Retail & Publicity Assistant (Bookshop) at Patabah Books Limited

Main Functions

• The Retail & Publicity Assistant will support the retail and communication activities within the store.
• The Retail & Publicity Assistant will work with the other Retail Assistants in attending to clientele, helping them find merchandise and making sure that they have a pleasant shopping experience.
• The Retail & Publicity Assistant is also responsible for managing and updating the company's online communication channels, including but not limited to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Mailchimp and the website.
• The Retail & Publicity Assistant will assist clientele and potential authors by responding to their email and social media enquiries.
• They will also update the company website with latest stock and manage the fulfilment of orders placed via the website.

Duties
Attending to Customers:

• The Retail & Publicity Assistant will support the Retail Assistants to help customers find merchandise they are looking for and also to help customers find items that will suit their needs even if they are not looking for anything in particular.
• Retail Assistants should note customer requests and their contact information and pass the information along to the Retail Assistants so that if or when the item requested is available, the retail team can contact the customer to inform them.

Shelving and Display:

• The Retail & Publicity Assistant should support the Retail Assistants in regularly arranging books back in their proper place after the customers have left a particular area and make the shelves tidy for the other customers. When items are purchased, the gaps where the items used to be may exist on the shelves. Assistants must check the shelves throughout the day and cover up such spaces.
• The Retail & Publicity Assistant will also assist the Retail Assistants in creating attractive displays created weekly including a ‘Bestsellers’ or themed display each week and refreshing the window display twice a week.
• The Retail & Publicity Assistant will support the Retail Assistants in maintaining a clean and tidy store, including cleaning the merchandise as directed by the Retail Assistants.

Communication Support:

• Follow-up on online shopping processes:
• Follow-up on order fulfillment via the website, email and phone
• Liaise with Retail Assistants and Manager on orders placed via social media channels as necessary
• Follow-up on customer, publisher, author and supplier inquiries by email, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook and other relevant social media accounts
• Coordinate logistics of the monthly book reading events
• Assist in representing the bookshop at book fairs and other outreach events with members of the retail team
• Post to the official social media accounts daily and respond to inquiries and comments
• Develop and send email newsletter to go out twice a month
• Encourage staff to take “behind the scenes” photos and post online (if they can)
• Encourage visitors to the store to take photos and post pictures of their purchases online.

Cleaning and Maintenance:

• It is the responsibility of each retail assistant to treat the merchandise, the equipment, furniture and other materials that are on the shop-floor with care and for keeping the store and merchandise clean and tidy.
• The store is to be swept every evening after closing.
• Merchandise are to be cleaned at least 5 days a week.
• Other duties as required.

Qualifications / Experience
The ideal candidate must be:

• Possess at least a HND or Bachelor's Degree
• 2 - 6 years relevant work experience.
• Be a dynamic, self-starter capable of taking entrepreneurial initiative. Retail experience is a plus but is not mandatory
• Be well-spoken and able to communicate effectively with others in the English language, in both written and oral forms
• Be highly organized and punctual
• Read books regularly (fiction or nonfiction)
• Extremely comfortable using computers, including familiarity with productivity applications (such as the Microsoft Office Suite) and popular social media platforms (especially Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Wordpress and Mailchimp)
• Have a neat appearance and friendly disposition
• Be interested in marketing and selling
• Be coachable, curious and interested in learning new skills
• Be able to take initiative and able to work harmoniously within a team.

Working Conditions:

• Work weeks are 6 days weekly (8.30am – 6pm) from Monday to Saturday
• May be required to work longer hours as projects or promotional events demand
• The job is based in Surulere, Lagos, Nigeria and ideally the candidate should live in or very close to Surulere.