A retail warehouse manager runs the one building that restocks every store and ships the website's orders. They get vendor freight checked in and ready to sell, send store trucks out on schedule, keep web orders moving to the carrier on time, and staff up for the holiday rush.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
We're looking for a Warehouse Manager to run the building that supplies our stores and ships our online orders. You'll receive vendor shipments, get product tagged and out to stores, run online fulfillment and keep inventory accurate. You'll lead the warehouse and fulfillment team and staff up for the holiday season.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Receive vendor shipments against purchase orders, and report shortages, overages and damages to the buyers.
Prepare merchandise for stores: ticketing, security tagging, hanging and packing, following the Inventory Planner's allocation.
Ship store replenishment and transfers on a set schedule.
Run online order fulfillment to meet shipping cutoffs and accuracy standards.
Run cycle counts and the annual physical inventory for the warehouse.
Process returns to vendors and damaged goods by each vendor's rules.
Hire, train and schedule warehouse staff, including holiday temps, and keep the building safe.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Check the receiving schedule, store shipments and online order queue.
Assign staff to receiving, store shipping and fulfillment.
Walk the floor for safety, organization and backlogs.
Work with carriers on pickups, late freight and claims.
Report receipts and problems to the buyers, the planner and the E-commerce Manager.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Dock to stock time: [your target].
Warehouse inventory accuracy: [your target].
Store shipments sent on schedule: [your target].
Online orders shipped by cutoff: [your target].
Safety incidents: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
[3+] years of warehouse or distribution supervision, ideally for a retailer.
Experience with receiving, pick and pack, and inventory counts in a warehouse or inventory system.
Has hired and led hourly teams, including seasonal staff.
Knows OSHA rules for forklifts, ladders and safe storage.
6. Preferred Experience
OSHA 10 or OSHA 30 General Industry card.
Experience with e-commerce fulfillment and parcel carriers.
Has trained and evaluated forklift operators.
Experience with parcel shipping software.
7. Physical Requirements
Walk the warehouse for much of the day, and lift cartons up to [50] pounds.
Operate a forklift after the training and evaluation OSHA requires, and move pallets with a pallet jack.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Warehouse setting with seasonal temperatures and open dock doors.
Day shift [your hours], with extra hours and weekends from [October through December].
On call for alarms, deliveries and building issues.
9. Compensation and Benefits
Pay: [range and hourly or salary basis].
Additional pay: [overtime, bonus or incentive terms, or none].
Benefits: [health, dental, vision, retirement, paid time off, and when they start].
10. Company Culture and Overview
[Two or three sentences on what your company does, the area you serve, and the support a new warehouse manager gets in the first 90 days.]
11. How to Apply
[Apply link or email]. Our process: [phone interview, in-person interview, and next steps]. Contact [hiring contact] if you need an accommodation during the application process.
Need help filling this role? HireBus posts the ad, Iris interviews every applicant by phone before you do, and you decide who to hire. Start hiring now
Many warehouse managers either ship cartons to stores or ship parcels to homes. This one does both from the same racks, for one company, with the whole year building toward a few weeks in November and December.
Store trucks and web parcels share the racks
Store restock leaves by the carton on a set truck day. Web orders leave as single items when the carrier comes. Both draw on the same stock and the same crew. The manager splits people and pick areas between them each day, and writes down which one wins when both run late, so leads don't have to guess at four o'clock.
Vendor goods arrive, but not ready to sell
Most cartons need ticketing, security tags or hangers before a store can use them. That work sits between the dock and the shelf, and in fall it can back up for days. The manager tracks which vendors ship goods that need the most work and gives that list to the buyers, who can ask for floor-ready goods in the next order.
The manager signs off every forklift driver
Peak can bring new drivers. OSHA's forklift rule says that, apart from supervised practice, none may drive until they've finished your training and a driving evaluation, both run by a person qualified to teach and judge drivers. Record each driver's name, the two dates and who ran them. Every driver gets a fresh evaluation at least once in any three-year span. Retrain anyone seen driving unsafely, in a crash or close call, failing an evaluation, moving to another truck type, or after a building change that could affect safe driving. Source: OSHA 29 CFR 1910.178: Powered industrial trucks.
Holiday temps are your workers on the floor
Many retail warehouses add staffing agency help for peak. OSHA treats the agency and the host employer as jointly responsible for a temp's safety. The agency may give general safety training, while OSHA expects the warehouse to cover the machines and hazards in its own building and to treat temps like any other worker. Plan that training into the first shift, not the first slow day. Source: OSHA: Protecting temporary workers.
Overflow freight can't block the exits
When holiday freight lands faster than it ships, cartons end up in aisles and by doors. OSHA's exit route rule says no materials or equipment may sit in an exit route, even for a short while. Line up overflow space before the fall receipts peak: a spare trailer, a cleared zone, or vendor ship dates spread across more weeks. Source: 29 CFR 1910.37: Exit routes, maintenance and safeguards (Cornell LII).
