cover letter for job merchandiser

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Merchandiser Cover Letter Example

Increase your chances of scoring a job & pick up more ideas for your own cover letter with this editable Merchandiser cover letter example. Make a copy of this cover letter sample at no cost or modify it in any way using our online cover letter builder.

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Merchandiser Cover Letter Example (Full Text Version)

Carmelo Arboleda

Dear Recruiter,

This letter is to express my great interest in the Merchandiser job at your company. As a highly-skilled, results-oriented, and motivated professional, I believe that this would be a great opportunity for me to progress in my career and that I would also make a valuable addition to your team.

As a Business & Management graduate, I have extensive knowledge of various aspects of business, including marketing, sales, and finance which helps me to successfully execute the job and all assigned tasks. During my studies, I worked on the development of multiple business projects which taught me how to work in a team and how to lead a group of individuals in pursuit of a common goal. I was also a part of the Business Club where I was in charge of the organization and coordination of various events and managed the whole events-planning process.

In my previous roles, I was always committed to achieve great results and meet all goals. Not only I participated in the development of merchandising plans, which led to a significant increase in revenue, I also monitored the store performance, trained and supervised new personnel, communicated and maintained professional relationships with suppliers, and produced professional product presentations. All these experiences helped me to develop excellent communication and organizational skills and important abilities to think critically and solve complex problems.

I believe that I can meet and exceed all expectations that you have for this position and I look forward to hearing back from you soon. Feel free to contact me at any time.

Milan Šaržík, CPRW

Milan’s work-life has been centered around job search for the past three years. He is a Certified Professional Résumé Writer (CPRW™) as well as an active member of the Professional Association of Résumé Writers & Careers Coaches (PARWCC™). Milan holds a record for creating the most career document samples for our help center – until today, he has written more than 500 resumes and cover letters for positions across various industries. On top of that, Milan has completed studies at multiple well-known institutions, including Harvard University, University of Glasgow, and Frankfurt School of Finance and Management.

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Merchandiser Cover Letter Examples, Expert Tips & Templates

When applying for a Merchandiser position, your cover letter can be the deciding factor in whether you land an interview or not. A well-written cover letter can showcase your skills, experience, and passion for the job, while also demonstrating your attention to detail and communication abilities. In this blog post, we’ll provide you with expert tips, real-world examples, and customizable templates to help you craft a standout Merchandiser cover letter that grabs the attention of hiring managers in the retail, fashion, consumer goods, e-commerce, and wholesale industries.

Table of Contents

The Importance of Having a Strong Merchandiser Cover Letter

Having a strong Merchandiser cover letter is crucial in the job application process for several reasons:

• It showcases your skills and experience: Your cover letter allows you to highlight your relevant skills and experience that make you the best fit for the job. This is your chance to demonstrate your knowledge of the industry, your attention to detail, and your ability to work independently or as part of a team.
• It demonstrates your communication abilities: As a Merchandiser, you’ll be responsible for communicating with various stakeholders, including suppliers, vendors, and internal teams. Your cover letter is an opportunity to showcase your communication skills, including your ability to write clearly, concisely, and professionally.
• It sets you apart from other candidates: A well-crafted cover letter can help you stand out from other candidates who may have similar qualifications or experience. It shows that you’ve taken the time to research the company and the position, and that you’re genuinely interested in the role.

Expert Tips for Writing Merchandiser Cover Letter

Here are some expert tips to help you write a standout Merchandiser cover letter:

• Research the company: Before you start writing your cover letter, take the time to research the company and the position you’re applying for. This will help you tailor your cover letter to the specific needs of the organization and demonstrate your knowledge of the industry.
• Showcase your skills: Use your cover letter to highlight your relevant skills and experience that make you the best fit for the job. Be specific and provide examples of how you’ve used your skills in previous roles.
• Be concise: Your cover letter should be no more than one page long. Use short paragraphs and bullet points to make it easy to read and scan.
• Customize your letter: Avoid using a generic cover letter for every job application. Instead, customize your letter to the specific job and company you’re applying to.
• Show your passion: Merchandising can be a competitive field, so it’s important to demonstrate your passion for the industry and the role. Use your cover letter to showcase your enthusiasm and interest in the job.

Related Article: Merchandiser Job Description, Average Salary & Career Path

Win the Job with These Merchandiser Cover Letter Examples

A cover letter is a critical document that can determine whether you get an interview for your dream job as a merchandiser. It’s the first thing a hiring manager will see, so it’s essential to make a great first impression. In this article, we’ll provide you with some excellent merchandiser cover letter examples that will help you stand out from the crowd.

Merchandiser Application Cover Letter Template

[Your Name] [Your Address] [City, State ZIP Code] [Email Address] [Today’s Date] [Recipient’s Name] [Recipient’s Title] [Company Name] [Street Address] [City, State ZIP Code] Dear [Recipient’s Name], I am excited to apply for the Merchandiser position at [Company Name]. As an experienced merchandiser with [Number of Years] years of experience in the retail industry, I am confident that my skills and qualifications align with the requirements of this position. In my current position at [Current Company], I have been responsible for [Key Responsibilities]. I have also [Key Achievements]. These experiences have allowed me to develop my skills in [Key Skills], which I believe will be valuable in the role of a Merchandiser at [Company Name]. I am particularly drawn to [Company Name] because of its [Key Company Values or Achievements]. I am excited about the opportunity to contribute to your team and help [Company Name] achieve even greater success. Thank you for considering my application. I have attached my resume for your review. Please let me know if you require any additional information or if you would like to schedule an interview. Sincerely, [Your Name]

This merchandiser cover letter template is designed to help you create a professional and effective cover letter. It includes all the essential elements of a cover letter, such as your contact information, the recipient’s contact information, a greeting, an introduction, a body, and a closing. Use this template as a guide to tailor your cover letter to the specific job and company you are applying to.

Merchandiser Application Cover Letter Template – 2

Dear [Hiring Manager’s Name], I am thrilled to submit my application for the Merchandiser position at [Company Name]. With [Number of Years] years of experience in the retail industry, I am confident in my ability to excel in this role and contribute to the success of your company. As a highly organized and detail-oriented individual, I have a proven track record of developing and implementing effective merchandising strategies that drive sales and increase customer engagement. In my current role at [Current Company], I have successfully managed multiple product lines, collaborated with cross-functional teams, and consistently exceeded sales targets. I am particularly drawn to [Company Name]’s commitment to [Company Values or Mission Statement], and I am excited about the opportunity to contribute to your team. Thank you for considering my application. I look forward to the opportunity to discuss my qualifications further. Sincerely, [Your Name]

This merchandiser cover letter template is designed to showcase the applicant’s enthusiasm and qualifications for the position. The letter highlights the applicant’s relevant experience and skills, as well as their alignment with the company’s values and mission. By using this template, applicants can demonstrate their ability to communicate effectively and stand out from other candidates in the hiring process.

Merchandiser Prospecting Cover Letter

Dear [Hiring Manager’s Name], I am writing to express my interest in the Merchandiser position currently available at [Company Name]. With my extensive experience in the retail industry and a passion for creating engaging product displays, I am confident in my ability to make a valuable contribution to your team. As a seasoned Merchandiser, I have developed a keen eye for detail and a deep understanding of consumer behavior. My ability to analyze sales data and trends has allowed me to create effective merchandising strategies that drive sales and increase brand awareness. I am also skilled in managing inventory levels and collaborating with cross-functional teams to ensure seamless execution of merchandising plans. At [Previous Company], I spearheaded the redesign of the store layout, resulting in a 20% increase in sales within the first quarter. I am excited to bring this same level of creativity and innovation to [Company Name] and contribute to the continued growth and success of the brand. Thank you for considering my application. I look forward to the opportunity to discuss my qualifications further. Sincerely, [Your Name]

This Merchandiser Prospecting Cover Letter template is designed to showcase your skills and experience in a persuasive tone. By highlighting your achievements and demonstrating your passion for the industry, you can stand out to potential employers and increase your chances of landing an interview. Remember to tailor your cover letter to the specific job and company you are applying to, and always proofread for grammar and spelling errors before submitting.

Merchandiser Prospecting Cover Letter – 2

Dear [Hiring Manager’s Name], I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing to express my interest in the Merchandiser position at [Company Name]. As a highly motivated and detail-oriented individual, I believe that my skills and experience make me a strong candidate for the role. In my current position as a Merchandiser at [Current Company], I have gained extensive experience in product placement and visual merchandising. I have a keen eye for detail and am able to create visually appealing displays that drive sales. Additionally, I am skilled in analyzing sales data to make informed decisions about product placement and inventory management. I am excited about the opportunity to bring my skills and experience to [Company Name]. I am confident that my passion for the industry and my ability to work well under pressure make me a great fit for the team. Thank you for considering my application. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Sincerely, [Your Name]

This Merchandiser Prospecting Cover Letter template is designed to showcase your skills and experience in a friendly and informal tone. By highlighting your experience in product placement and visual merchandising, as well as your ability to work well under pressure, this cover letter is sure to catch the attention of hiring managers in the industry. Use this template as a guide to create a personalized cover letter that highlights your unique qualifications and sets you apart from other candidates.

Don’t Miss: Merchandiser Resume Writing Guide & Examples

Merchandiser Networking Cover Letter

Dear [Hiring Manager’s Name], I am excited to apply for the Merchandiser position at [Company Name] that I recently came across on [Job Board]. With [Number of years] years of experience in the retail industry, I have developed a keen eye for detail and a passion for creating visually appealing displays that drive sales. I am confident that my skills and experience make me a strong candidate for this position. As a Merchandiser, I understand the importance of building strong relationships with vendors and suppliers to ensure that products are delivered on time and in the correct quantities. I have a proven track record of working closely with cross-functional teams to develop and execute successful merchandising strategies that drive revenue growth. In my current role as a Merchandiser at [Current Company], I have successfully increased sales by [Percentage or Dollar Amount] through the implementation of innovative merchandising strategies. I am confident that I can bring this same level of success to the Merchandiser position at [Company Name]. Thank you for considering my application. I look forward to the opportunity to discuss my qualifications further. Sincerely, [Your Name]

The Merchandiser Networking Cover Letter is a persuasive template that highlights the candidate’s skills and experience in the retail industry. It is important to address the hiring manager by name and demonstrate a strong understanding of the company’s mission and values. The candidate should also highlight their ability to work collaboratively with cross-functional teams and build strong relationships with vendors and suppliers. By using this template, candidates can showcase their qualifications and stand out in a competitive job market.

Merchandiser Networking Cover Letter – 2

Dear [Name], I hope this message finds you well. I am reaching out to you as a fellow merchandiser with a passion for the industry and a desire to connect with like-minded professionals. I have been following your work for some time now and have been impressed with your ability to stay on top of the latest trends and create visually stunning displays. Your work has inspired me to push myself further in my own career. I am currently seeking new opportunities and would be grateful for any advice or connections you could offer. I believe that networking is crucial in this industry and I am eager to expand my circle of contacts. Thank you for taking the time to read my message. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Best regards, [Your Name]

Networking is an essential aspect of any successful career, and the merchandising industry is no exception. This cover letter template is designed to help you reach out to fellow merchandisers in a friendly and informal manner, with the goal of building connections and expanding your professional network. By highlighting your passion for the industry and your admiration for the recipient’s work, you can establish a rapport and open the door to future opportunities.

Read Also: Merchandiser Job Posting Template: Tips & Examples

Merchandiser Cover Letter Mistakes to Avoid

When applying for a merchandiser position, your cover letter is your chance to make a great first impression. However, there are some common mistakes that job seekers make when writing their cover letters. Here are some merchandiser cover letter mistakes to avoid:

• Not customizing your cover letter: Sending a generic cover letter that is not tailored to the specific job posting can make you seem uninterested or unqualified for the role.
• Focusing on yourself instead of the company: Your cover letter should show how your skills and experience can benefit the company, not just what you can gain from the position.
• Being too informal: While it’s important to show your personality, using slang or casual language can make you come across as unprofessional.
• Not proofreading: Grammatical errors or typos can make a negative impact on the employer’s perception of you.

Merchandiser Cover Letter Best Practices

To make sure your cover letter stands out from the rest, here are some best practices to follow:

• Customize your cover letter: Tailor your cover letter to the specific job posting by highlighting your relevant skills and experience that match the job requirements.
• Show your enthusiasm: Express your excitement for the position and the company, and explain why you are a good fit for the role.
• Be professional: Use a formal tone and avoid using slang or casual language.
• Proofread: Double-check your cover letter for any grammatical errors or typos. Have someone else read it over for a fresh perspective.
• Include relevant information: In addition to your skills and experience, include any relevant achievements or projects that demonstrate your qualifications for the position.

Your merchandiser cover letter is your chance to make a great first impression on potential employers. By avoiding common mistakes and following best practices, you can increase your chances of landing an interview and ultimately, the job. Remember to customize your cover letter, show your enthusiasm, be professional, proofread, and include relevant information. Good luck!

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Merchandiser

Merchandiser Cover Letter

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How to create a good cover letter for a merchandiser: free tips and tricks

We will disclose some secrets to help you write a winning cover letter for your resume. You will definitely be able to stand out among the other candidates and reveal your strengths. Use our editor to prepare an incredible merchandiser cover letter example and become the best candidate for the position.

Being in this role, a specialist must demonstrate analytical skills. He has to analyze sales figures, market trends, customer reactions to successfully plan the stock of products and turnover. You should tell the employer about that.

A suitable employee must always be aware of the latest merchandising trends and practices. The market is changing, and you must develop and track new bents. It will be a mistake not to write about these experiences.

A good specialist demonstrates strong planning skills. This work requires planning the placement of the goods for a better response from customers, as well as procurement outlining. This is the quality that should be reflected in your CL.

Another essential feature is the commercial insight and the ability to "decode" the client. These skills are important for successful product promotion. So if this is not about you, perhaps you are not the right candidate for the position.

