25 of the Highest Paying Merchant Jobs in 2026

The best Merchant jobs can pay up to $126,500 per year.

High Paying Merchant Jobs

• Director of Loss Prevention

  Salary range: $98,500 - $126,500

  A director of loss prevention develops and oversees security operations, primarily focusing on retail loss prevention. Responsibilities consist of developing the goals and strategies for protection of a retail location, including their merchandise and other property assets. In addition to analyzing the financial performance of the location, they may also develop a theft response policy and monitor employees to prevent internal theft. Qualifications to become a director of loss prevention vary but often include a bachelor’s degree in a business or related field as well as experience in loss prevention, typically as a manager.

• Retail District Manager

  Salary range: $82,500 - $113,500

  As a retail district manager, your duties are to oversee the operations, store management, and training at a group of retail stores under your supervision. Your responsibilities are to perform regular store visits to ensure that managers are carrying out the company’s directives and meeting sales goals by reviewing P&L statements. When a location is having trouble, you work with the managers and sales associates to develop new goals and tactics to improve store performance. You also work closely with corporate human resources to hire new managers and train them to understand the company’s policies and goals related to sales, brand management, and knowledge of products stocked in the store.

• Sporting Goods Sales Manager

  Salary range: $75,000 - $85,000

  The majority of Sporting Goods Sales Manager salaries across the United States currently range between $75,000 (25th percentile) and $85,000 (75th percentile) annually. Most people working in this role make similar salaries regardless of skill level, location and years of experience. Based on recent job posting activity on ZipRecruiter, the Sporting Goods Sales Manager job market in the United States is not very active as few companies are currently hiring for this role. You can try exploring related titles to find jobs with more active opportunities.

• Jewelry Appraiser

  Salary range: $74,000 - $82,000

  The majority of Jewelry Appraiser salaries across the United States currently range between $74,000 (25th percentile) and $82,000 (75th percentile) annually. Most people working in this role make similar salaries regardless of skill level, location and years of experience. Based on recent job postings on ZipRecruiter, the Jewelry Appraiser job market in the United States is moderately active, with several companies hiring.

• Loss Prevention Manager

  Salary range: $52,000 - $71,000

  As a loss prevention manager, your duties are to protect company assets (such as merchandise in a retail store) from theft and investigate shoplifting, worker fraud, or other forms of loss. Your responsibilities include helping to implement the loss prevention program at your location, hiring and training loan prevention workers like security guards, and teaching employees how to recognize issues that affect retail loss and shortage control. You coordinate your efforts with supervisors and other store managers.

• Loss Prevention Investigator

  Salary range: $38,500 - $66,000

  A loss prevention investigator is a security specialist that works to prevent shoplifting and employee theft within a business. Your main goal is to prevent “shrinkage,” the industry term for a preventable business loss caused by human actions. You monitor surveillance cameras, review security footage, and walk the store in plainclothes to prevent shoplifting. You might also work with the security manager to develop a more effective security plan for the establishment. The career does not require a specific education, but many employers prefer a background in security and criminal justice.

• Furniture Designer

  Salary range: $49,000 - $64,500

  A furniture designer is a practical artist who creates pieces of furniture for functional or aesthetic uses in both interior and exterior spaces. As a furniture designer, you use a variety of methods to design and manufacture your work. Some designers create using traditional tools and materials, while others use powerful computer technology, such as AutoCAD, to visualize their designs before producing them. You may be self-employed as a craft designer, or work for a commercial furniture company. Your duties change based on your employment situation, but typically they include meeting with clients to discuss designs and communicating along the way to ensure they are satisfied. It’s essential to have an extensive portfolio which showcases your skills and experience as a furniture designer.

• Jeweler

  Salary range: $38,500 - $57,000

  As a jeweler, your job is to create jewelry, fulfill requests for custom products, repair damaged items, and authenticate the style, quality, and material of accessories brought into your shop. At times, you may be asked to clean gems and metal, appraise values, and design new accessories. Jewelers spend a lot of time sitting on a bench, using various tools and chemicals. An eye for detail and excellent vision is crucial to this career. Aside from creating jewelry, you also spend some time in this career doing administrative tasks like signing paperwork and verifying inventory.