How much retail warehouse managers make
The closest BLS group for retail warehouse managers is transportation, storage, and distribution managers. Transportation, storage, and distribution managers who work for retailers earned a median of $83,040 a year ($39.92 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s below the $107,230 median for transportation, storage, and distribution managers in all industries. About 11,370 of the 221,180 transportation, storage, and distribution managers in that survey work for retail stores.
Most chains pay a salary and tie any bonus to what the stores and the website feel: trucks on time, orders out by cutoff and counts that hold up. If safety is part of the bonus, reward prompt reporting and fixes, not a low injury count.
Retail stores
$83,040$83,040 median Middle half $63,590–$128,180 10th–90th $54,660–$164,030
All industries
$107,230$107,230 median Middle half $82,440–$146,770 10th–90th $65,120–$194,900
$25k$50k$75k$100k$125k$150k$175k$200k$225k
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
Retail stores
$54,660
$63,590
$83,040
$128,180
$164,030
All industries
$65,120
$82,440
$107,230
$146,770
$194,900
These figures cover all retail. Pay differs by store type, so check what local stores like yours pay. Post a real range for your market in the ad.
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Has run receiving, store shipping and parcel fulfillment, or at least two of the three
Plans each week's labor from the receiving schedule, store truck days and the order forecast
Hires and leads hourly crews, and can bring a seasonal crew up to speed in days
Digs into count misses, such as mis-scans, short shipments or theft, before anyone writes them off
Stays firm and polite with carriers and vendors over late, short or damaged freight
Teach these on the job
Your inventory system's receiving, transfer and count screens
Each store's truck day, delivery window and receiving rules
Your ticketing, tagging and floor-ready standards by product type
Each vendor's rules for returns and damaged goods
Your carrier accounts, pickup times and claim steps
Expect the inventory system or a warehouse management system, handheld scanners, a parcel shipping app tied to the website, label and ticket printers, pallet jacks and forklifts. Many retailers this size receive and ship inside their inventory or e-commerce platform instead of a full warehouse system, so ask candidates to describe the setups they've actually run.
Retail warehouse manager interview questions
They have their own page: 6 questions that test this job, what strong and weak answers sound like, and a work exercise to run with your finalists.
Base each blank on a normal month, then set separate goals for the October to December peak.
Dock to stock time
Hours or days from signing for a vendor delivery to its units showing as received and ready to ship. Time-stamp both ends and review the slowest vendors and product types each week.
Warehouse inventory accuracy
Of the locations cycle counted, how many matched the system's on-hand to the unit. Count high-theft and fast-selling items more often, and compare the yearly physical inventory with the books.
Store shipments sent on schedule
Store orders loaded and gone on their planned truck day, out of all store orders due. Ask store managers to flag late or short trucks, and note the reason for every miss.
Online orders shipped by cutoff
Web orders placed before the daily cutoff that got a carrier scan the same day, out of all those orders. Use the carrier's first scan, not the time the label printed.
Safety incidents
Count recordable injuries and near misses by month, with the cause and fix for each. Go over them at the next crew huddle, while the details are fresh.
Career path
Warehouse associateTickets and tags vendor goods, builds store orders and learns the scanner.
Warehouse lead or supervisorRuns receiving or shipping for a shift and trains new hires.
Warehouse ManagerRuns the building, the crew and the holiday staffing plan.
What does a retail warehouse manager have to report to OSHA?
If a worker dies from a work-related incident, OSHA must hear within 8 hours. Within 24 hours, report any work injury that leads to an in-patient admission, an amputation or loss of an eye. OSHA says this applies to every employer under its jurisdiction, even those that don't have to keep injury logs. States with their own safety plans may have their own rules.
How much does a retail warehouse manager make?
Transportation, storage, and distribution managers who work for retailers earned a median of $83,040 a year ($39.92 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $63,590 and $128,180 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and bonus terms.
Whose injury log does a holiday temp go on?
If you keep OSHA injury records and you supervise a staffing agency worker day to day, their work injuries go on your log. Settle with the agency before peak who reports what. Agencies can send teens too, so check ages before anyone gets on a forklift: the federal hazardous-jobs rules for minors bar anyone under 18 from driving or riding on one.
What if holiday orders will ship later than promised?
Call it early. Under the FTC's mail order rule, a seller that can't ship by the promised date has to tell the customer and offer the choice to wait or cancel, and that notice must go out before the promised time runs out. The E-commerce Manager and customer service send those notices, but only the warehouse knows the backlog. Report it daily during peak, by order date.
Does a warehouse manager need an OSHA 10 or OSHA 30 card?
Federal OSHA doesn't require one. Its own outreach program page calls the 10- and 30-hour courses voluntary and not a certification, and the cards don't replace the training that rules like the forklift standard demand. Still, a state, a city or an employer may require them. The template lists one as preferred, which is a fair signal that a candidate has studied general industry safety.
Should we use an outside warehouse instead of running our own?
Some chains send web orders to a third-party warehouse and keep store restock in house, or rent help only for peak. You give up some control over ticketing, store truck days and returns. If that's on the table, hire a manager who has worked with one, because managing an outside warehouse's contract and service levels is its own skill.