An expert in this field is an excellent negotiator and has outstanding communication skills. His responsibility lies in communication with suppliers and distributors to conclude profitable deals.

A fitting specialist is a link between the company and customers. You must instantly respond to clients' requests, helping to solve problems. If you can not deal with this, this is a big minus.

Sample cover letter for a merchandiser position

The most effective way to digest the tips is to see their practical application. We have used all the important tips of the above units into a single a merchandiser cover letter sample to demonstrate a winning document that can be created in GetCoverLetter editor.

Kian Griffin Merchandiser 7342 Lake Street 6345-134-831 / [email protected] Melina Lee Recruiter “Chelsea's Retail”

Dear Melina, I would like to introduce myself for the position of a merchandiser at Chelsea's Retail as advertised on your LinkedIn profile. As an experienced professional in this field, I possess wide knowledge and abilities that will help me contribute to the development of your business.

My background includes six years of experience working as a merchandiser at C&T. Thanks to my strong analytical skills, I am doing a great job with market and sales analysis, which allows me to achieve high financial performance. My responsibilities also include the development and implementation of strategic sales plans, budget planning, as well as the establishment of relationships with customers and distributors. At my current job, using my commercial insight and effective sales strategy, I managed to increase the company's revenue by 30%.

One of my key features is developed interpersonal skills. This allows me to easily establish strong customer relationships. I always respond quickly to any inquiries from clients or distributors and effectively solve issues that arise. Besides, I carefully monitor the latest changes and trends in the field of merchandising, which enables me to always have up to date knowledge.

I would be pleased to have an opportunity to meet with you at an interview and circumstantially discuss my qualifications. Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to your reply.

Kind Regards, Kian.

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Why the Get Cover Letter is the best solution

The GetCoverLetter editor is open to any goals of applicants. Whether it be a presentation of a craft professional with a great list of achievements or even a merchandiser without experience. Rest assured, the opportunities are equal for all the candidates.

We like to keep things unique so quite naturally our cover letters can always be edited. So you can add as much or as little personal info as you'd like.

We don't tell your whole life story but we do highlight your most desired features in our letter summary.

We show what you can do and who you are in our 50+ professional business documents.

Our format and design options for a cover letter will fit every taste. See for yourself!

Templates of the best a merchandiser cover letter designs

Any example of the document for a merchandiser has a precise design per the requirements of the company or the general rules of business correspondence. In any case, the selection of templates in our editor will meet any expectations.

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“I applied for a couple of positions in different companies and sent them CL prepared with this online editor. During a week all of them responded and invited me for an interview!”

Frequently Asked Questions

The more unique the knowledge you get, the more space for new questions. Do not be affraid to miss some aspects of creating your excellent cover letter. Here we took into account the most popular doubts to save your time and arm you with basic information.

• What should my a merchandiser cover letter contain? The main purpose of a cover letter is to introduce yourself, mention the job you’re applying for, show that your skills and experience match the needed skills and experience for the job.
• How to properly introduce yourself in a cover letter? Greet the correct person to which your cover is intended for. Introduce yourself with enthusiasm.
• How many pages should my cover letter be? Your cover letter should only be a half a page to one full page. Your cover letter should be divided into three or four short paragraphs.
• Don't focus on yourself too much
• Don't share all the details of every job you've had
• Don't write a novel

It’s a small world and an even smaller job market, so get your letter noticed.

Other cover letters from this industry

Just remember that winning CL must have a nice layout. A harmonious paper of an entry-level person can beat an experienced professional. Additionally, below you will find links that will also help you in finding a new job.

• Visual Merchandiser
• Store Manager
• Retail Store Manager

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Merchandiser Cover Letter

15 merchandiser cover letter templates.

How to Write the Merchandiser Cover Letter

I am excited to be applying for the position of merchandiser. Please accept this letter and the attached resume as my interest in this position.

Previously, I was responsible for support to the Visual Merchandising team, for in store merchandising, training and showrooms.

I reviewed the requirements of the job opening and I believe my candidacy is an excellent fit for this position. Some of the key requirements that I have extensive experience with include:

• Has a personal vehicle
• Retail or merchandising experience
• Frequent driving and exiting/entering vehicle to service assigned accounts
• Integration with Marketing, brand environment and all consumer Touch points, including packaging, to ensure the product comes to life in a brand appropriate way to drive financial results and brand awareness
• Recruiting, training and motivating a team to ensure that business and brand objectives are met
• Report retail pricing issues and assist with surveys as requested
• Work with marketing department to ensure brand image is consistent
• Partner with management in the merchandise selection and assortment activities of an assigned category to ensure that internal cross functional teams are working within cost requirements and hitting key deadlines

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Morgan Lebsack

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Responsibilities for Merchandiser Cover Letter

Merchandiser responsible for feedback to Visual Merchandising Manager on any current and upcoming fashion trends across the Market.

Merchandiser Examples

Example of merchandiser cover letter.

I would like to submit my application for the merchandiser opening. Please accept this letter and the attached resume.

In my previous role, I was responsible for visual merchandising support to company activities such as new store opening and events.

My experience is an excellent fit for the list of requirements in this job:

• Assist in creating seasonal, monthly and weekly plans for sales, inventory, markdowns and gross margin
• Work with buying team and stores to analyse business by door to maximize sales and stock opportunities
• Recap key item rankings by classification, style, colour and size
• Produce & analyse weekly reports recapping sales, inventory and gross margin vs
• Work with all departments in Retail Corp to ensure New Store Openings are managed effectively, thru building financial plans & opening stock assortments
• To build & develop a highly motivated & results driven team
• Develop robust Exit strategies for OLD stock
• Maintain back rooms by organizing and consolidating back stock in a safely accessible way

Denver O'Keefe

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Merchandiser Cover Letter: Job Description, Sample & Guide

Create a standout merchandiser cover letter with our online platform. browse professional templates for all levels and specialties. land your dream role today.

Are you looking to apply for a job as a Merchandiser? Writing a great cover letter is the key to standing out from the competition. Our Merchandiser Cover Letter Guide will provide you with tips and advice to ensure that your cover letter is the best it can be.

We will cover:

• How to write a cover letter, no matter your industry or job title.
• What to put on a cover letter to stand out.
• The top skills employers from every industry want to see.
• How to build a cover letter fast with our professional Cover Letter Builder .
• What a cover letter template is, and why you should use it.

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Merchandiser Cover Letter Sample

Dear Hiring Manager,

I am writing to apply for the position of Merchandiser as per your job advertisement. I have a degree in Business Administration and Retail Management and have 5+ years of experience in merchandising and retail. I believe I have the necessary skills and experience to be a great fit for this role.

My experience in merchandising includes working as a merchandiser in a variety of retail stores. I have managed the inventory, developed display plans, and worked with vendors to ensure product availability. I have also developed successful product promotions and developed marketing plans for new product launches. I have also managed budgeting and forecasting to ensure that projects are completed on time and within budget.

I have excellent communication and organizational skills and have been praised for my ability to think creatively and come up with innovative solutions to complex problems. I also have experience working with a variety of software programs and am confident that I can easily learn and use any new programs required for the job.

I am eager to join an organization where I can use my skills and experience to contribute to the success of the company. I am confident that I can be a great asset to your team and would be delighted to discuss my qualifications in further detail. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or would like to schedule an interview.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely, John Doe

Why Do you Need a Merchandiser Cover Letter?

• A Merchandiser cover letter is a great way to introduce yourself and demonstrate your commitment to the job.
• It provides a platform to showcase your relevant skills and experience, and to explain why you are the ideal candidate for the role.
• It also allows you to explain how your skills and experience can benefit the company.
• A Merchandiser cover letter is the perfect opportunity to make a good first impression and demonstrate your enthusiasm for the position.
• It can help to set you apart from other applicants and show the employer that you are truly passionate about the role.
• It is also an opportunity to highlight any unique qualifications or experiences that you may have that set you apart from other applicants.
• A Merchandiser cover letter is also a great way to demonstrate your research skills and to demonstrate that you have taken the time to learn about the company and its needs.

A Few Important Rules To Keep In Mind

• Address your cover letter to the hiring manager or recruiter by name.
• Highlight your relevant skills and experience in the Merchandising field.
• Include specific examples of successful projects you have worked on.
• Mention any awards you have won or certifications you have achieved.
• Be sure to explain why you are a great fit for the role.
• Keep your cover letter concise and to the point.
• Proofread your cover letter for errors before sending it.
• End your cover letter with a call to action.

What's The Best Structure For Merchandiser Cover Letters?

After creating an impressive Merchandiser resume , the next step is crafting a compelling cover letter to accompany your job applications. It's essential to remember that your cover letter should maintain a formal tone and follow a recommended structure. But what exactly does this structure entail, and what key elements should be included in a Merchandiser cover letter? Let's explore the guidelines and components that will make your cover letter stand out.

Key Components For Merchandiser Cover Letters:

• Your contact information, including the date of writing
• The recipient's details, such as the company's name and the name of the addressee
• A professional greeting or salutation, like "Dear Mr. Levi,"
• An attention-grabbing opening statement to captivate the reader's interest
• A concise paragraph explaining why you are an excellent fit for the role
• Another paragraph highlighting why the position aligns with your career goals and aspirations
• A closing statement that reinforces your enthusiasm and suitability for the role
• A complimentary closing, such as "Regards" or "Sincerely," followed by your name
• An optional postscript (P.S.) to add a brief, impactful note or mention any additional relevant information.

Cover Letter Header

A header in a cover letter should typically include the following information:

• Your Full Name: Begin with your first and last name, written in a clear and legible format.
• Contact Information: Include your phone number, email address, and optionally, your mailing address. Providing multiple methods of contact ensures that the hiring manager can reach you easily.
• Date: Add the date on which you are writing the cover letter. This helps establish the timeline of your application.

It's important to place the header at the top of the cover letter, aligning it to the left or center of the page. This ensures that the reader can quickly identify your contact details and know when the cover letter was written.

Cover Letter Greeting / Salutation

A greeting in a cover letter should contain the following elements:

• Personalized Salutation: Address the hiring manager or the specific recipient of the cover letter by their name. If the name is not mentioned in the job posting or you are unsure about the recipient's name, it's acceptable to use a general salutation such as "Dear Hiring Manager" or "Dear [Company Name] Recruiting Team."
• Professional Tone: Maintain a formal and respectful tone throughout the greeting. Avoid using overly casual language or informal expressions.
• Correct Spelling and Title: Double-check the spelling of the recipient's name and ensure that you use the appropriate title (e.g., Mr., Ms., Dr., or Professor) if applicable. This shows attention to detail and professionalism.

For example, a suitable greeting could be "Dear Ms. Johnson," or "Dear Hiring Manager," depending on the information available. It's important to tailor the greeting to the specific recipient to create a personalized and professional tone for your cover letter.

Cover Letter Introduction

An introduction for a cover letter should capture the reader's attention and provide a brief overview of your background and interest in the position. Here's how an effective introduction should look:

• Opening Statement: Start with a strong opening sentence that immediately grabs the reader's attention. Consider mentioning your enthusiasm for the job opportunity or any specific aspect of the company or organization that sparked your interest.
• Brief Introduction: Provide a concise introduction of yourself and mention the specific position you are applying for. Include any relevant background information, such as your current role, educational background, or notable achievements that are directly related to the position.
• Connection to the Company: Demonstrate your knowledge of the company or organization and establish a connection between your skills and experiences with their mission, values, or industry. Showcasing your understanding and alignment with their goals helps to emphasize your fit for the role.
• Engaging Hook: Consider including a compelling sentence or two that highlights your unique selling points or key qualifications that make you stand out from other candidates. This can be a specific accomplishment, a relevant skill, or an experience that demonstrates your value as a potential employee.
• Transition to the Body: Conclude the introduction by smoothly transitioning to the main body of the cover letter, where you will provide more detailed information about your qualifications, experiences, and how they align with the requirements of the position.

By following these guidelines, your cover letter introduction will make a strong first impression and set the stage for the rest of your application.

Cover Letter Body

I am writing to apply for the Merchandiser position at ABC Company. With more than six years of experience in the industry, I am confident that I will be a great addition to your team.

I have a solid background in merchandising, having worked as a merchandiser for several retailers. I am knowledgeable in all aspects of the job, from setting up displays to managing inventory and ordering products. I am also well-versed in current trends in the industry and can quickly adapt to changing customer demands.

In my current role, I am responsible for creating and executing promotional plans for a variety of different stores. I have developed a keen eye for detail and am proficient in using computer programs and software to manage data and inventory. Additionally, I am an excellent communicator and have strong interpersonal skills, which have enabled me to collaborate with other departments and ensure that all departments are working together to achieve company goals.

I am confident that I have the skills and experience necessary to make an immediate and positive impact in this position. I am eager to join a team that is as passionate about retail merchandising as I am.

Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely, [Your Name]

Complimentary Close

The conclusion and signature of a cover letter provide a final opportunity to leave a positive impression and invite further action. Here's how the conclusion and signature of a cover letter should look:

• Summary of Interest: In the conclusion paragraph, summarize your interest in the position and reiterate your enthusiasm for the opportunity to contribute to the organization or school. Emphasize the value you can bring to the role and briefly mention your key qualifications or unique selling points.
• Appreciation and Gratitude: Express appreciation for the reader's time and consideration in reviewing your application. Thank them for the opportunity to be considered for the position and acknowledge any additional materials or documents you have included, such as references or a portfolio.
• Call to Action: Conclude the cover letter with a clear call to action. Indicate your availability for an interview or express your interest in discussing the opportunity further. Encourage the reader to contact you to schedule a meeting or provide any additional information they may require.
• Complimentary Closing: Choose a professional and appropriate complimentary closing to end your cover letter, such as "Sincerely," "Best Regards," or "Thank you." Ensure the closing reflects the overall tone and formality of the letter.
• Signature: Below the complimentary closing, leave space for your handwritten signature. Sign your name in ink using a legible and professional style. If you are submitting a digital or typed cover letter, you can simply type your full name.
• Typed Name: Beneath your signature, type your full name in a clear and readable font. This allows for easy identification and ensures clarity in case the handwritten signature is not clear.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Writing a Merchandiser Cover Letter

When crafting a cover letter, it's essential to present yourself in the best possible light to potential employers. However, there are common mistakes that can hinder your chances of making a strong impression. By being aware of these pitfalls and avoiding them, you can ensure that your cover letter effectively highlights your qualifications and stands out from the competition. In this article, we will explore some of the most common mistakes to avoid when writing a cover letter, providing you with valuable insights and practical tips to help you create a compelling and impactful introduction that captures the attention of hiring managers. Whether you're a seasoned professional or just starting your career journey, understanding these mistakes will greatly enhance your chances of success in the job application process. So, let's dive in and discover how to steer clear of these common missteps and create a standout cover letter that gets you noticed by potential employers.

• Not including the company’s name and contact information in the letter.
• Using a generic cover letter for every job application.
• Not highlighting your relevant experiences and qualifications.
• Not tailor-making the letter to match the job requirements.
• Using overly-casual language.
• Including irrelevant personal information.
• Using cliches or jargon.
• Not proofreading the letter before sending it.
• Not demonstrating enthusiasm for the job.
• Not including a call to action.

Key Takeaways For a Merchandiser Cover Letter

• Emphasize your experience in the merchandising field.
• Highlight your knowledge of current trends, styles, and market demands.
• Express your enthusiasm and commitment to the position.
• Demonstrate your expertise in retail operations, inventory management, and customer service.
• Detail your ability to develop effective merchandising plans and strategies.
• Mention relevant computer skills and familiarity with industry-specific software.
• Describe your ability to work well under pressure and meet tight deadlines.

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Merchandising Associate Cover Letter Example

Writing a cover letter for a Merchandising Associate position can be a challenging task. You want your cover letter to stand out in a sea of other applicants, while also demonstrating you possess the qualifications, experience and professional capabilities necessary for the role. That’s why having a guide on how to write a powerful cover letter can be helpful in creating the perfect cover letter for your job application. With the right tips and tricks, you can ensure your cover letter will be a success. This blog post will provide you with a step-by-step guide on how to write a Merchandising Associate cover letter, along with a free example for you to use as a template.

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Merchandising Associate Cover Letter Sample

Dear [Hiring Manager],

I am writing to express my interest in the Merchandising Associate position at [Company Name]. With extensive experience in retail, merchandising, and customer service, I am confident in my ability to make a significant contribution to the [Company Name] team.

As an experienced Merchandising Associate, I have a proven track record of success creating a cohesive product presentation, stocking shelves, and achieving sales goals. I am a natural problem solver, able to quickly identify issues and formulate solutions to ensure a positive customer experience. Additionally, I have excellent communication skills, enabling me to effectively liaise with the team, store management, and customers.

I have a passion for creating an outstanding customer experience and have successfully achieved sales goals through innovative merchandising techniques and promotions. My expertise also includes working with vendors to select the best products for the store, negotiating pricing, and organizing inventory.

I am excited about the chance to bring my experience, enthusiasm, and commitment to your team. I appreciate your taking the time to consider my qualifications and look forward to the opportunity to discuss my skills and qualifications with you in more detail.

[Your Name]

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What should a Merchandising Associate cover letter include?

Writing a cover letter for a Merchandising Associate position should focus on the qualifications and skill sets a prospective candidate has that are relevant to working in merchandising and retail. Here are some key points to include in a Merchandising Associate cover letter:

• Your interest in the Merchandising Associate position and the company you are applying to.
• Relevant skills and experience you have for the role, such as experience in working with customers in a retail environment, knowledge of the fashion industry, and familiarity with the types of merchandise the company typically carries.
• Your ability to work cooperatively with other members of the team, meet deadlines, and be flexible in order to help the store meet its goals.
• Your commitment to providing excellent customer service, and any customer service awards or recognition you have received.
• Your understanding of the company’s mission and values, and how you can contribute to its success.
• Your willingness to take on additional responsibilities and learn new skills, as well as any special projects or initiatives you’ve completed in the past.
• Your commitment to developing and maintaining relationships with vendors, and any prior experience in coordinating with vendors.
• Your ability to use merchandising and inventory software, if applicable.
• Your enthusiasm and dedication to making a positive impact on the company and its customers.

Merchandising Associate Cover Letter Writing Tips

Writing a cover letter for a merchandising associate position can be a daunting task. However, with the right tips and advice, you can create an effective and compelling letter that will help you stand out from the competition. Here are some tips to help you write a great merchandising associate cover letter.

• Start by introducing yourself and explaining why you are the best person for the job. Make sure to highlight any relevant experience and qualifications that make you a great candidate for the position.
• Focus on the needs of the employer, not just your own skills. Show them how you can contribute to their success and make sure to emphasize any successes from your previous positions.
• Tailor your letter to the specific job you’re applying for. Make sure to mention the job title and any related keywords in your cover letter.
• Showcase your knowledge of the company by mentioning specific products, services, or achievements. Show that you are invested in the company’s success.
• Use a professional tone and avoid common mistakes, such as typos and grammatical errors.
• End your cover letter on a positive note. Thank the employer for considering you and include contact information in case they have any further questions.

By using these tips, you can create an effective cover letter that demonstrates your skills and qualifications and helps you stand out from the competition. A well- crafted cover letter is essential for making a great impression on potential employers and can help you land your dream job.

Common mistakes to avoid when writing Merchandising Associate Cover letter

Writing a cover letter for a job as a Merchandising Associate is an opportunity to show potential employers your writing and communication skills, as well as your enthusiasm for the position you are applying for. However, it is important to craft a professional, well- structured cover letter that is free from errors. Here are some common mistakes to avoid when writing a Merchandising Associate cover letter:

• Not Customizing Your Cover Letter: The most important advice when it comes to writing a standout cover letter is to customize it to the company you are applying to. Generic, cookie- cutter letters are easy to spot and won’t impress your potential employers.
• Typos or Grammatical Errors: It might seem obvious, but proofreading your cover letter is essential. Typos or mistakes in grammar or punctuation can make it seem like you are not taking the application seriously.
• Forgetting to Include Your Contact Information: Make sure to include your contact information in your cover letter, such as your name, address, telephone number and email address.
• Not Explaining Your Qualifications: Be sure to explain why you are the ideal candidate for the job. Highlight any relevant experience, certifications, or qualifications that you have that make you the best person for the job.
• Leaving Out Your Signature: A cover letter should be signed by hand, not typed out.
• Being Too Long: Keep your cover letter succinct and to the point. Keep it to one page, and avoid rambling.

By avoiding these common mistakes, you can create a professional and effective cover letter for the Merchandising Associate position you are applying for. If you take the time to customize it to the company, proofread it, and focus on your relevant qualifications, you will be sure to create an impressive cover letter.

Key takeaways

Writing an impressive cover letter for a Merchandising Associate position requires highlighting your relevant experience, qualifications and skills. Here are some key takeaways to help you write a successful cover letter:

• Emphasize your knowledge and experience in the field of retail and merchandising. Be sure to include your familiarity with retail trends, inventory management, and customer service.
• Highlight your skills in communication, negotiation, and problem- solving. Explain how you use these skills to work with vendors, merchandise products, and resolve customer service issues.
• Demonstrate your ability to multitask and stay organized. Show how you stay on top of the latest trends and technologies, and create effective strategies to increase sales.
• Mention how you stay ahead of the competition and identify new opportunities. Explain how you use data analysis to evaluate opportunities and make decisions.
• Show your ability to work independently, as well as in a team. Explain how you collaborate with other departments such as marketing and operations to ensure the success of the store.
• Include any other relevant experience, qualifications, and skills. Make sure to include any awards, certifications, or other accomplishments.

By following these key takeaways, you can create an effective and impressive cover letter for a Merchandising Associate position. With a well- crafted letter, you can demonstrate your qualifications and experience and show potential employers why you are the best candidate for the job.

Frequently Asked Questions

Writing a good cover letter for a Merchandising Associate job requires some special considerations. Whether you are applying to a role with no experience or with some experience, the content of your cover letter should focus on how you can contribute to the company.

1. How do I write a cover letter for an Merchandising Associate job with no experience?

If you are applying to an Merchandising Associate position with no experience, focus on the skills you have that are relevant to the position. Emphasize your organizational skills, your attention to detail, your ability to work well with others, and your ability to think creatively and solve problems. Highlight any relevant coursework and internships, as well as volunteer work or extracurricular activities that can demonstrate your capabilities. Demonstrate your enthusiasm for the role and explain why you are a great fit for the job.

2. How do I write a cover letter for an Merchandising Associate job experience?

If you have experience in Merchandising Associate, emphasize what you have accomplished in your previous roles. Describe the projects you’ve completed, and the successes you’ve achieved. Explain how your experience has made you a great fit for the job, and include specific examples that demonstrate your capabilities. Highlight your communication skills, your ability to think strategically and your attention to detail.

3. How can I highlight my accomplishments in Merchandising Associate cover letter?

In your cover letter, you should focus on outcomes and accomplishments. For example, you might explain how you successfully negotiated a discount with a vendor, designed a new merchandising system, or implemented a successful marketing strategy. If you have experience in working with teams, you can also highlight the successes you achieved while collaborating with colleagues.

4. What is a good cover letter for an Merchandising Associate job?

A good cover letter for an Merchandising Associate job should focus on your abilities and accomplishments that are relevant to the position. Describe how your experience and skills have equipped you to be successful in the role, and emphasize your enthusiasm for the job. Explain why you are a great fit for the position and how you can help the company reach its goals.

In addition to this, be sure to check out our cover letter templates , cover letter formats ,  cover letter examples ,  job description , and  career advice  pages for more helpful tips and advice.

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Retail Merchandiser Cover Letter Examples

Use these Retail Merchandiser cover letter examples to help you write a powerful cover letter that will separate you from the competition.

Retail merchandisers are responsible for creating an appealing and visually appealing store environment. They must be able to identify what products to stock and how to display them in order to attract customers.

In order to get a job as a retail merchandiser, you need to write a cover letter that showcases your skills and experience.

Check out the examples below to learn how to write a cover letter that will help you get the job.

Formal/Professional Writing Style Example

With a strong background in retail and merchandising, I am highly confident in my ability to contribute effectively to your team and ensure that your company maintains its reputation for excellence in customer service and visual presentation.

In my previous role as a Retail Merchandiser for XYZ Retailers, I demonstrated strong attention to detail and an ability to adapt quickly to new product lines and seasonal changes. I was responsible for managing store inventory, creating visually appealing displays, and training new staff members in merchandising best practices. Through these efforts, I contributed to a 12% increase in overall store sales and received recognition as the top-performing merchandiser during my employment.

I am highly skilled in inventory management, time management, and excellent communication—skills that I believe are crucial for success in the Retail Merchandiser role. My ability to collaborate with multiple departments, such as buying, marketing, and store operations, allows me to help create a seamless retail experience for both customers and staff alike.

Furthermore, I possess a thorough understanding of current retail trends and consumer behavior, which allows me to make data-driven decisions to maximize sales and profitability. My proficiency in using various merchandising software, as well as my continuous endeavor to stay updated on industry developments, would make me a valuable asset to your organization.

I am eager to join your esteemed organization and contribute my skills and knowledge towards achieving the company’s goals. Thank you for considering my application for the Retail Merchandiser position. I look forward to the opportunity to discuss my qualifications further and explore how I can make a positive impact on your team.

[Your Name]

Entry-Level Writing Style Example

As a recent graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Retail Management from XYZ University, I am excited to embark on my career in retail merchandising, and I believe joining your team at ABC Company would be a perfect opportunity for growth and development.

During my academic journey, I focused on subjects related to retail merchandising, such as Visual Merchandising, Inventory Management, and Consumer Behavior. This has equipped me with the foundational knowledge to excel in a retail merchandising role. Additionally, I completed an internship at a local retail store, where I gained hands-on experience in product display, stock management, and customer service. This experience also allowed me to build my attention to detail and problem-solving abilities.

My excellent communication skills, combined with my understanding of merchandising principles, will enable me to make a valuable contribution to your talented team at ABC Company. Moreover, I am highly adaptable and eager to learn, ensuring that I will be quick to pick up any required skills and industry knowledge.

I am enthusiastic about the prospect of joining your team and contributing to your company’s success by creating appealing and effective product displays, managing inventory, and striving for excellence in customer service. I would appreciate the opportunity to discuss my candidacy further in an interview. Thank you for considering my application.

Networking/Referral Writing Style Example

I recently had an insightful conversation with [Referrer’s Name], who is a valued colleague and recommended that I reach out regarding this opportunity. [Referrer’s Name] and I have worked closely together in the past, and they have seen firsthand my dedication and skills as a retail merchandiser.

Our collaboration on various projects has allowed me to demonstrate my strong attention to detail, excellent organizational skills, and ability to analyze retail data to drive sales and enhance overall store performance. We have successfully improved product displays, inventory management, and store layouts to maximize revenue and customer satisfaction.

Having worked alongside [Referrer’s Name], I believe that my skills and experience are in alignment with the core values and customer-focused approach that your organization shares. Not only have I proven experience in the retail industry, but I am also eager to contribute to your team and make a meaningful impact in the continued success of your store.

I am excited about the prospect of working at your organization and am confident that my background in retail merchandising would make me an excellent addition to your team. I would welcome the opportunity to further discuss how my experience and talents could benefit your company. Thank you for considering my application, and I look forward to speaking with you soon.

