Sales Assistant interview questions and answers
This Sales Assistant interview profile brings together a snapshot of what to look for in candidates with a balanced sample of suitable interview questions.
Are you a candidate?
Crush your interview with our guide
Sales Assistant Interview Questions
Sales Assistants are crucial to the customer experience at your retail store. Your Sales Assistants should have a thorough understanding of your customers and products. They should enjoy working on teams and be helpful, outgoing, and dependable. It is tremendously helpful if they have previous customer-facing and cash-handling experience, but not necessary if you have the capacity to train them.
Typically, retail employers look for sales assistants who know or have an interest in their niche, and who make an effort to align themselves with their brand. Promising candidates will tailor prepared and spontaneous questions to your brand. They may also dress to fit the part at interviews.
Use these questions to evaluate your candidates’ overall experience with retail sales. If they have no previous retail sales experience, add a few questions about prior customer service experience. This job can be repetitive, and if hired they’ll spend long hours working on their feet. Find out what motivates them and get a sense of how much they enjoy interacting with other people. Try to get a sense of their work ethic too. See what they’d do on slow days or if they would do more than what is typically asked of them to ensure smooth store operations.
Operational and Situational questions
- How would you describe our customers?
- What types of merchandise have you sold before?
- What point of sales systems have you used?
- How would you sell ____? (Fill in the blank with one of your products, e.g. shoes, computers, outdoor gear)
- How do you familiarize yourself with the products you sell?
- Describe a time you suggested a way to improve efficiency, reduce costs, or save time.
- If it’s a slow day at the store, what do you do in your downtime?
- How do you greet customers at your store?
- Describe a time you had to resolve a problem with an angry customer.
- How do you build customer loyalty?
- How do you make sure that customers know about sales and other special events?
- A customer tries to combine two coupons that cannot be combined. How would you handle it?
- What would you do if you caught someone shoplifting in the store?
- Have you ever had a disagreement with your manager? How did you resolve it?
- Describe a time you worked with a colleague to solve a problem.
- Describe a time you pitched in for a colleague who was unable to make it to work.