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Retail Staff Turnover Is High: Is It Time We Simply Accept This?


Let’s face it: everyone knows that retail turnover is high—much higher than most industries.


But what does that mean for your stores going forward? Should you try and fight a doomed battle or just save money on staff training, knowing they’re probably going to leave soon?

Heads-up: you might not like the answer (but, if you want your stores to succeed, it’s not a good enough reason to ignore it).


The retail industry and staff turnover: a troubled relationship


Let’s start by putting retail turnover in perspective.


Average employee turnover rate in retail


The average retail turnover rate is 60.5% in the US and 57.3% in the UK, meaning that more than 1 in 2 members of staff will leave a company within the year.


When you compare it to the average turnover rate (15%), it makes you realise just how ridiculously HIGH it is for the retail sector.


Why is turnover high in retail?


There are several reasons why retail employee turnover is higher than in most industries:

  • Low salary

  • Lots of competition

  • High pressure and stress

  • Not an apparent career ladder

  • Challenging and often unpredictable working hours

  • Many staff members are students, part-timers, and temporary workers

Basically, retail turnover has always been higher—and will probably always be that way—due to the very nature of this sector.


Ok, retail turnover is high (fact). Now, what should you do about it?


Many CEOs and store managers have come to this conclusion: “if retail turnover is so high and will stay that way, there’s no point in investing in my staff. After all, most of them will leave!”


Well, that’s actually the easiest way to shoot yourself—and your store—in the foot.


1. You should still train your staff properly (yes, even if some of them will leave)


Failing to train your staff—and, especially, your front-of-house staff—is a dangerous game. You’re basically playing Russian roulette with customer service!


  • Fixed-term contracts aside, you don’t actually know who is going to leave and when. Are you really not going to invest in all of them just because you could risk spending some money on someone who ends up jumping ship?


  • When you don’t train your staff properly, you’re penalising your store. To survive retail’s phygital age, you need to make your in-store experience so valuable that customers will want to pop in and return—even when they could easily choose to buy everything online. You can’t do that if your staff isn’t knowledgeable, engaged, and motivated


  • You should never underestimate the capabilities of anyone in your team, including the student who only works weekends and that 8hr part-timer. Everyone should be responsible for providing an outstanding customer experience. Let’s say that a potential customer walks into your store and is greeted by a member of staff who only works one day a week: does that mean they should get lower-quality, basic service? Well, not if you want them to come back!


  • Plus, just like you don’t know who’s going to leave, you never know who’s going to come back. If someone has great memories of your brand and leadership, they might easily return after a few years (I’ve seen this happen countless times!)


2. Try and figure out why the retail turnover rate is high in your stores



Just because the average retail turnover rate is around 60%, it doesn’t automatically mean it’s going to be the same for your store (or that it has to stay that way).



Many companies talk a lot about retaining talent but don’t do enough about it in practice.


I noticed that, while some stores do try and implement some changes, they execute them through a very diluted pilot version. Of course, that doesn’t end up having enough of an impact (and they give up on retail employee retention shortly after).


So, gain an advantage over the rest of your competitors by understanding exactly why most people have been leaving your retail stores so far.


This could be because of poor management or a lack of leadership (remember: in most cases, people don’t leave jobs. They leave managers!). Maybe there are cliques that have led to a toxic environment. Perhaps there’s too much tasking but not enough organisation?


Whatever it is, you shouldn’t rely on guesswork to try and lower your retail turnover rate!


  • Conduct thorough confidential exit surveys, and yes: even with part-timers and students. Sure, they might be leaving because they’re going back to their hometown, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t got any useful feedback for you


  • Monitor and measure employee satisfaction, one of the top retail KPIs in the phygital age. Have 1:1 meetings and run employee satisfaction surveys regularly to measure your eNPS (employee net promoter score)


Don’t get me wrong: I know that learning these things and facing these pain points isn’t always easy. However, ignoring them isn’t a solution. Even the smallest problems can turn into much bigger issues if left unchecked.


When you’ve identified them in your stores, you can use this feedback to make informed decisions, start moving towards a better direction, and set things right.


3. Do better (a lot better) than average retail stores


Do you want to have a lower retail turnover rate than most stores? Then, you’ve gotta do more for your staff than the average store does.




  • Encourage career progression within your retail company. As we’ve seen before, the lack of a traditional career ladder is one of the reasons why the retail turnover rate is so high… but retail does have a career ladder! You just need to make this clearer to your staff, especially when monitoring their feedback and satisfaction rates. If someone is tired of being on the shop floor, they might think that the only solution is to look for a different job altogether. Instead, you can talk to them about your brand’s opportunities in marketing, visual merchandising, event hosting, corporate roles, and more


  • Act BIG! Consider paying your staff around 20%