Enthusiastic/Passionate Writing Style Example

Having honed my skills in retail merchandising over the past five years, the opportunity to join a company with such a stellar reputation in the industry is genuinely thrilling. Your commitment to fostering creativity and innovation in retail strategies align perfectly with my values, and I am eager to contribute to your ongoing success.

Throughout my professional experience, I have excelled in designing eye-catching product displays, optimizing inventory levels, and forging strong relationships with vendors, all while showcasing a deep passion for the retail landscape. My keen eye for detail and aptitude for visual storytelling have played a vital role in increasing sales and customer satisfaction at my previous workplaces. I am confident that my abilities and enthusiasm will make me an excellent fit for your Retail Merchandiser team.

I am particularly excited about the prospect of introducing fresh and engaging merchandising concepts that will resonate with your customer base. Your focus on creating unforgettable shopping experiences has inspired me to pursue this role, and I am eager to collaborate with my future teammates to continue driving the company’s growth.

In conclusion, I am genuinely passionate about contributing to your esteemed organization as a Retail Merchandiser. I believe my enthusiasm, experience, and dedication make me the perfect candidate for this position. Thank you for taking the time to review my application, and I would be thrilled to discuss how my expertise could benefit your company further. I look forward to the possibility of working together.

Problem-Solving Writing Style Example

I have closely followed your company’s success and am aware of both the challenges and opportunities currently presenting themselves in the retail industry. It is paramount for businesses to cultivate compelling and unique shopping experiences to stand out in the competitive landscape – a challenge that excites me and motivates my application.

As an experienced Retail Merchandiser, I understand the importance of creating impactful product presentation that aligns with evolving consumer preferences and consistently drives sales growth. I believe my expertise in visual merchandising, inventory management, and collaboration with cross-functional teams can be instrumental in addressing your company’s needs and achieving your objectives.

At my previous role, I successfully reduced stock write-offs by 15% by implementing an efficient inventory management system that allowed for real-time monitoring and optimization of sell-through rates. Additionally, I executed data-driven merchandising strategies that led to a 10% increase in overall sales, demonstrating my competency in transforming insights into fruitful actions.

Of note, my strong interpersonal skills facilitate my collaboration with team members across different departments to stay connected with market trends, seasonal requirements, and promotional activities, ultimately ensuring cohesive and targeted merchandising across various channels.

In conclusion, I am confident that my passion for retail, coupled with my extensive skillset in merchandising and problem-solving, makes me an ideal fit for your Retail Merchandiser position. I am eager to contribute to your company’s growth and ongoing success, while simultaneously enhancing the overall shopping experience for clients. I look forward to discussing my ideas and qualifications further with you.

Thank you for considering my application.

Storytelling/Narrative Writing Style Example

As I strolled along the aisles of my local grocery store one sunny afternoon, I couldn’t help but notice how the vibrant colors and strategic placement of products captured my attention. Each shelf told a story, enticing me to embark on a culinary adventure or indulge in a sweet treat. It was in that moment that I realized the power of effective merchandising and the impact it can have on a customer’s shopping experience. This realization, coupled with my background in retail and passion for creating visually appealing displays, makes me the perfect candidate for the Retail Merchandiser role at your organization.

Over the past five years, I have honed my skills in inventory management, product placement, and visual merchandising in various retail settings. In my previous role as a Visual Merchandiser at a popular clothing store, I was able to increase sales by 20% in just six months through the implementation of innovative display techniques and a keen eye for detail. Additionally, my strong communication skills allowed me to effectively collaborate with my team and store management to develop comprehensive merchandising strategies that aligned with the company’s overall branding and sales goals.

My enthusiasm for the art of retail merchandising and my proven track record of success in the field make me an ideal candidate for this role. I am confident that my skills and passion for creating engaging visual displays will greatly contribute to your organization’s success. I am eager to join your team and help shape the customer experience through thoughtful and effective merchandising.

Thank you for considering my application. I look forward to the opportunity to discuss my qualifications further and demonstrate my passion for retail merchandising.

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Resume Worded   |  Career Strategy

14 visual merchandising manager cover letters.

Approved by real hiring managers, these Visual Merchandising Manager cover letters have been proven to get people hired in 2024. A hiring manager explains why.

Table of contents

• Visual Merchandising Manager
• Senior Visual Merchandising Manager
• Senior Visual Merchandising Specialist
• Senior Visual Merchandiser
• Assistant Visual Merchandiser
• Assistant Visual Merchandising Manager
• Visual Merchandising Coordinator
• Alternative introductions for your cover letter
• Visual Merchandising Manager resume examples

Visual Merchandising Manager Cover Letter Example

Why this cover letter works in 2024, highlighting relevant skills.

The writer showcases their experience in visual merchandising and customer behavior, which are directly related to the role they're applying for. This helps to establish their expertise and credibility early in the cover letter.

Quantifying Achievements

By providing specific numbers, the writer shows the tangible impact they've had in their previous role. This not only demonstrates their success but also shows that they can bring the same results to this new position.

Sharing a Detailed Example

The writer shares a specific project they led, including the positive results it generated. This offers a clear example of their abilities and how they can contribute to the company's success as a Visual Merchandising Manager.

Show passion for the company

Communicating enthusiasm about the brand or company you're applying to is a great start to a cover letter. This tells me you're not just sending the same letter to every job opening, but that you actually care about this particular role. And when you know and understand the brand well, it's even better. It makes me believe you'll fit right in.

Recall successful projects

Telling a story about a specific project where you've had success in your past role is an effective way to showcase your skills. It's more interesting than just listing your skills, and it helps me visualize how you'd apply your expertise to our projects here.

Talk about your philosophy

Sharing your philosophy or approach to work is a good way to communicate your values and how you operate. It not only gives me a peek into your work ethic, but also helps me understand if your style aligns with our company culture.

Showcase Tangible Achievements

When you talk about leading a visual redesign project that increased foot traffic and sales, it's clear you're not just a dreamer, but a doer. It's important to back up your skills with concrete examples of your past success, especially when they're as impressive as this.

Highlight Unique Combination of Skills

The fact that you can blend analytics with creativity is not common, and it's definitely something you should emphasize. It shows you're not only about the aesthetics, but also the strategy behind them.

Express Alignment with Company Values

Your sustainable merchandising initiative is a great example of how you align with Nordstrom's commitment to sustainability and community engagement. Companies love to see candidates who share their values, and this is a fantastic way to show that.

Express Genuine Enthusiasm

When you say that the opportunity to contribute to Nordstrom's tradition of retail excellence is 'thrilling', it conveys genuine enthusiasm. That excitement can be infectious, and it shows that you're not just looking for any job, but this job.

Show your early passion for visual merchandising

Talking about your childhood interest in arranging your room to be visually appealing is a strong way to start. It shows that your passion for visual merchandising has deep roots, making you seem more dedicated to your career.

Quantify your visual merchandising success

By stating the specific sales increase from your redesign efforts, you make your success tangible. It helps me understand the direct impact of your work on sales, which is crucial for a visual merchandising manager role.

Demonstrate leadership in visual merchandising

Explaining how you led a team to improve sales and customer engagement gives me confidence in your leadership skills. This insight into your ability to guide and train a team is valuable for someone looking to hire a manager.

Express alignment with the company’s values

Showing that you value the same things as the company, like creativity and innovation in visual merchandising, makes you seem like a good fit. It’s important to align with the company’s culture and goals.

Close with enthusiasm

Ending your letter by looking forward to contributing to the company’s success through your passion for visual storytelling leaves a positive impression. It’s good to close on an eager and hopeful note.

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Share a memorable retail experience

Telling a story about how a store’s visual presentation impacted you as a customer demonstrates your understanding of the customer experience. This perspective is valuable for a visual merchandising manager role.

Demonstrate impact with metrics

Using specific numbers to show how your displays increased traffic and sales tells me you're results-oriented and can measure your success. This is crucial for proving your effectiveness in the role.

Emphasize creative thinking and collaboration

Stating your creative approach and how you work well with teams indicates you have the soft skills necessary to thrive in a collaborative and creative environment like Nordstrom.

Align with the company’s innovation goals

Expressing excitement about a company's dedication to customer experience and innovation signals that you're not just looking for any job but are passionate about contributing to specific company initiatives.

Express eagerness for a discussion

Inviting a conversation about how you can contribute to the company's success shows confidence in your ability to make a positive impact. It’s a proactive way to close your letter and leave a lasting impression.

Connect personal passion to professional goals

Sharing a childhood memory that sparked your career interest in visual merchandising helps me see your genuine passion. It makes your application memorable.

Show visual merchandising impact with numbers

Mentioning specific achievements, like increasing foot traffic and sales, proves your ability to deliver results. This gives me confidence in your skills.

Blend creativity with strategic thinking for visual merchandising

Expressing how you combine creativity and strategy in your work demonstrates your understanding of visual merchandising's dual role. It's not just about looking good; it's about strategic brand alignment.

Highlight alignment with company values in visual merchandising

When you talk about your excitement for the company's commitment to inclusive sizing and sustainability, it shows me you've done your homework and care about where you work. This demonstrates cultural fit.

Express eagerness to contribute to visual merchandising goals

Closing your letter with a note of thanks and a forward-looking statement shows professionalism and eagerness to be part of the team. It leaves a positive, lasting impression.

Senior Visual Merchandising Manager Cover Letter Example

Highlight achievements with numbers and awards.

Quantifying your achievements with specific numbers and mentioning awards you've won gives me a clear picture of the results you've achieved in your past roles. It reinforces your claim of being effective at what you do, and makes your accomplishments more credible and tangible.

Express your understanding of the job

Expressing a solid understanding of the key aspects of the job you're applying for builds confidence in your abilities. It tells me you know what the job entails and that you have the skills to do it well. And when you mention how you're excited to bring your skills to our team, it conveys your enthusiasm about the opportunity.

Senior Visual Merchandising Specialist Cover Letter Example

Demonstrate innovation.

Leading a visual strategy that increased customer engagement and boosted online interaction is an excellent example of your innovative ability. Especially in the role of a Senior Visual Merchandising Specialist, the ability to think outside the box and leverage digital trends is crucial.

Connect Your Skills with Company Approach

Pointing out how your experience with omnichannel visual strategies aligns with IKEA's holistic approach is a clever move. It shows that you've done your homework about the company, and highlights how your skills will be a perfect fit.

Underscore Value of Teamwork

Your reference to the power of collaborative creativity and experiential marketing shows you value teamwork and understand its impact. Being a team player is a valuable trait, and it's great that you've highlighted this aspect of your experience.

Express Motivation and Alignment with Company's Mission

Stating your motivation to contribute to IKEA's legacy of innovative and engaging retail environments hits the right note. It shows alignment with the company's mission and underscores your deep understanding of the brand.

Senior Visual Merchandiser Cover Letter Example

Illustrate your lifelong commitment to visual merchandising.

Mentioning your childhood interest in creating visually appealing displays highlights your long-term passion for visual merchandising. This backstory adds depth to your application and makes your career choice seem like a natural progression.

Highlight your leadership in executing visual strategies

Talking about leading a large team and implementing strategies across several stores showcases your leadership and strategic planning abilities. These are key qualities for a senior visual merchandiser, indicating you can handle responsibility and drive results.

Showcase your collaborative and mentorship skills

Your experience in working with cross-functional teams and mentoring junior members displays your ability to collaborate and lead. These are important traits for a senior role, as they suggest you can both contribute to and elevate a team.

Align with the brand’s mission

Expressing your admiration for the company’s focus on modern design, affordability, and sustainability shows that you understand and value their mission. This alignment indicates that you would be a motivated and committed member of their team.

End with eagerness to contribute

Closing your letter by expressing eagerness to contribute to the company's success demonstrates your enthusiasm and readiness to make an impact. It’s effective to end on a note that underscores your desire to be part of their team.

Show your passion for visual merchandising

Telling us about your long-term interest in visual merchandising makes us see you're not just looking for any job, but you're dedicated to our specific field.

Highlight your sales-driving skills

Mentioning your ability to create displays that boost sales and engage customers directly links your skills to our bottom line, making your application more compelling.

Connect your skills to our needs

By discussing your strategic, leadership, and data-focused approach, you're showing us exactly how you can fit into and enrich our team.

Praise the company's innovation

Complimenting Macy's on its innovation and expressing your desire to contribute positions you as someone who values progress and is eager to be part of our journey.

Concluding your cover letter with enthusiasm about joining our team helps leave a lasting, positive impression.

Assistant Visual Merchandiser Cover Letter Example

Show your passion for visual merchandising early on.

Talking about your early interest in making spaces look good shows me you have a genuine passion for visual merchandising. It makes you seem like a natural for this role.

Describe specific project achievements

Mentioning a particular project where you increased sales by 25% grabs my attention. It proves you can deliver results and understand what makes an effective display.

Highlight additional responsibilities

When you talk about taking on extra visual merchandising duties, it shows you're eager and capable of more than your current role requires. This attitude is exactly what we're looking for.

Connect with the company’s values

Expressing why you're drawn to a company's creativity and values suggests you'll fit in well with the team. It's important to us that new hires align with our brand's mission.

End with strong enthusiasm

Closing your letter by expressing eagerness to contribute shows you're not just looking for any job, but you're excited about this specific opportunity. This kind of enthusiasm is infectious and makes me want to meet you.

Assistant Visual Merchandising Manager Cover Letter Example

Begin with a personal connection.

Starting your letter with a personal story about your fascination with visual merchandising instantly makes your application memorable and relatable.

Demonstrate your impact on sales

Detailing a specific achievement where your work led to a significant sales increase shows us the tangible value you can bring to our team.

Emphasize your collaborative abilities

Highlighting your skill in working with teams across the company showcases your versatility and potential to thrive in our cooperative environment.

Express excitement for the company's vision

Sharing your admiration for our unique visual merchandising approach underscores your alignment with our brand and your enthusiasm to contribute to our success.