• Retail Store Manager

  Salary range: $36,000 - $55,500

  A retail store manager is responsible for organizing employees, payroll, and schedules at a retail store. It is their job to hire new employees, provide training, manage current employees, and maintain the proper appearance of the store. If the retail store is part of a large chain, the retail store manager will present corporate changes and sales quota expectations to the staff. A retail store manager will also be responsible for monitoring security, handling money matters, and making sure the store is orderly and welcoming.

• Exercise Equipment Repair Technician

  Salary range: $40,000 - $52,500

  An exercise equipment repair technician performs routine maintenance on fitness equipment at the gym or in people’s homes. You diagnose issues related to exercise equipment, perform services, and assemble machines back into working order. Your responsibilities include providing exceptional customer service and preparing the necessary paperwork for billing. You document any repairs you perform and communicate all repairs with management. Other duties include assisting gym personnel and filling in on other gym duties as needed. Repair technicians typically work in large institutions like gyms, hospitals, colleges, and apartment complexes.

• Floral Manager

  Salary range: $34,000 - $51,500

  As a floral manager, you plan, organize, and lead a retail floral department, to create quality seasonal and evergreen arrangements using design and display strategies to drive sales. You work closely with store management to communicate standards of excellence to employees. Your responsibilities also include reinforcing safety and proper flower handling practices, particularly for rare or delicate strains. It is your job to design floral arrangements for a variety of occasions, price them accurately, and make sure all merchandise is stored properly and rotates based on store policy. Other duties include maintaining records of invoices, receiving, and waste control, and achieving department merchandising goals in cooperation with your manager, merchandisers, and buyers.

• Loss Prevention Specialist

  Salary range: $39,000 - $50,000

  Loss prevention specialists work to avoid products from being stolen from a company. Many loss prevention specialists work at the entrance of a store, greeting customers as they enter and comparing their receipts with the merchandise they have in their bags or carts to make sure all items have been purchased. Other loss prevention specialists may walk through the aisles of the store in plainclothes, watching for suspicious behavior. It is important for loss prevention specialists to use discretion and good judgment when determining incidents of loss or theft.

• Furniture Upholsterer

  Salary range: $37,000 - $48,000

  A furniture upholsterer adds padding, fabric, trim, and accessories to furnishings. As an upholstery professional, you can work for a furniture manufacturer or a business that makes customized furniture. Your duties may include reupholstering and renovating existing furniture. You spend your time on each upholstering project adding batting, padding, or other fillings to furniture. You cover the furniture with fabric or other material and add stitching where needed. You also add accents, such as buttons or pillows. Your responsibilities can also include adding a finish to the exposed wood parts of the furniture. A new furniture upholsterer undergoes training to learn the skills for this job.

• Furniture Repair Technician

  Salary range: $35,500 - $46,500

  A furniture repair technician provides furniture assembly and repair services in a retail environment or at a client’s home. As part of your responsibilities, you repair, restore, and inspect merchandise in the store and for customers, assess products for damage, provide finishing services for furniture, locate replacement parts for furniture as necessary, and maintain records of all sales and repairs. Other duties include determining the appropriate recourse for damaged furniture, maintaining stock records and inventory for furniture and related supplies, maintaining the safety standards set forth by your employer, and providing cleaning services for different furniture materials, such as leather, fabric, and hardwood.

• Watch Repair Technician

  Salary range: $39,500 - $45,500

  A watch repair technician is well versed in the mechanical and operational elements of watches. In this career, you replace parts, correct timing issues, fix the clock face, clean the watch, and overall repair the instrument to its original status. You may work for a jewelry store or a watchmaker, or you may work alone fixing watches for a living out of a private workshop. As a watch repair technician, your duties revolve around diagnosing problems with a broken watch and using your skills to fix these problems quickly and efficiently to restore the operation of the watch.

• Retail Consultant

  Salary range: $28,000 - $43,500

  A retail consultant helps store management devise strategies for increasing sales and revenues. As a retail consultant, your job duties include developing promotions and marketing campaigns, updating the company logo, making merchandising decisions, revamping store design and product placement, and influencing staffing priorities. You can find retail consultant jobs at consulting agencies that contract out the service to clients who are just beginning a retail venture or who are making changes to revive a struggling business. You need a background in the retail industry to succeed as a retail consultant.

