the praksiskandidat scheme. According to the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training (Udir), you then need varied work experience at least 25 percent longer than the normal training period, which for a trade with two years at school and two years in a company means at least five years. You must also pass a separate exam before the trade test.

A category B driving licence is rarely required in a shop, but include it if the ad mentions deliveries, collecting goods or working across several stores.

Example of a summary for a shop assistant CV

The summary is the three to five sentences at the top of your CV. It should say who you are, what you can do and what you are looking for. Here is a made up example you can use as a pattern:

Example: “Service minded shop assistant with four years of experience in grocery and sports retail. Won the chain's internal add-on sales competition twice and trained ten new colleagues on the till and in goods receiving. Enjoys many customers, a fast pace and responsibility for my own product categories. Looking for a full time role where I can develop towards shift supervisor.”

Replace the numbers with your own, and only write what you can explain in an interview. You will find more examples in our guide to writing a CV summary.

Bullet points with results: weak versus strong

The most common weakness in a retail CV is bullet points that only describe the job. Everyone knows what a shop assistant does. What the employer wants to know is how you did it, and what improved because you were there. Start with a strong verb in the past tense and finish with a number or a sense of scale. If you do not have figures, show scope instead: customers per shift, the size of the department or how many people you trained.

• Weak: “Worked on the till.” Strong: “Served 150 to 200 customers per shift in one of the chain's busiest stores, with accurate cashing up throughout 2024.”
• Weak: “Responsible for sales.” Strong: “Raised the average purchase in my department by 12 percent in six months by offering accessories and care products with every sale.”
• Weak: “Restocked shelves.” Strong: “Received and put away two to three pallets of goods every morning shift, finishing before opening time.”
• Weak: “Helped customers.” Strong: “Achieved an average of 4.8 out of 5 in the store's customer survey while responsible for the customer service desk.”
• Weak: “Worked on shrinkage.” Strong: “Introduced weekly checks of best before dates in the dairy section, helping cut waste by a third.”
• Weak: “Training.” Strong: “Trained eight new starters on the till system, opening and closing, and wrote a checklist the store still uses.”

Skills, systems and courses worth including

Skills in a retail CV become stronger when they are specific. “Till system” says less than the name of the system you used. Include what you can actually do, and feel free to say how long or how often you have used it.

• Till systems and payment solutions by name, for example the chain's till system, card terminals and Vipps.
• Handheld terminals and scanners for stocktaking, ordering and price labelling.
• Online orders and click and collect: picking orders, handling returns and chatting with customers.
• Courses from the chain's training programme, and courses in customer service, sales or first aid.
• Languages: Norwegian, English and any other languages you use with customers.
• Product knowledge, for example sports, electronics, cosmetics or food.

No experience, or many years in retail

If you are applying for your first job, or a part time job alongside school, it is completely normal to have little to put under work experience. Instead, highlight what shows you are reliable and enjoy working with people: volunteering, coaching, the kiosk at your sports club, delivering newspapers or a summer job. Say what you did, for example “ran the kiosk at 12 home matches and was responsible for the cash”. Also state when you can work, for example “available afternoons, evenings and every other weekend”. For shops that plan shifts, this is one of the most important details. Our guide to a CV for recent graduates has more advice for a CV with little experience.

If you have worked in retail for many years, the challenge is the opposite. Cut older jobs down to one line and use the space for recent years and your responsibilities: budgets, rotas, training, running a department or holding the keys. If you are aiming for shift supervisor, assistant store manager or store manager, figures for turnover, shrinkage and customer satisfaction are what set you apart from other applicants. Keep the CV to one or two pages.

Common mistakes in a shop assistant CV

Most mistakes are easy to fix once you know what to look for. Read your CV aloud before you send it, and look out for these in particular:

• Long paragraphs instead of short bullet points.
• Qualities without proof, such as “cheerful, positive and service minded”, with no example to back them up.
• No information about when you can work.
• The same CV for every shop, even though a sports shop and a grocery store look for different things.
• Missing contact details or an informal email address.
• Numbers you cannot explain. The store manager may call your reference.

The application and next steps

Many shops ask only for a CV and a short application, sometimes directly in an online form. Keep the application to one page or less: why you want to work there, what you can contribute and when you can work. Mention something specific about the shop or the chain. See our example of a job application for a template you can build on.

If you want to save time, you can paste the job ad into Selja. You then get a professional, ATS-friendly CV and cover letter tailored to the job in under a minute, based on the CV you already have. Selja never adds experience or skills you do not have. If you are wondering about pay, the free pay check shows figures from Statistics Norway (SSB).