Close with a forward-looking statement

Ending your letter by expressing your eagerness to learn more about contributing to our success frames you as proactive and genuinely interested in being part of our future.

Use personal anecdotes to show long-standing interest in merchandising

Starting with a story about your early interest in arranging and displaying items makes your career choice seem like a natural progression. It adds a personal touch to your application.

Quantify achievements in previous visual merchandising roles

Detailing your contributions to past projects with tangible outcomes, such as increased engagement and sales, demonstrates your effectiveness in the role. It offers solid proof of your capabilities.

Leverage trend awareness for brand enhancement

Discussing how you plan to use your understanding of trends and customer behavior to benefit the brand indicates that you stay current in your field. This adaptability is key in a fast-paced industry.

Show genuine admiration for the brand's visual merchandising

Expressing admiration for the brand's visual storytelling skills shows that you not only understand their aesthetic but are also passionate about contributing to it. This can set you apart from other candidates.

Highlight enthusiasm for joining the visual merchandising team

Your closing statement of eagerness to discuss how you can contribute to the company's success conveys ambition and readiness. It suggests you're not just looking for any job, but the right job.

Visual Merchandising Coordinator Cover Letter Example

Connect with the brand.

Showing you know and like the brand helps make a personal connection. It tells me you understand our style and are likely to fit in with our culture.

Demonstrate visual merchandising achievements

Talking about past successes shows you can deliver results. It's good to see numbers that prove your impact, like improving sales by 20% in a certain department.

Apply past experience to the new role

Explaining how your skills will help in our setting shows you're thinking ahead about what you can contribute. It's promising when a candidate can envision their role in enhancing the customer experience.

Highlight alignment with company values

Understanding and embracing our commitment to sustainability and innovation sets you apart. It shows you're not just a fit for the job but also for our mission and vision.

Show eagerness and teamwork skills

Ending your letter on a note of enthusiasm and readiness to collaborate makes a strong close. It tells me you're not just about the work but also about contributing to our team spirit.

Alternative Introductions

If you're struggling to start your cover letter, here are 6 different variations that have worked for others, along with why they worked. Use them as inspiration for your introductory paragraph.

Cover Letters For Jobs Similar To Visual Merchandising Manager Roles

• Fashion Merchandising Cover Letter Guide
• Merchandising Assistant Cover Letter Guide
• Visual Merchandising Manager Cover Letter Guide

Other Sales Cover Letters

• Account Executive Cover Letter Guide
• Account Manager Cover Letter Guide
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• Inside Sales Representative Cover Letter Guide
• Operations Manager Cover Letter Guide
• Real Estate Agent Cover Letter Guide
• Relationship Manager Cover Letter Guide
• Sales Associate Cover Letter Guide
• Sales Coordinator Cover Letter Guide
• Sales Engineer Cover Letter Guide
• Sales Executive Cover Letter Guide
• Sales Leader Cover Letter Guide
• Sales Manager Cover Letter Guide

Thank you for the checklist! I realized I was making so many mistakes on my resume that I've now fixed. I'm much more confident in my resume now.

Merchandising Manager Cover Letter Examples

A great merchandising manager cover letter can help you stand out from the competition when applying for a job. Be sure to tailor your letter to the specific requirements listed in the job description, and highlight your most relevant or exceptional qualifications. The following merchandising manager cover letter example can give you some ideas on how to write your own letter.

or download as PDF

Cover Letter Example (Text)

Sarah Burgardt

(500) 539-6348

[email protected]

Dear Roxanna Nena,

I am writing to express my interest in the Merchandising Manager position at Walmart, as advertised on your company careers page. With a solid five-year background in retail merchandising at Target, I am excited about the opportunity to bring my expertise and passion for the industry to your team.

During my tenure at Target, I honed my skills in product selection, vendor negotiation, and inventory management, consistently achieving and surpassing sales targets. My role involved closely analyzing market trends and customer preferences, which enabled me to curate product assortments that drove sales and enhanced the shopping experience. I am proud to have led several successful merchandising campaigns that resulted in increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

My approach to merchandising is data-driven and customer-focused. I believe in leveraging analytics to make informed decisions while keeping the end consumer's needs and desires at the forefront. This strategy has served me well in creating compelling product stories that resonate with shoppers and foster a connection with the brand.

I am particularly drawn to Walmart because of its commitment to innovation and excellence in retail. I admire your initiatives that blend physical and digital retail spaces to create seamless shopping experiences. I am eager to contribute to such a forward-thinking environment and am confident that my background in strategic merchandising and team leadership would make a valuable addition to your company.

I am looking forward to the possibility of discussing how my experience and vision can align with the goals of Walmart. Thank you for considering my application. I am eager to further discuss how I can contribute to the continued success and growth of your merchandising team.

Warm regards,

Related Cover Letter Examples

• Visual Merchandising Manager
• Merchandising Assistant
• Merchandising Specialist
• Merchandising Coordinator
• Manager Trainee
• Project Manager Consultant

Is a Cover Letter Necessary in 2024?

Published: April 03, 2024

Writing a cover letter can be daunting.

I’ll never forget my college career coach, who made writing a cover letter look easy. Even with her tips, I’ve always found it incredibly difficult to talk about myself and hype up my accomplishments.

While it acts as a letter of introduction, I’ve wondered if a cover letter is necessary in 2024. To find out, I spoke with two recruiters and gained insights on how to write the best cover letter for any job application.

How important is a cover letter?

Is a cover letter necessary, when to skip a cover letter, when to include a cover letter, tips for writing a cover letter, what if the cover letter is optional.

Cover letters are short letters of introduction that you include with job applications.

Typically, they are your chance to go into deeper details about your accomplishments that you might not have highlighted or had room to mention on your resume.

Tiffany Hall, a professional resume writer and founder of Resume911 , says cover letters are an important part of the job application process.

Hall says, “Cover letters can be very important. It’s supposed to sell why you, of all applicants, should get the job. The issue is that applicants use them to regurgitate what’s on their resume, and that’s not what it’s for. It should speak to what isn’t easily explained with your resume.”

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For example, if your resume says you’re skilled at building web pages, your cover letter is a great place to name-drop companies that you’ve worked for to create their websites.

Matthew Muehleisen, a corporate recruiter , thinks a cover letter is also a great place to show you’ve done your homework and researched a company.

Muehleisen says, “It can be what sets you apart from other candidates and applicants and is a good opportunity to show that you’ve done research on the position and company to further showcase your interest in the role.”

Knowing the importance of a cover letter still begs the question: Is a cover letter necessary in 2024?

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While a cover letter can help demonstrate your knowledge of the company you’re applying to and highlight more of your achievements, both Hall and Muehleisen agree that a cover letter isn’t entirely necessary.

Muehleisen says, “Unless it’s a requirement of the application, I wouldn’t say it’s necessary to include a cover letter. There are some roles (usually in content creation and marketing) that will ask for a cover letter as a form of a writing sample. In these instances, make sure your letter is polished and focused.”

If Hall had her way, she would eliminate the cover letter entirely, focus more on the resume, and ask for a link to an applicant’s LinkedIn profile.

According to Hall, “Most cover letters either repeat the resume or they speak to why the applicant isn’t a good fit. Neither is the purpose of a cover letter.”

Nevertheless, 74% of hiring managers still prefer applications to include a cover letter. So, it is definitely worth considering including one — even if the application says it’s optional.

If you’re looking for a new role, writing a cover letter can be time-consuming — especially if you take the time to personalize every letter you send to a hiring manager.

Although a cover letter does serve a legitimate purpose, and 83% of hiring managers read it, there are a few situations where you shouldn’t include a cover letter. Let’s take a look at those scenarios.

If You Only Have a Template of a Cover Letter

I get it. Writing an effective cover letter takes a significant amount of time.

But consider not sending one if you only have time to plug your information into a cover letter template without personalizing it before hitting submit on an application.

Don’t get me wrong. A cover letter template is a great starting point to write your cover letter. Templates often remind you to include pertinent information like the hiring manager’s title, name, and your contact information.

However, if you don’t take the time to edit the body of the cover letter and personalize it with research and your relevant experience, you risk sending the same letter as another candidate.

And considering that 48% of hiring managers spend anywhere from 30 seconds to two full minutes reading each cover letter, the chances are high that your hiring manager can spot a form letter a mile away.

Don’t send it if you don’t have the time to personalize a cover letter.

If Your Cover Letter Is Full of Critique

A cover letter is meant to explain why you’re the best candidate for the open position. However, a cover letter is not a place for you to share your ideas of how the company can improve.

Sure, every company likely has areas of improvement, and the job you’re applying for might be the role that gets a say in that, but a list of improvements might read as a critique.

You don’t want to potentially offend a hiring manager before you even get an interview. A bad cover letter can hurt a strong candidate, according to 33% of hiring managers .

Before you submit your cover letter, read through it several times to make sure it’s not a critique. If it does sound like a critique, throw it out.

If It’s Not Required

There are other instances where you shouldn’t send a cover letter. For example, if the application’s instructions specifically state that you do not need to submit a cover letter for consideration for the job.

In fact, sending a cover letter anyway can signal to the hiring manager that you don’t follow instructions. Not following instructions is also a great way to land your application in the trash bin.

The bottom line is this: If the application specifically states not to send a cover letter, don’t send it.

Of hiring managers, 74% prefer to see job applications with a cover letter apart from the resume. Knowing this, if you have the time to include a cover letter with your job application, don’t skip it.

Here are three instances when you should send a cover letter with your application.

Send a cover letter if you’re very interested in the role.

Think of your cover letter as your time to shine. Use it as a place to highlight your experiences and the qualifications that make you a great fit for the position.

Hall says, “If you can speak to why you’re a good candidate without copying your resume in paragraph form, include a cover letter.”

In other words, don’t use bullet points in your cover letter to describe your previous employment history.

Instead, talk about what you learned on the job and how your skills will help you excel in the role you’re applying for.

Send a cover letter when there’s a gap in your resume or you’re transitioning industries.

If you’re looking to transition to another industry, you should definitely include a cover letter with your application.

Speaking from personal experience, if I had only submitted a resume to my school district when I applied to be a Spanish teacher, the hiring manager would have just seen my experience in Public Health and would not have known about my skills and success in tutoring students in Spanish.

Muehleisen puts it this way, “If you’re looking to transition to a new industry or if there is a position and company you’re really excited about pursuing as an opportunity, these are the best instances to include a cover letter so that you can possibly give yourself an advantage.”

A cover letter can also help explain any gaps in your resume — especially if the gap in your employment history is beneficial to the role you’re applying for.

For example, maybe you volunteered in South America, and the role you’re applying for is for a position in Global Operations.

It never hurts to include positive, pertinent information in your cover letter.

Send a cover letter when it’s required.

The most obvious time to include a cover letter with your application is when it is required. Just like not including a cover letter when it’s not required, it shows you can follow directions.

Include a cover letter when the application asks you to submit one, which shows you can follow directions.

Plus, if the application asks for a cover letter, you can bet the hiring manager will look for it. If no cover letter is included, well, you’re sabotaging your chances of getting an interview.

Only 13% of hiring managers will consider giving a candidate an interview if they don’t attach a required cover letter to an application.

Writing a cover letter is not as painful as it sounds. There are great templates you can use as a starting point for your cover letter.

The trick with a template, though, is to make sure you always personalize the letter to your own experiences and qualifications.

Here are five expert tips to write a winning cover letter.

1. Tailor your cover letter to the job description.

When writing a cover letter, especially if you use a cover letter template, you should tailor the letter to match the job description and meet the requirements of the application.

For example, if the application asks you to attach a short cover letter, keep it brief. Your best bet is one to two short paragraphs detailing why you’re a great fit for the position.

You’ll also want to reference keywords from the job description in your cover letter. Many recruiters use applicant tracking systems that scan application packets for the best fit.

Often, hiring managers review the applications that match the keywords first.

Now, that doesn’t mean to stuff your cover letter with keywords. Instead, use them in a natural way as you discuss your qualifications.

2. Be personable with your greeting.

You might have seen the advice telling you to use “To Whom It May Concern” instead of the hiring manager’s name. This is good advice, but only if you do not know the hiring manager.

Before resorting to a generic greeting to start your cover letter, take the time to look on the company’s website and LinkedIn to find out who makes hiring decisions.

If you have contacts in your network who are familiar with the company, ask them. Taking the time to research the hiring manager and the company shows you care about the details — a quality many hiring managers look for in a candidate!

If you’re still unsure after researching the company, consider using “Dear Sir or Madam” as your greeting.

3. Be yourself.

While a cover letter is a formal introduction of yourself to a potential employer, it doesn’t need to be lacking in personality. Hall suggests sprinkling your personality in your cover letter to spark connections with the hiring manager.

Hall says, “Be your best professional self. I’m a foodie and will include references to food on my LinkedIn, and I’ve done it in a cover letter. I’ve had managers reference them, and we had a chuckle. I am also very clear about aligning myself with companies whose mission and goals I respect and can contribute to. I make sure to speak to that in the cover letter.”

Take Hall’s advice. Showcasing your vibrant personality in your cover letter can help break the ice in your interview!

4. Proofread your cover letter.

Once you’ve written your cover letter and before you hit “send,” double-check that it is free from spelling and grammar errors and that the company you referenced is the company you are applying to.

Muehleisen says skipping proofreading your cover letter is a big mistake — and it could cost you the job!

Muehleisen says, “Make sure that you are proofreading prior to sending. If the cover letter feels like it is a simple cut/paste or if the job title and company name are incorrect, it may do more harm than good. So, be sure that what you’re sending is pertinent.”

5. Be cautious of AI.

AI tools, like ChatGPT or Claude, are great for helping draft content. You might be tempted to ask generative AI to write your cover letter for you. However, both Hall and Muehleisen say to proceed with caution when it comes to AI.

Hall says, “AI is coming along in amazing ways, so it may come as a surprise that my best tip didn’t include AI. I tell my clients when they’re stuck to look to their peers. You can search people by job title on LinkedIn. See how they describe themselves and pull from there. Or, hire a resume writer or career strategist to help you.”

Muehleisen agrees with her. He says, “I would hesitate to use a tool or service for a cover letter as the point should be to show your authenticity. If you are going to use AI for assistance, make sure to put your own words in as well.”

However, when you write your cover letter, whether using a template or generative AI, personalizing it is key to standing out from the competition.

If the job description says a cover letter is optional, should you send one, or can you get by without it?

That can be tricky, considering 72% of recruiters still expect a cover, even if it’s optional.

According to Muehleisen, sending a cover letter is not a bad idea. He says, “I’ve never heard of a cover letter hurting an applicant’s chances; just make sure the one you’re including is specific to the job description and posting.”

Check out these cover letter examples for more inspiration.

Experiment With Your Cover Letters

Writing a cover letter is a breeze once you get the hang of it. With today’s challenging job market, sending a cover letter with your application can make a difference in whether you get called for an interview.

I can’t make promises that your cover letter will dazzle hiring managers each time, but for the right position for you, it will.

Remember Hall and Muehleisen’s advice when you craft your cover letter. Personalization is key to success!

Don't forget to share this post!

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CEO Andy Jassy’s 2023 Letter to Shareholders

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Dear Shareholders:

Last year at this time, I shared my enthusiasm and optimism for Amazon’s future. Today, I have even more. The reasons are many, but start with the progress we’ve made in our financial results and customer experiences, and extend to our continued innovation and the remarkable opportunities in front of us.

In 2023, Amazon’s total revenue grew 12% year-over-year (“YoY”) from $514B to $575B. By segment, North America revenue increased 12% YoY from $316B to $353B, International revenue grew 11% YoY from $118B to $131B, and AWS revenue increased 13% YoY from $80B to $91B.

Further, Amazon’s operating income and Free Cash Flow (“FCF”) dramatically improved. Operating income in 2023 improved 201% YoY from $12.2B (an operating margin of 2.4%) to $36.9B (an operating margin of 6.4%). Trailing Twelve Month FCF adjusted for equipment finance leases improved from -$12.8B in 2022 to $35.5B (up $48.3B).

While we’ve made meaningful progress on our financial measures, what we’re most pleased about is the continued customer experience improvements across our businesses.

In our Stores business, customers have enthusiastically responded to our relentless focus on selection, price, and convenience. We continue to have the broadest retail selection , with hundreds of millions of products available, tens of millions added last year alone, and several premium brands starting to list on Amazon (e.g. Coach, Victoria’s Secret, Pit Viper, Martha Stewart, Clinique, Lancôme, and Urban Decay).

Being sharp on price is always important , but particularly in an uncertain economy, where customers are careful about how much they’re spending. As a result, in Q4 2023, we kicked off the holiday season with Prime Big Deal Days, an exclusive event for Prime members to provide an early start on holiday shopping. This was followed by our extended Black Friday and Cyber Monday holiday shopping event, open to all customers, that became our largest revenue event ever. For all of 2023, customers saved nearly $24B across millions of deals and coupons, almost 70% more than the prior year.

We also continue to improve delivery speeds, breaking multiple company records . In 2023, Amazon delivered at the fastest speeds ever to Prime members, with more than 7 billion items arriving same or next day, including more than 4 billion in the U.S. and more than 2 billion in Europe. In the U.S., this result is the combination of two things. One is the benefit of regionalization, where we re-architected the network to store items closer to customers. The other is the expansion of same-day facilities, where in 2023, we increased the number of items delivered same day or overnight by nearly 70% YoY. As we get items to customers this fast, customers choose Amazon to fulfill their shopping needs more frequently, and we can see the results in various areas including how fast our everyday essentials business is growing (over 20% YoY in Q4 2023).

Our regionalization efforts have also trimmed transportation distances, helping lower our cost to serve . In 2023, for the first time since 2018, we reduced our cost to serve on a per unit basis globally. In the U.S. alone, cost to serve was down by more than $0.45 per unit YoY. Decreasing cost to serve allows us both to invest in speed improvements and afford adding more selection at lower Average Selling Prices (“ASPs”). More selection at lower prices puts us in consideration for more purchases.

As we look toward 2024 (and beyond), we’re not done lowering our cost to serve . We’ve challenged every closely held belief in our fulfillment network, and reevaluated every part of it, and found several areas where we believe we can lower costs even further while also delivering faster for customers. Our inbound fulfillment architecture and resulting inventory placement are areas of focus in 2024, and we have optimism there’s more upside for us.

Internationally , we like the trajectory of our established countries, and see meaningful progress in our emerging geographies (e.g. India, Brazil, Australia, Mexico, Middle East, Africa, etc.) as they continue to expand selection and features, and move toward profitability (in Q4 2023, Mexico became our latest international Stores locale to turn profitable). We have high conviction that these new geographies will continue to grow and be profitable in the long run.

Alongside our Stores business, Amazon’s Advertising progress remains strong , growing 24% YoY from $38B in 2022 to $47B in 2023, primarily driven by our sponsored ads. We’ve added Sponsored TV to this offering, a self-service solution for brands to create campaigns that can appear on up to 30+ streaming TV services, including Amazon Freevee and Twitch, and have no minimum spend. Recently, we’ve expanded our streaming TV advertising by introducing ads into Prime Video shows and movies, where brands can reach over 200 million monthly viewers in our most popular entertainment offerings, across hit movies and shows, award-winning Amazon MGM Originals, and live sports like Thursday Night Football . Streaming TV advertising is growing quickly and off to a strong start.

Shifting to AWS , we started 2023 seeing substantial cost optimization, with most companies trying to save money in an uncertain economy. Much of this optimization was catalyzed by AWS helping customers use the cloud more efficiently and leverage more powerful, price-performant AWS capabilities like Graviton chips (our generalized CPU chips that provide ~40% better price-performance than other leading x86 processors), S3 Intelligent Tiering (a storage class that uses AI to detect objects accessed less frequently and store them in less expensive storage layers), and Savings Plans (which give customers lower prices in exchange for longer commitments). This work diminished short-term revenue, but was best for customers, much appreciated, and should bode well for customers and AWS longer-term. By the end of 2023, we saw cost optimization attenuating, new deals accelerating, customers renewing at larger commitments over longer time periods, and migrations growing again.

The past year was also a significant delivery year for AWS. We announced our next generation of generalized CPU chips (Graviton4), which provides up to 30% better compute performance and 75% more memory bandwidth than its already-leading predecessor (Graviton3). We also announced AWS Trainium2 chips, which will deliver up to four times faster machine learning training for generative AI applications and three times more memory capacity than Trainium1. We continued expanding our AWS infrastructure footprint, now offering 105 Availability Zones within 33 geographic Regions globally, with six new Regions coming (Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Thailand, and a second German region in Berlin). In Generative AI (“GenAI”), we added dozens of features to Amazon SageMaker to make it easier for developers to build new Foundation Models (“FMs”). We invented and delivered a new service (Amazon Bedrock) that lets companies leverage existing FMs to build GenAI applications. And, we launched the most capable coding assistant around in Amazon Q. Customers are excited about these capabilities, and we’re seeing significant traction in our GenAI offerings. (More on how we’re approaching GenAI and why we believe we’ll be successful later in the letter.)

We’re also making progress on many of our newer business investments that have the potential to be important to customers and Amazon long-term. Touching on two of them:

We have increasing conviction that Prime Video can be a large and profitable business on its own. This confidence is buoyed by the continued development of compelling, exclusive content (e.g. Thursday Night Football, Lord of the Rings, Reacher, The Boys, Citadel , Road House , etc.), Prime Video customers’ engagement with this content, growth in our marketplace programs (through our third-party Channels program, as well as the broad selection of shows and movies customers rent or buy), and the addition of advertising in Prime Video.

In October, we hit a major milestone in our journey to commercialize Project Kuiper when we launched two end-to-end prototype satellites into space, and successfully validated all key systems and sub-systems—rare in an initial launch like this. Kuiper is our low Earth orbit satellite initiative that aims to provide broadband connectivity to the 400-500 million households who don’t have it today (as well as governments and enterprises seeking better connectivity and performance in more remote areas), and is a very large revenue opportunity for Amazon. We’re on track to launch our first production satellites in 2024. We’ve still got a long way to go, but are encouraged by our progress.

Overall, 2023 was a strong year, and I’m grateful to our collective teams who delivered on behalf of customers. These results represent a lot of invention, collaboration, discipline, execution, and reimagination across Amazon. Yet, I think every one of us at Amazon believes that we have a long way to go, in every one of our businesses, before we exhaust how we can make customers’ lives better and easier, and there is considerable upside in each of the businesses in which we’re investing.

In my annual letter over the last three years, I’ve tried to give shareholders more insight into how we’re thinking about the company, the businesses we’re pursuing, our future opportunities, and what makes us tick. We operate in a diverse number of market segments, but what ties Amazon together is our joint mission to make customers’ lives better and easier every day. This is true across every customer segment we serve (consumers, sellers, brands, developers, enterprises, and creators). At our best, we’re not just customer obsessed, but also inventive, thinking several years out, learning like crazy, scrappy, delivering quickly, and operating like the world’s biggest start-up.

We spend enormous energy thinking about how to empower builders, inside and outside of our company. We characterize builders as people who like to invent. They like to dissect a customer experience, assess what’s wrong with it, and reinvent it. Builders tend not to be satisfied until the customer experience is perfect. This doesn’t hinder them from delivering improvements along the way, but it drives them to keep tinkering and iterating continually. While unafraid to invent from scratch, they have no hesitation about using high-quality, scalable, cost-effective components from others. What matters to builders is having the right tools to keep rapidly improving customer experiences.

The best way we know how to do this is by building primitive services . Think of them as discrete, foundational building blocks that builders can weave together in whatever combination they desire. Here’s how we described primitives in our 2003 AWS Vision document:

“Primitives are the raw parts or the most foundational-level building blocks for software developers. They’re indivisible (if they can be functionally split into two they must) and they do one thing really well. They’re meant to be used together rather than as solutions in and of themselves. And, we’ll build them for maximum developer flexibility. We won’t put a bunch of constraints on primitives to guard against developers hurting themselves.  Rather, we’ll optimize for developer freedom and innovation.”

Of course, this concept of primitives can be applied to more than software development, but they’re especially relevant in technology. And, over the last 20 years, primitives have been at the heart of how we’ve innovated quickly.

One of the many advantages to thinking in primitives is speed . Let me give you two counter examples that illustrate this point. First, we built a successful owned-inventory retail business in the early years at Amazon where we bought all our products from publishers, manufacturers, and distributors, stored them in our warehouses, and shipped them ourselves. Over time, we realized we could add broader selection and lower prices by allowing third-party sellers to list their offerings next to our own on our highly trafficked search and product detail pages. We’d built several core retail services (e.g. payments, search, ordering, browse, item management) that made trying different marketplace concepts simpler than if we didn’t have those components. A good set of primitives? Not really.

It turns out that these core components were too jumbled together and not partitioned right. We learned this the hard way when we partnered with companies like Target in our Merchant.com business in the early 2000s. The concept was that target.com would use Amazon’s ecommerce components as the backbone of its website, and then customize however they wished. To enable this arrangement, we had to deliver those components as separable capabilities through application programming interfaces (“APIs”). This decoupling was far more difficult than anticipated because we’d built so many dependencies between these services as Amazon grew so quickly the first few years.

This coupling was further highlighted by a heavyweight mechanism we used to operate called “NPI.” Any new initiative requiring work from multiple internal teams had to be reviewed by this NPI cabal where each team would communicate how many people-weeks their work would take. This bottleneck constrained what we accomplished, frustrated the heck out of us, and inspired us to eradicate it by refactoring these ecommerce components into true primitive services with well-documented, stable APIs that enabled our builders to use each other’s services without any coordination tax.

In the middle of the Target and NPI challenges, we were contemplating building a new set of infrastructure technology services that would allow both Amazon to move more quickly and external developers to build anything they imagined. This set of services became known as AWS, and the above experiences convinced us that we should build a set of primitive services that could be composed together how anybody saw fit. At that time, most technology offerings were very feature-rich, and tried to solve multiple jobs simultaneously. As a result, they often didn’t do any one job that well.

Our AWS primitive services were designed from the start to be different. They offered important, highly flexible, but focused functionality. For instance, our first major primitive was Amazon Simple Storage Service (“S3”) in March 2006 that aimed to provide highly secure object storage, at very high durability and availability, at Internet scale, and very low cost. In other words, be stellar at object storage. When we launched S3, developers were excited, and a bit mystified. It was a very useful primitive service, but they wondered, why just object storage? When we launched Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (“EC2”) in August 2006 and Amazon SimpleDB in 2007, people realized we were building a set of primitive infrastructure services that would allow them to build anything they could imagine, much faster, more cost-effectively, and without having to manage or lay out capital upfront for the datacenter or hardware. As AWS unveiled these building blocks over time (we now have over 240 at builders’ disposal—meaningfully more than any other provider), whole companies sprang up quickly on top of AWS (e.g. Airbnb, Dropbox, Instagram, Pinterest, Stripe, etc.), industries reinvented themselves on AWS (e.g. streaming with Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, Max, Fox, Paramount), and even critical government agencies switched to AWS (e.g. CIA, along with several other U.S. Intelligence agencies). But, one of the lesser-recognized beneficiaries was Amazon’s own consumer businesses, which innovated at dramatic speed across retail, advertising, devices (e.g. Alexa and Fire TV), Prime Video and Music, Amazon Go, Drones, and many other endeavors by leveraging the speed with which AWS let them build. Primitives, done well, rapidly accelerate builders’ ability to innovate .

