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RETAIL

Recruitment for sales and marketing roles across multichannel retail, ecommerce, lifestyle brands, specialist stores, marketplaces, retail services and consumer-facing businesses.

Retail planning team reviewing information on a laptop in a store environment

RETAIL

Retail brings together physical stores, ecommerce, marketplaces, direct-to-consumer models and increasingly complex fulfilment networks. Performance depends on the relationship between brand, range, price, promotion, availability and customer experience.

Commercial teams must respond quickly to changing demand while protecting margin, managing stock and creating a consistent experience across stores, websites, social platforms and third-party channels.

The Retail Economy

UK
Retail generated £114.7 billion of UK economic output in 2024, supported 2.6 million jobs and included more than 304,000 businesses at the beginning of 2025. Retail sales in Great Britain were worth £517 billion in 2024. Source: House of Commons Library, Retail sector in the UK, 2025.

IRELAND
Wholesale and retail remains one of Ireland’s largest employment sectors. CSO labour-market data recorded more than 370,000 continuing employments in the sector in Q4 2024, alongside the highest number of hirings and job creations of any sector during the quarter. Source: CSO Ireland, Labour Market Churn Q4 2024.

Sales assistant in motor trade helping a couple with a purchase

Sales & Marketing in Retail

In any sector, sales and marketing contribute to the same outcome: helping the business understand, attract and convert the right customers. They do this through different but closely connected forms of customer insight, communication and influence.

When hiring for a sales or marketing role in retail, the strongest candidates usually combine commercial capability with an understanding of customer behaviour, channel dynamics, pace, margins and the realities of the retail environment. The following considerations help assess whether someone is likely to perform effectively in the role and business.

Hiring and Fit Considerations

Relevant experience does not guarantee success, and few roles require experience in every area. Its value is that understanding the parts of the retail and ecommerce model most relevant to the role can shorten the learning curve and help someone make an impact more quickly where the business needs it most.

Customer & Consumer Understanding

Strong professionals understand how customers research, compare and buy, and how consumer trends affect demand. This helps sales and marketing activity remain relevant rather than relying on broad assumptions about the market.

Channel & Trading Model

Major multiples and ecommerce businesses operate through different combinations of stores, websites, marketplaces, distribution and wholesale. Familiarity with the relevant model helps professionals understand how customers are reached, how performance is measured and where commercial decisions are made.

Stock, Margin & Promotional Economics

Retail growth is shaped by availability, pricing, discounting, promotional activity and margin. Experience in these areas helps professionals recognise when activity is driving profitable demand and when it risks creating stock pressure or weakening commercial return.

Data-Led Commercial Judgement

Sales and marketing decisions are often informed by live trading, customer and campaign data. Strong professionals can interpret performance without reacting blindly to short-term movement, combining evidence with judgement about the customer, brand and wider commercial context.

Seasonality, Pace & Execution

Retail businesses work around trading calendars, launches, peak periods and rapid changes in demand. Professionals who understand this pace are better equipped to plan ahead, respond to live performance and deliver activity consistently across the relevant channels.

Examples of the sales and marketing roles we recruit for across the sector include:

Retail Sales Director

Leads the sales and trading strategy across stores, ecommerce, marketplaces or wholesale channels, aligning revenue growth with margin, stock and customer experience.

Head of Ecommerce

Owns online commercial performance, including conversion, trading, merchandising, promotions and coordination with marketing, technology, fulfilment and customer-service teams.

National Account Manager

Manages major retail, marketplace or wholesale accounts, negotiating commercial terms, developing joint plans and protecting revenue, margin and long-term relationships.

Retail Business Development Manager

Identifies new customers, channels, partnerships or locations and builds commercially viable opportunities around the retailer’s proposition, audience and operating model.

Store or Regional Sales Manager

Drives sales performance across a store or regional network through team leadership, local execution, customer service, operational discipline and consistent trading standards.

Retail Marketing Director

Sets the marketing strategy across brand, customer acquisition, retention, promotions and channels, ensuring activity supports profitable sales and a consistent customer experience.

Head of Brand

Defines brand positioning, identity and customer relevance, translating the proposition into campaigns, content, partnerships and experiences across physical and digital touchpoints.

Ecommerce Marketing Manager

Generates and converts online demand through paid media, search, email, social, affiliates and onsite optimisation, working closely with trading and ecommerce teams.

CRM and Loyalty Manager

Uses customer data, segmentation and lifecycle communications to improve repeat purchase, retention, loyalty participation and long-term customer value.

Retail Campaign Manager

Plans and delivers seasonal, promotional and product-led campaigns across stores, digital channels and partners, coordinating timing, creative, stock and performance measurement.

Employers

Hiring commercial professionals for retail businesses can be difficult because success depends on strong customer judgement, commercial pace and an understanding of how different channels operate.

Candidates must often balance customer experience, sales, margin, stock, promotions and brand consistency across stores, ecommerce and other routes to market. Experience in one channel may not transfer directly to another, so employers need to assess how someone has made decisions and delivered results within comparable conditions.

For harder-to-fill or business-critical roles, we recommend a search-led approach, whether delivered by MRKTSEARCH or another specialist provider. It provides better visibility of the relevant market and greater confidence that the strongest realistic options have been considered.

Discuss a Sales or Marketing Hire

Professionals

A good career move in retail is about more than title and salary. What matters is whether the customer proposition, channel mix, commercial expectations and pace of the business give you a realistic opportunity to succeed.

It is important to understand how decisions are made, how performance is measured and how sales, margin, stock and customer experience are balanced.

MRKTSEARCH provides an honest, informed view of opportunities, helps you assess whether the role and environment are right for you and helps you present your experience in the strongest and most relevant way.

Register Your Interest

Hiring?

If you have a specification or loose brief you'd like to send in advance of a call - feel free to here.

Professionals get in touch

If you'd like to send your CV for review, feel free to here.

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