Retail Cover Letter: How to Write, Examples & Templates

There aren’t many other jobs that will prepare you for the real world better than retail. At the very least, it will teach you to respect retail workers for the rest of your life. Dealing with all kinds of people while scrambling to meet sales targets—Easy! 

Getting through the stack of retail cover letters in the back office—that’s the tricky part. This is one of those jobs where most people just send the same retail cover letter template over and over and play the numbers game. Not you.

According to Retail Economics, there are 2.9 million people working in UK retail. That’s a lot of competition for the more fancy jobs. Check a retail cover letter example that bests them all, and a guide to help you reach the same quality. 

Use the LiveCareer cover letter builder and your cover letter will write itself. Choose a professional template, answer a few easy questions and the creator will generate a professional cover letter for you with just one click.

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 Need a different cover letter? Check our other cover letter samples:

• Barista Cover Letter
• Bartender Cover Letter
• Cleaner Cover Letter
• Customer Service Cover Letter
• Graduate Cover Letter
• Graphic Design Cover Letter
• Marketing Cover Letter
• Lidl Cover Letter
• Sales Cover Letter
• Sales Assistant Cover Letter

Haven't found your job? Check our full list of professional cover letter examples.

Cover Letter Example For Retail

Now let’s see how to write your own cover letter for retail jobs that will be flying off the shelves.

1. Use a business header and a proper salutation

Your contact details including email and phone number should be aligned to the right. Below, aligned on the left, should be the name, position and address of the hiring manager. Then record the date, and the subject (i.e. the position) of your retail cover letter.

Try hard to find out who the manager dealing with your application is. Address your cover letter for retail by first name if possible, doing your best to avoid general salutations that make you seem like you’re spamming out hundreds of retail CVs.

Check against the retail cover letter template to make sure you have missed any crucial info:

Retail cover letter—header

You can adjust every cover letter created in the builder to meet the job requirements. Choose the name of your profession and the company to which you’re applying, and the LiveCareer cover letter builder will automatically adapt the content for you. Create a cover letter faster than you ever thought possible and apply for the job in record time.

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2. Sell yourself in your retail cover letter

First impressions, even if they don’t stay permanent, form the fundamental basis of all our future relations. If the first time somebody is going to find out about you is from your retail cover letter, it might be wise not to mince words. The first paragraph should be somewhere between 40 and 80 words.

Time is never spare in retail, so just get to the point. State your years of experience, your strongest achievement or relevant, provable skill. Only then may you say that you’re excited or elated to apply for this position. After you explain why you’re the best for it, not before.

Most cover letter examples will start with needless platitudes or waffling, and you will point out two or three strong reasons to hire you before the others are done saying hello. This approach is also effective in a general cover letter. Just like this:

Retail cover letter—opening example

3. Display your retail skills in the second paragraph

The main body of your retail cover letter is the right place to show the breadth of skills and experiences you have. See what entries from your retail CV match the list of requirements the employer lists in their job ad. Highlight your customer service skills, as they are crucial in retail.

Avoid making a boring list of duties and responsibilities. Do not start sentences with ‘responsible for’. Instead, talk about your achievements and results you generated. Any extra turnover, savings, improvement is worth talking about.

This should make somewhere between 120 and 200 words.

Retail cover letter—main paragraph example

You don’t have to create any content yourself. The LiveCareer cover letter generator will automatically suggest the best content for your cover letter with ready-made examples and expert tips.

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4. Seal the deal with a call to action in your retail cover letter

The ending section of your cover letter for retail should explain how you’re going to leverage your skills to produce results for your new employer, and what those results might be. If you have talked at length about your achievements, just explain how you’re going to translate those skills.

You have explained the what and the how, and now it’s time to set a when. Ask for a call or a meeting to discuss how you’re going to adapt to the new role, or to discuss something key from your retail cover letter that the employer might be interested in. 

Limit this section to 60-80 words. Sign beneath with a proper closing, such as ‘Best Regards’.

Retail cover letter—closing example

5. Use a proper retail cover letter format

The content is key, but the presentation of your cover letter for retail must also be of matching quality. To make sure everything is as it should be, follow these tips:

Retail cover letter length rules

Your cover letter should be short and consist of:

• 200 words minimum — 350 words maximum
• Half a page of A4 minimum, no more than 1 page of A4.
• Opening paragraph—60-80 words
• Main body—120-200 words
• Closing paragraph—40-60 words

Match the CV format

Your retail CV and cover letter are two parts of the same document, and as such, they should match. Go for simple templates for both your cover letter and the CV. Fancy templates decrease readability.

Choose a legible font

The length of a cover letter is already far exceeding the average attention span, so don’t make it harder to read than it needs to be. Choose a font between size 10 and 12, in a classic style such as Arial, Garamond or Noto.

Use even margins

For a neat cover letter layout, use 1-inch margins on all sides. If your application letter is shorter than most, you can increase this to 1.5-inch to improve the framing.

Guide their eyes white space

Leave neat spacing between sections and paragraphs. If you have ended up with a big block of text in the middle paragraph, consider using some bullet points to highlight the most important achievements.

One cover letter for one job

Retail differs from company to company. Thoroughly look up every company, how they work and what is important to them and adjust your retail cover letter and CV to match their requirements perfectly. 

Not only will you stand out, doing the research will let you understand if you actually want to work there.

Save as PDF

Save your cover letter in the PDF format to protect your formatting, unless specified otherwise.

A cover letter alone simply won’t be enough—you need an impactful CV, too. Create your CV in minutes. Just follow our wizard and fill in every CV section with ready-made content. Get started by choosing a professional CV template.

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Does this answer how to write a cover letter for retail? Got any more questions on what to include? Did you find the retail cover letter examples helpful? Perhaps you’re writing a retail cover letter with no experience? Let us know in a comment!

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Our editorial team has reviewed this article for compliance with Livecareer’s editorial guidelines. It’s to ensure that our expert advice and recommendations are consistent across all our career guides and align with current CV and cover letter writing standards and trends. We’re trusted by over 10 million job seekers, supporting them on their way to finding their dream job. Each article is preceded by research and scrutiny to ensure our content responds to current market trends and demand.