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How to become a Retail & Merchandising Manager

Runs retail stores and chains - buying, merchandising, stock and staff.

What does a Retail & Merchandising Manager actually do?

More about this career

Covers the operational side of retail - managing a store or department, buying and merchandising stock, planning promotions, and managing frontline staff - for clothing, grocery, pharmacy and other retail chains. It’s a more specialised, hands-on route into retail than a general Business degree, and South Africa’s big retail chains are among the country’s largest private employers, with real promotion paths from store-level management into regional and head-office buying roles.

Where this degree can take you

  • Store Manager
  • Buyer / Merchandiser
  • Visual Merchandiser
  • Retail Operations Manager

This is our general description of the role and related jobs, not from an official source – it’s here to give you a fuller picture, not as a careers-counselling guarantee.

Not from an official source

Subjects that usually help

  • Mathematics or Mathematical Literacy
  • Business Studies, Accounting or Economics (helpful)

This is our general guidance about which school subjects suit this career. It is not an admission requirement and not from an official source – the real requirements are on the degrees below.

Not from an official source

Where to check this yourself

What the degrees we’ve captured actually ask for

  • Mathematics – asked for by 1 of 1 degrees
  • Mathematical Literacy – asked for by 1 of 1 degrees

Counted from the requirements below (an “or” alternative counts for each subject named). Each degree links to the page it came from.

Degrees that lead here

1 degree at 1 university. More are added as we verify them.

Sol Plaatje University

Partly verifiedFrom an older document

Diploma in Retail Business Management

Economic & Management Sciences · 3 years

SPU APS 25

  • English: level 4 if it is your Home Language, level 5 if it is your First Additional Language
  • Mathematics: level 3 (40% or more) OR Mathematical Literacy: level 5 (60% or more)
  • One more subject – One of Accounting, Business Studies or Economics at level 4.

Read directly (pdftotext) from SPU’s own 2026 Undergraduate Prospectus. Source PDF labelled "2026", not yet confirmed for 2027.

Source: View the official page (spu.ac.za) (opens the official page)

Are your marks enough?

Put your subjects in once and we’ll check them against every degree above – scored each university’s own way.

What do I qualify for?