One of the main duties of a retail store manager is dealing with employee performance. They must keep everyone on track by providing the training each employee needs. The candidate should have experience handling a situation with an underperforming employee. In addition, the approach they used should be thoughtful, reasonable, and habit-changing. An ideal retail store manager will provide an example with a positive outcome. What to look for in an answer:

• Experience handling an employee who was underperforming
• Comfortable with effective communication
• Reasonable approaches to fix a problem

How a manager handles mistakes impacts themselves, the team, customers, and your company. An ideal candidate is someone who is honest; we all make mistakes, but what is important is whether or not they learned from it. A good candidate is someone who can admit that they have had made a couple of mistakes in their career and the mistakes they made helped shape who they are now. What to look for in an answer:

• Proposes fixes for problems that they cause
• Communicates the ability to learn from a mistake
• Holds themselves accountable for their actions

When hiring a retail store manager, an ideal candidate would be someone with good work ethics, good leadership skills, time management skills, good communication skills, and independence. These are some good qualities of a manager. An ideal candidate will name some of these in their answer. If the candidate names a quality, they most likely possess it. Choose a candidate who names positive, important, and ideal qualities for a store manager. What to look for in an answer:

• Self-awareness of personal strengths
• Positive and important qualities
• Candidate should possess the qualities they named in their answer

Managing a big team can be challenging if there are goals your company must reach every day. An ideal retail store manager will have a plan to keep their employees motivated to reach their daily goals. They should name and explain the approach they use to keep their employees motivated. An example could be that they have implemented some fun competitions in their previous position to keep everyone motivated. What to look for in an answer:

• Actual experience of past tools they used to motivate their employees
• Good leadership and people skills
• Concrete examples of motivational programs that can be implemented by your company

A good retail store manager should have experience managing employees in a work environment that is similar to your company’s work environment. For instance, if the store manager is required to manage a big team, an ideal candidate would be one with experience managing bigger teams in their past management position. Consider an applicant with a record of success in their previous jobs. What to look for in an answer:

• Successful management experience
• Experience managing a variety of team sizes
• Leadership of employees in work environments similar to that of your company

Retail store managers are responsible for leading store operations. A key part of their job is identifying ways to drive sales and sell inventory before it goes out of season. This question helps interviewers gauge a candidate's creativity. It also helps interviewers determine whether a candidate has the experience to uphold their business revenue.

The candidate's answer should emphasize:

• Innovative thinking
• Sale-driven mindset
• Problem-solving skills

A qualified candidate may answer the question like this: