Retail: is the disappearance of assistant managers weakening stores?

In retail, a trend appears to be emerging: the reduction, or even the elimination, of certain assistant manager positions within stores.

For the Maisons, the aim is often to simplify organisations and control payroll costs. Managerial responsibilities are then concentrated on the store manager, but behind this economic logic lies an operational reality that is sometimes underestimated.

The assistant is not simply an additional rung on the hierarchical ladder. He or she is an essential link between the manager, the teams and the customers.

Present on a daily basis, the assistant supports sales advisors, steps in during delicate situations, passes on the Maison's standards and helps ensure continuity in the customer experience.

Its disappearance can therefore have consequences well beyond the organisational chart.

A store manager who cannot absorb everything

The store manager already holds a particularly demanding role.

Commercial management, team management, recruitment, training, reporting, scheduling, monitoring of indicators and communication with headquarters: the responsibilities are numerous.

When the assistant position disappears, part of those duties naturally gets added to the manager's workload.

The risk? An overload of work that gradually reduces their presence on the shop floor.

Yet a manager absorbed by administrative tasks has less time to observe customer interactions, support colleagues or step in during complex situations.

In seeking to streamline their organisations, Maisons sometimes risk pulling their managers away from their primary mission: helping teams progress and ensuring quality of service.

Customer experience also depends on close, local management

In the worlds of luxury and beauty, the quality of the customer experience relies on constant attention to detail.

A dissatisfied customer, a junior sales advisor in difficulty or an unusual commercial situation sometimes requires immediate intervention.

The assistant manager plays precisely this role of operational support.

Without an identified point of contact, staff can be left more to fend for themselves, particularly when the manager is tied up with other tasks.

This situation can lead to less consistent practices and weaken the quality of service.

The question is therefore not only how many managers a store should have, but who, in practice, ensures that teams are supported and operational excellence maintained on a daily basis.

The disappearance of a genuine career stepping stone

Beyond its operational role, the assistant manager position also represents an important stage in career paths.

For a sales advisor wishing to move into management, this role allows new skills to be developed gradually: team leadership, priority management, commercial oversight and decision making.

Removing this step sometimes amounts to asking staff to move directly from a sales role to full responsibility for a store.

A transition that can prove difficult, even for the best profiles.

An excellent sales advisor does not automatically become an excellent manager. He or she must be given the chance to learn how to become one.

Without an intermediate stage, Maisons risk limiting internal career prospects and weakening their ability to develop their future managers.

Rethinking management without necessarily recreating the position

Not all stores have the same needs or the same resources. The presence of an assistant is therefore not a one-size-fits-all answer.

However, the duties the assistant carries out must continue to exist.

Some organisations can rely on floor-reference roles, lead sales advisor positions, or a Senior Sales Advisor, with clearly defined responsibilities.

The aim is to maintain an operational point of contact capable of supporting teams, contributing to service quality and backing up the manager.

This shift must go hand in hand with genuine preparation of high-potential staff: coaching, gradually increasing assignments, supervised responsibilities and management training.

Management rituals also remain essential: daily briefings, regular feedback, individual coaching and monitoring of customer experience quality.

This is not simply about redistributing tasks, but about preserving an organisation in which everyone has the means needed to succeed.

Preserving the relay points to build performance

Streamlining organisations is an economic reality for many companies, but in retail, savings made on a position should not be assessed independently of their consequences on the ground.

Quality of service, team engagement, skills development and talent retention are all dimensions likely to be affected by the disappearance of a managerial relay.

Maisons will therefore need to strike a balance between cost control and maintaining close, local support.

The real issue is not necessarily keeping the title of assistant manager, but preserving the function it performs on a daily basis, because a high-performing store does not rest solely on a competent manager. It also rests on a team that is supported, empowered and able to progress.