So, how do you build the right set of primitives?

Pursuing primitives is not a guarantee of success. There are many you could build, and even more ways to combine them. But, a good compass is to pick real customer problems you’re trying to solve .

Our logistics primitives are an instructive example. In Amazon’s early years, we built core capabilities around warehousing items, and then picking, packing, and shipping them quickly and reliably to customers. As we added third-party sellers to our marketplace, they frequently requested being able to use these same logistics capabilities. Because we’d built this initial set of logistics primitives, we were able to introduce Fulfillment by Amazon (“FBA”) in 2006, allowing sellers to use Amazon’s Fulfillment Network to store items, and then have us pick, pack, and ship them to customers, with the bonus of these products being available for fast, Prime delivery. This service has saved sellers substantial time and money (typically about 70% less expensive than doing themselves), and remains one of our most popular services. As more merchants began to operate their own direct-to-consumer (“DTC”) websites, many yearned to still use our fulfillment capabilities, while also accessing our payments and identity primitives to drive higher order conversion on their own websites (as Prime members have already shared this payment and identity information with Amazon). A couple years ago, we launched Buy with Prime to address this customer need. Prime members can check out quickly on DTC websites like they do on Amazon, and receive fast Prime shipping speeds on Buy with Prime items—increasing order conversion for merchants by ~25% vs. their default experience.

As our Stores business has grown substantially, and our supply chain become more complex, we’ve had to develop a slew of capabilities in order to offer customers unmatched selection, at low prices, and with very fast delivery times. We’ve become adept at getting products from other countries to the U.S., clearing customs, and then shipping to storage facilities. Because we don’t have enough space in our shipping fulfillment centers to store all the inventory needed to maintain our desired in-stock levels, we’ve built a set of lower-cost, upstream warehouses solely optimized for storage (without sophisticated end-user, pick, pack, and ship functions). Having these two pools of inventory has prompted us to build algorithms predicting when we’ll run out of inventory in our shipping fulfillment centers and automatically replenishing from these upstream warehouses. And, in the last few years, our scale and available alternatives have forced us to build our own last mile delivery capability (roughly the size of UPS) to affordably serve the number of consumers and sellers wanting to use Amazon.

We’ve solved these customer needs by building additional fulfillment primitives that both serve Amazon consumers better and address external sellers’ increasingly complex ecommerce activities. For instance, for sellers needing help importing products, we offer a Global Mile service that leverages our expertise here. To ship inventory from the border (or anywhere domestically) to our storage facilities, we enable sellers to use either our first-party Amazon Freight service or third-party freight partners via our Partnered Carrier Program. To store more inventory at lower cost to ensure higher in-stock rates and shorter delivery times, we’ve opened our upstream Amazon Warehousing and Distribution facilities to sellers (along with automated replenishment to our shipping fulfillment centers when needed). For those wanting to manage their own shipping, we’ve started allowing customers to use our last mile delivery network to deliver packages to their end-customers in a service called Amazon Shipping. And, for sellers who wish to use our fulfillment network as a central place to store inventory and ship items to customers regardless of where they ordered, we have a Multi-Channel Fulfillment service. These are all primitives that we’ve exposed to sellers.

Building in primitives meaningfully expands your degrees of freedom . You can keep your primitives to yourself and build compelling features and capabilities on top of them to allow your customers and business to reap the benefits of rapid innovation. You can offer primitives to external customers as paid services (as we have with AWS and our more recent logistics offerings). Or, you can compose these primitives into external, paid applications as we have with FBA, Buy with Prime, or Supply Chain by Amazon (a recently released logistics service that integrates several of our logistics primitives). But, you’ve got options. You’re only constrained by the primitives you’ve built and your imagination.

Take the new, same-day fulfillment facilities in our Stores business. They’re located in the largest metro areas around the U.S. (we currently have 58), house our top-moving 100,000 SKUs (but also cover millions of other SKUs that can be injected from nearby fulfillment centers into these same-day facilities), and streamline the time required to go from picking a customer’s order to being ready to ship to as little as 11 minutes. These facilities also constitute our lowest cost to serve in the network. The experience has been so positive for customers that we’re planning to double the number of these facilities.

But, how else might we use this capability if we think of it as a core building block? We have a very large and growing grocery business in organic grocery (with Whole Foods Market) and non-perishable goods (e.g. consumables, canned goods, health and beauty products, etc.). We’ve been working hard on building a mass, physical store offering (Amazon Fresh) that offers a great perishable experience; however, what if we used our same-day facilities to enable customers to easily add milk, eggs, or other perishable items to any Amazon order and get same day? It might change how people think of splitting up their weekly grocery shopping, and make perishable shopping as convenient as non-perishable shopping already is.

Or, take a service that some people have questioned, but that’s making substantial progress and we think of as a very valuable future primitive capability—our delivery drones (called Prime Air). Drones will eventually allow us to deliver packages to customers in less than an hour. It won’t start off being available for all sizes of packages and in all locations, but we believe it’ll be pervasive over time. Think about how the experience of ordering perishable items changes with sub-one-hour delivery?

The same is true for Amazon Pharmacy. Need throat lozenges, Advil, an antibiotic, or some other medication? Same-day facilities already deliver many of these items within hours, and that will only get shorter as we launch Prime Air more expansively. Highly flexible building blocks can be composed across businesses and in new combinations that change what’s possible for customers.

Being intentional about building primitives requires patience . Releasing the first couple primitive services can sometimes feel random to customers (or the public at large) before we’ve unveiled how these building blocks come together. I’ve mentioned AWS and S3 as an example, but our Health offering is another. In the last 10 years, we’ve tried several Health experiments across various teams—but they were not driven by our primitives approach. This changed in 2022 when we applied our primitives thinking to the enormous global healthcare problem and opportunity. We’ve now created several important building blocks to help transform the customer health experience: Acute Care (via Amazon Clinic), Primary Care (via One Medical), and a Pharmacy service to buy whatever medication a patient may need. Because of our growing success, Amazon customers are now asking us to help them with all kinds of wellness and nutrition opportunities—which can be partially unlocked with some of our existing grocery building blocks, including Whole Foods Market or Amazon Fresh.

As a builder, it’s hard to wait for these building blocks to be built versus just combining a bunch of components together to solve a specific problem. The latter can be faster, but almost always slows you down in the future. We’ve seen this temptation in our robotics efforts in our fulfillment network. There are dozens of processes we seek to automate to improve safety, productivity, and cost. Some of the biggest opportunities require invention in domains such as storage automation, manipulation, sortation, mobility of large cages across long distances, and automatic identification of items. Many teams would skip right to the complex solution, baking in “just enough” of these disciplines to make a concerted solution work, but which doesn’t solve much more, can’t easily be evolved as new requirements emerge, and that can’t be reused for other initiatives needing many of the same components. However, when you think in primitives, like our Robotics team does, you prioritize the building blocks, picking important initiatives that can benefit from each of these primitives, but which build the tool chest to compose more freely (and quickly) for future and complex needs. Our Robotics team has built primitives in each of the above domains that will be lynchpins in our next set of automation, which includes multi-floor storage, trailer loading and unloading, large pallet mobility, and more flexible sortation across our outbound processes (including in vehicles). The team is also building a set of foundation AI models to better identify products in complex environments, optimize the movement of our growing robotic fleet, and better manage the bottlenecks in our facilities.

Sometimes, people ask us “what’s your next pillar? You have Marketplace, Prime, and AWS, what’s next?” This, of course, is a thought-provoking question. However, a question people never ask, and might be even more interesting is what’s the next set of primitives you’re building that enables breakthrough customer experiences? If you asked me today, I’d lead with Generative AI (“GenAI”).

Much of the early public attention has focused on GenAI applications , with the remarkable 2022 launch of ChatGPT. But, to our “primitive” way of thinking, there are three distinct layers in the GenAI stack, each of which is gigantic, and each of which we’re deeply investing.

The bottom layer is for developers and companies wanting to build foundation models (“FMs”). The primary primitives are the compute required to train models and generate inferences (or predictions), and the software that makes it easier to build these models. Starting with compute, the key is the chip inside it. To date, virtually all the leading FMs have been trained on Nvidia chips, and we continue to offer the broadest collection of Nvidia instances of any provider. That said, supply has been scarce and cost remains an issue as customers scale their models and applications. Customers have asked us to push the envelope on price-performance for AI chips, just as we have with Graviton for generalized CPU chips. As a result, we’ve built custom AI training chips (named Trainium) and inference chips (named Inferentia). In 2023, we announced second versions of our Trainium and Inferentia chips, which are both meaningfully more price-performant than their first versions and other alternatives. This past fall, leading FM-maker, Anthropic, announced it would use Trainium and Inferentia to build, train, and deploy its future FMs. We already have several customers using our AI chips, including Anthropic, Airbnb, Hugging Face, Qualtrics, Ricoh, and Snap.

Customers building their own FM must tackle several challenges in getting a model into production. Getting data organized and fine-tuned, building scalable and efficient training infrastructure, and then deploying models at scale in a low latency, cost-efficient manner is hard. It’s why we’ve built Amazon SageMaker, a managed, end-to-end service that’s been a game changer for developers in preparing their data for AI, managing experiments, training models faster (e.g. Perplexity AI trains models 40% faster in SageMaker), lowering inference latency (e.g. Workday has reduced inference latency by 80% with SageMaker), and improving developer productivity (e.g. NatWest reduced its time-to-value for AI from 12-18 months to under seven months using SageMaker).

The middle layer is for customers seeking to leverage an existing FM, customize it with their own data, and leverage a leading cloud provider’s security and features to build a GenAI application—all as a managed service. Amazon Bedrock invented this layer and provides customers with the easiest way to build and scale GenAI applications with the broadest selection of first- and third-party FMs, as well as leading ease-of-use capabilities that allow GenAI builders to get higher quality model outputs more quickly. Bedrock is off to a very strong start with tens of thousands of active customers after just a few months. The team continues to iterate rapidly on Bedrock, recently delivering Guardrails (to safeguard what questions applications will answer), Knowledge Bases (to expand models’ knowledge base with Retrieval Augmented Generation—or RAG—and real-time queries), Agents (to complete multi-step tasks), and Fine-Tuning (to keep teaching and refining models), all of which improve customers’ application quality. We also just added new models from Anthropic (their newly-released Claude 3 is the best performing large language model in the world), Meta (with Llama 2), Mistral, Stability AI, Cohere, and our own Amazon Titan family of FMs. What customers have learned at this early stage of GenAI is that there’s meaningful iteration required to build a production GenAI application with the requisite enterprise quality at the cost and latency needed. Customers don’t want only one model. They want access to various models and model sizes for different types of applications. Customers want a service that makes this experimenting and iterating simple, and this is what Bedrock does, which is why customers are so excited about it. Customers using Bedrock already include ADP, Amdocs, Bridgewater Associates, Broadridge, Clariant, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Delta Air Lines, Druva, Genesys, Genomics England, GoDaddy, Intuit, KT, Lonely Planet, LexisNexis, Netsmart, Perplexity AI, Pfizer, PGA TOUR, Ricoh, Rocket Companies, and Siemens.

The top layer of this stack is the application layer. We’re building a substantial number of GenAI applications across every Amazon consumer business. These range from Rufus (our new, AI-powered shopping assistant), to an even more intelligent and capable Alexa, to advertising capabilities (making it simple with natural language prompts to generate, customize, and edit high-quality images, advertising copy, and videos), to customer and seller service productivity apps, to dozens of others. We’re also building several apps in AWS, including arguably the most compelling early GenAI use case—a coding companion. We recently launched Amazon Q, an expert on AWS that writes, debugs, tests, and implements code, while also doing transformations (like moving from an old version of Java to a new one), and querying customers’ various data repositories (e.g. Intranets, wikis, Salesforce, Amazon S3, ServiceNow, Slack, Atlassian, etc.) to answer questions, summarize data, carry on coherent conversation, and take action. Q is the most capable work assistant available today and evolving fast.

While we’re building a substantial number of GenAI applications ourselves, the vast majority will ultimately be built by other companies. However, what we’re building in AWS is not just a compelling app or foundation model. These AWS services, at all three layers of the stack, comprise a set of primitives that democratize this next seminal phase of AI, and will empower internal and external builders to transform virtually every customer experience that we know (and invent altogether new ones as well). We’re optimistic that much of this world-changing AI will be built on top of AWS.

(By the way, don’t underestimate the importance of security in GenAI. Customers’ AI models contain some of their most sensitive data. AWS and its partners offer the strongest security capabilities and track record in the world; and as a result, more and more customers want to run their GenAI on AWS.)

Recently, I was asked a provocative question—how does Amazon remain resilient? While simple in its wording, it’s profound because it gets to the heart of our success to date as well as for the future. The answer lies in our discipline around deeply held principles: 1/ hiring builders who are motivated to continually improve and expand what’s possible; 2/ solving real customer challenges, rather than what we think may be interesting technology; 3/ building in primitives so that we can innovate and experiment at the highest rate; 4/ not wasting time trying to fight gravity (spoiler alert: you always lose)—when we discover technology that enables better customer experiences, we embrace it; 5/ accepting and learning from failed experiments—actually becoming more energized to try again, with new knowledge to employ.

Today, we continue to operate in times of unprecedented change that come with unusual opportunities for growth across the areas in which we operate. For instance, while we have a nearly $500B consumer business, about 80% of the worldwide retail market segment still resides in physical stores. Similarly, with a cloud computing business at nearly a $100B revenue run rate, more than 85% of the global IT spend is still on-premises. These businesses will keep shifting online and into the cloud. In Media and Advertising, content will continue to migrate from linear formats to streaming. Globally, hundreds of millions of people who don’t have adequate broadband access will gain that connectivity in the next few years. Last but certainly not least, Generative AI may be the largest technology transformation since the cloud (which itself, is still in the early stages), and perhaps since the Internet. Unlike the mass modernization of on-premises infrastructure to the cloud, where there’s work required to migrate, this GenAI revolution will be built from the start on top of the cloud. The amount of societal and business benefit from the solutions that will be possible will astound us all.