• Cell Phone Repair Technician

  Salary range: $31,000 - $40,000

  The duties of a Cell Phone Repair Technician are to troubleshoot issues with mobile phones, diagnose the cause of a particular problem, then replace parts or perform software updates to repair the device and restore it to full functionality. The repairs they handle can include a variety of aesthetic and internal issues, from a cracked screen to a software bug. A Cell Phone Repair Technician must conduct functionality tests to identify the problem and determine the best solution. Problem-solving and customer service skills are essential in this position.

• Floral Clerk

  Salary range: $31,000 - $38,000

  A floral clerk works in a floral department at a market or grocery store or an independent florist’s shop. As a floral clerk, your job duties include taking orders, cutting and arranging flowers for orders and displays, providing information about flower care, maintaining store inventory, and performing general cleaning tasks. While there are no educational qualifications for this career in the floral industry, employers prefer floral clerks to be knowledgeable about various plants and to have excellent customer service skills as well as some experience, such as in making creative arrangements or merchandising a plant product.

• Retail Stocker

  Salary range: $30,000 - $38,000

  A retail stocker's primary responsibilities are to review incoming merchandise, unpack products, and organize items on shelves or in storage. In this position, you ensure the correct product is present in deliveries you receive, mark boxes and items with codes and price tags, maintain inventory, set displays, restock items on the sales floor, and keep accurate records of sales. Your duties may require heavy lifting to move merchandise. You also assist with filling customer orders received via phone, internet, or mail and prepare products for shipping. A retail stocker may work in a store, stockroom, warehouse, or other storage facility.

• Video Game Repair Technician

  Salary range: $35,500 - $38,000

  A video game repair technician works to fix equipment such as console hardware or the internal network components. As a technician, you may work for an electronics store in the repair department or as an independent contractor, offering your services locally in a storefront or going to homes and businesses. Your responsibilities include communicating clearly with customers to troubleshoot problems and explain repairs, identifying and repairing technical issues, and keeping written or digital records of customer data and repairs made to devices. Other duties may involve participating in professional learning opportunities to understand new consoles and technology.

• Furniture Assembler

  Salary range: $32,000 - $36,000

  A furniture assembler puts together various components, materials, and fabrics to build complete furnishings, from couches and beds to dining tables and chairs, curtains, and more. As a furniture assembler, you may work for a furniture store, filling orders, delivering items to customers, and assembling pieces of furniture in their homes. Alternatively, you may work in furniture manufacturing, where your job duties include retrieving parts from manufacturing equipment, reading instruction sheets and blueprints on how to assemble the parts, and using power tools to put parts and materials together correctly. You also install hardware and finishing touches before packing furniture for transportation to the warehouse or customers.

• Retail Cashier

  Salary range: $28,000 - $36,000

  A retail cashier provides point-of-sale service at a retail store. In this customer service career, your job duties involve operating a cash register or other payment terminal. Your responsibilities include ensuring the correctness of each transaction and providing a receipt to the customer who made the purchase. You may need to provide information or answer questions about sales and other offers. A retail cashier can work at any retail outlet. Larger employers, like department stores, grocery stores, and big box stores, often have many cashiers on staff.

• Florist

  Salary range: $30,000 - $35,500

  As a florist, or floral designer, your primary job responsibilities are to create flower arrangements. Arrangements include bouquets, gift baskets, wreaths, centerpieces, and corsages. You may make arrangements for different events, such as gift baskets, holidays, funerals, weddings, and more. Other job duties include raising and caring for the flowers and other greenery used in your floral designs. Many florists help manage or run a business, so customer service skills are a must. Additional job qualifications include organizational, management, and plant identification skills.

• Retail Sales Associate

  Salary range: $30,000 - $34,500

  A retail sales associate is an entry-level salesperson who works in a retail store selling products to customers. As a retail sales associate, your responsibilities and duties include maintaining stock in an orderly fashion and completing sales transactions. You use your product knowledge to help potential customers make informed purchase decisions. You represent your company and provide exceptional customer care at all times. You play a vital part in reaching your company’s sales goals and upholding the excellent reputation of your company.

• Retail Merchandiser

  Salary range: $27,500 - $34,000

  A Retail Merchandiser selects sales items to be stocked, displayed, and sold to maximize sales performance. Retail Merchandisers are responsible for visiting retail locations, documenting retail stock through photos and written notes, preparing reports about store visits, inspecting store displays, and advising management of resources and services that can boost customer satisfaction. You play a key role in optimizing the shopping experience for customers by making sure that best-selling items are in stock and suggesting opportunities for improvement to management.