There has never been a time in Amazon’s history where we’ve felt there is so much opportunity to make our customers’ lives better and easier. We’re incredibly excited about what’s possible, focused on inventing the future, and look forward to working together to make it so.

Andy Jassy President and Chief Executive Officer Amazon.com, Inc.

P.S. As we have always done, our original 1997 Shareholder Letter follows. What’s written there is as true today as it was in 1997.

To our shareholders:

Amazon.com passed many milestones in 1997: by year-end, we had served more than 1.5 million customers, yielding 838% revenue growth to $147.8 million, and extended our market leadership despite aggressive competitive entry.

But this is Day 1 for the Internet and, if we execute well, for Amazon.com. Today, online commerce saves customers money and precious time. Tomorrow, through personalization, online commerce will accelerate the very process of discovery. Amazon.com uses the Internet to create real value for its customers and, by doing so, hopes to create an enduring franchise, even in established and large markets.

We have a window of opportunity as larger players marshal the resources to pursue the online opportunity and as customers, new to purchasing online, are receptive to forming new relationships. The competitive landscape has continued to evolve at a fast pace. Many large players have moved online with credible offerings and have devoted substantial energy and resources to building awareness, traffic, and sales. Our goal is to move quickly to solidify and extend our current position while we begin to pursue the online commerce opportunities in other areas. We see substantial opportunity in the large markets we are targeting. This strategy is not without risk: it requires serious investment and crisp execution against established franchise leaders.

It’s All About the Long Term

We believe that a fundamental measure of our success will be the shareholder value we create over the long term . This value will be a direct result of our ability to extend and solidify our current market leadership position. The stronger our market leadership, the more powerful our economic model. Market leadership can translate directly to higher revenue, higher profitability, greater capital velocity, and correspondingly stronger returns on invested capital.

Our decisions have consistently reflected this focus. We first measure ourselves in terms of the metrics most indicative of our market leadership: customer and revenue growth, the degree to which our customers continue to purchase from us on a repeat basis, and the strength of our brand. We have invested and will continue to invest aggressively to expand and leverage our customer base, brand, and infrastructure as we move to establish an enduring franchise.

Because of our emphasis on the long term, we may make decisions and weigh tradeoffs differently than some companies. Accordingly, we want to share with you our fundamental management and decision-making approach so that you, our shareholders, may confirm that it is consistent with your investment philosophy:

• We will continue to focus relentlessly on our customers.
• We will continue to make investment decisions in light of long-term market leadership considerations rather than short-term profitability considerations or short-term Wall Street reactions.
• We will continue to measure our programs and the effectiveness of our investments analytically, to jettison those that do not provide acceptable returns, and to step up our investment in those that work best. We will continue to learn from both our successes and our failures.
• We will make bold rather than timid investment decisions where we see a sufficient probability of gaining market leadership advantages. Some of these investments will pay off, others will not, and we will have learned another valuable lesson in either case.
• When forced to choose between optimizing the appearance of our GAAP accounting and maximizing the present value of future cash flows, we’ll take the cash flows.
• We will share our strategic thought processes with you when we make bold choices (to the extent competitive pressures allow), so that you may evaluate for yourselves whether we are making rational long-term leadership investments.
• We will work hard to spend wisely and maintain our lean culture. We understand the importance of continually reinforcing a cost-conscious culture, particularly in a business incurring net losses.
• We will balance our focus on growth with emphasis on long-term profitability and capital management. At this stage, we choose to prioritize growth because we believe that scale is central to achieving the potential of our business model.
• We will continue to focus on hiring and retaining versatile and talented employees, and continue to weight their compensation to stock options rather than cash. We know our success will be largely affected by our ability to attract and retain a motivated employee base, each of whom must think like, and therefore must actually be, an owner.

We aren’t so bold as to claim that the above is the “right” investment philosophy, but it’s ours, and we would be remiss if we weren’t clear in the approach we have taken and will continue to take.

With this foundation, we would like to turn to a review of our business focus, our progress in 1997, and our outlook for the future.

Obsess Over Customers

From the beginning, our focus has been on offering our customers compelling value. We realized that the Web was, and still is, the World Wide Wait. Therefore, we set out to offer customers something they simply could not get any other way, and began serving them with books. We brought them much more selection than was possible in a physical store (our store would now occupy 6 football fields), and presented it in a useful, easy- to-search, and easy-to-browse format in a store open 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. We maintained a dogged focus on improving the shopping experience, and in 1997 substantially enhanced our store. We now offer customers gift certificates, 1-Click shopping℠, and vastly more reviews, content, browsing options, and recommendation features. We dramatically lowered prices, further increasing customer value. Word of mouth remains the most powerful customer acquisition tool we have, and we are grateful for the trust our customers have placed in us. Repeat purchases and word of mouth have combined to make Amazon.com the market leader in online bookselling.

By many measures, Amazon.com came a long way in 1997:

• Sales grew from $15.7 million in 1996 to $147.8 million – an 838% increase.
• Cumulative customer accounts grew from 180,000 to 1,510,000 – a 738% increase.
• The percentage of orders from repeat customers grew from over 46% in the fourth quarter of 1996 to over 58% in the same period in 1997.
• In terms of audience reach, per Media Metrix, our Web site went from a rank of 90th to within the top 20.
• We established long-term relationships with many important strategic partners, including America Online, Yahoo!, Excite, Netscape, GeoCities, AltaVista, @Home, and Prodigy.

Infrastructure

During 1997, we worked hard to expand our business infrastructure to support these greatly increased traffic, sales, and service levels:

• Amazon.com’s employee base grew from 158 to 614, and we significantly strengthened our management team.
• Distribution center capacity grew from 50,000 to 285,000 square feet, including a 70% expansion of our Seattle facilities and the launch of our second distribution center in Delaware in November.
• Inventories rose to over 200,000 titles at year-end, enabling us to improve availability for our customers.
• Our cash and investment balances at year-end were $125 million, thanks to our initial public offering in May 1997 and our $75 million loan, affording us substantial strategic flexibility.

Our Employees

The past year’s success is the product of a talented, smart, hard-working group, and I take great pride in being a part of this team. Setting the bar high in our approach to hiring has been, and will continue to be, the single most important element of Amazon.com’s success.

It’s not easy to work here (when I interview people I tell them, “You can work long, hard, or smart, but at Amazon.com you can’t choose two out of three”), but we are working to build something important, something that matters to our customers, something that we can all tell our grandchildren about. Such things aren’t meant to be easy. We are incredibly fortunate to have this group of dedicated employees whose sacrifices and passion build Amazon.com.

Goals for 1998

We are still in the early stages of learning how to bring new value to our customers through Internet commerce and merchandising. Our goal remains to continue to solidify and extend our brand and customer base. This requires sustained investment in systems and infrastructure to support outstanding customer convenience, selection, and service while we grow. We are planning to add music to our product offering, and over time we believe that other products may be prudent investments. We also believe there are significant opportunities to better serve our customers overseas, such as reducing delivery times and better tailoring the customer experience. To be certain, a big part of the challenge for us will lie not in finding new ways to expand our business, but in prioritizing our investments.

We now know vastly more about online commerce than when Amazon.com was founded, but we still have so much to learn. Though we are optimistic, we must remain vigilant and maintain a sense of urgency. The challenges and hurdles we will face to make our long-term vision for Amazon.com a reality are several: aggressive, capable, well-funded competition; considerable growth challenges and execution risk; the risks of product and geographic expansion; and the need for large continuing investments to meet an expanding market opportunity. However, as we’ve long said, online bookselling, and online commerce in general, should prove to be a very large market, and it’s likely that a number of companies will see significant benefit. We feel good about what we’ve done, and even more excited about what we want to do.

1997 was indeed an incredible year. We at Amazon.com are grateful to our customers for their business and trust, to each other for our hard work, and to our shareholders for their support and encouragement.

Jeffrey P. Bezos Founder and Chief Executive Officer Amazon.com, Inc.

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Working for the Royal Mail sounded like an ideal job. But I discovered it’s falling apart, just like its vans

My year there was marked by crumbling depots, staff constantly leaving and impossible targets. This once-great institution is on its knees

F or most of my life, I worked in the media. In early 2023 I returned from a job abroad, and it had been intense: six weeks in a remote mountain environment. I needed another job quickly, but could not face an office or the blank gaze of a laptop. The Royal Mail seemed to be on an aggressive recruitment drive: ads for drivers and postal workers flickered across my socials. I applied.

The Royal Mail is part of our national fabric – its workers are everywhere, delivering post six days a week and parcels seven. I always imagined it must be a relatively stress-free job, strolling through leafy suburban streets delivering birthday cards and gas bills, providing the country with a vital service, one that has been running for 500 years.

After a surprisingly rigorous round of telephone interviews, I was offered a job as a parcel delivery driver at a depot in West Sussex. The depot is one of the largest in the region, so I imagined a state-of-the-art operation. My first day on the job put things into perspective.

The depot looked like it had been abandoned after an earthquake. There was no technology, no machines, no computers, no chairs. I struggled to find a socket to charge my phone. Thousands of parcels sat inside metal cages called Yorks; the mail was shelved in row after row of individual sorting frames, representing areas, roads, estates and shopping districts. Smaller parcels were stacked on the top shelves. It looked chaotic.

I was sent out with an experienced driver, originally from Benin, who had been working for Royal Mail for three years. That day, we had to deliver 120 tracked parcels to rural towns and villages in the West Sussex area. I was given a personal digital assistant, which had the route loaded on to it, and which I had to follow until the van was empty. My new colleague told me that we would be driving his favourite van today. I laughed out loud when I saw it: it looked a bit like it had been dragged out of a lake.

It’s not until you get up close and personal with those little red vans that you realise how decrepit they are. Apparently held together with duct tape and grime, the bodywork mirrors the organisation itself. The interior cabins are worse. Two-seat biohazards, a miasma of stale smoke and Red Bull, haunted by the ghosts of a thousand dead sausage rolls.

Not all the vans were bad. They had a small fleet of electric Peugeots that were great. Unfortunately, they were being relocated to south London; the Ulez expansion means that they need electric vehicles. In return, our depot would get their old bangers – nobody was happy about that.

My training consisted of three hours watching comically bad orientation and induction videos on the upper floor of the depot. I was told not to venture up to the third floor as it had suffered years of flood damage from a persistently leaky roof. When I went up and took a peek, I saw ceiling tiles hanging off. In a corner there was a dartboard; the darts sticking out of it looked like they’d been thrown in anger.

Weeks went by, and conversations with the older guys, some of whom had been there since the 1980s, became more animated. Privatisation has stripped the service to the bone, they told me. It’s a “service in name only”, a “stone-cold business” – and its stakeholders are unlikely to lose much sleep if your great-aunt Edna doesn’t get her Christmas card this year.

And she may well not, at least not on time. Letters can sit in the frames for days. Despite official denials, it was clear to me that parcels from retailers like Asos, PrettyLittleThing and Amazon are prioritised, because that’s where the money is. Nobody says this, though: the delivery office managers (DOMs) are not big on communication. In fact, when I questioned the DOMs about almost anything, be it clapped-out vans or impossible delivery targets, the stock answer was always: “It is what it is.” A union rep told me that the plan seemed to be to emulate the Evri business model . The look of exasperation on his face revealed everything I needed to know about that.

There seemed to be open hostility between the managers and the posties. Out of the 10 guys who joined when I did, eight left. The work was hard, much harder than I imagined. The shifts are nine hours; you get a one-hour mandatory unpaid lunch break, which you might have to spend parked in a layby somewhere in the middle of nowhere with the rain hammering down on your windshield. One guy started smoking weed during his shift: a customer smelled it and he was quickly fired. Another guy was found slumped over the steering wheel of his van, a sack of undelivered mail on the passenger seat and an empty litre bottle of vodka in his lap.

Staff retention was terrible, the turnover high. Gaps were plugged with a stream of agency drivers, who were paid considerably more than the staff drivers. Most were not from the area and struggled with the routes. It added to the overall sense of despair that permeated the depot.

Most of the older posties, the ones who had been pounding the pavements for a decade or more, seemed to be carrying injuries, limps, bad backs. Everyone in the depot looked knackered. Many were just holding on for retirement. Many could no longer drive vans. Accidents were not uncommon, and if it was your fault, then they’d take the keys off you, usually for good.

I found the Christmas period to be brutal. Customers are generally friendly and hugely supportive, but tensions simmer when mail arrives weeks late. Whole streets will be left out. When the depot managers finally found someone to service a neglected area, they’d be shoving up to 25 letters through each letterbox. I was stopped one day by a sixtysomething guy mowing his front lawn – he had not had any post for 10 days. He shoved both hands into his front pockets, rocked on his heels and puffed: “Unfucking-believable is what it is!”

I quit in March. The manager just nodded when I told him; there was no conversation about it. It’s just expected. I had worked every weekend since I joined. My left foot ached constantly from the pressure required to work the ruinous clutch in the vans. I thought about never having to hear the ubiquitous chime of another “smart” doorbell or listening to a customer insist “he’s totally harmless” as their dog furiously shredded an Amazon box. I left feeling empty and disillusioned at the catastrophic failure to pilot this amazing institution into the future with an iota of dignity.

A postie who has been at the depot for 30 years told me what it has been like watching the service decay in front of his eyes. The depot was once the most efficient in the country. It won awards. There was tremendous pride among those who worked there; they knew their community and were a trusted part of it. Thousands of individuals make up the Royal Mail, and you will never see the backbreaking effort that goes into making a broken machine work, week in, week out. But you will miss it when it’s gone.

Gareth Roberts is a writer and former Royal Mail employee

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