Scott Matthews
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Brick-and-mortar retail has been left in the dust! The new kids on the block – omnichannel and online – are hogging the limelight at retail conferences, webinars and strategy sessions. And now we see that they are also getting a larger slice of the cake, the dough … The moola.
Yup, the omnichannel and online retailers are making more bank!
This is according to Total Retail’s 2018 Salary Benchmark Report.
Total Retail, the go-to source for the latest news and analysis on the retail industry, conducted the research together with NAPCO Research.
The report’s finding was a summation of 424 responses from an online survey, which was conducted over a period of two weeks. A number of variables were examined to provide a comprehensive look into the retail industry. The variables included compensation, including gender, age, title.
Omni-channel retailers rule the base salary roost
When questioned on their base salaries, the survey reveals that retailers in omnichannel make more than double their counterparts in brick-and-mortar retail.
In fact, brick-and-mortar retailers are so far behind the pay-curve, they are earning almost $40,000 less than manufacturers who receive the second lowest base salaries.
Omni-channel retailers, on the other hand, earn over $12,000 more than wholesalers/distributors who command the second highest base salaries.
The online retailer earns almost $14,000 less than those in the omnichannel. However online retailers are streaks ahead of those in brick-and-mortar, earning close to $40,000 more.
Online retailer makes gains
Whilst the omnichannel retailers earn the biggest base salaries, once we take into consideration stock options, bonus payments and such, online retailers make serious gains. In fact, online retailers edge out those in omnichannel in total earnings.
However, the true money-making leaders are those in manufacturing. They more than double their base salary earnings, which demonstrates that their earnings are not closely tied to their base salary.
A trend is emerging; total earnings for those in brick-and-mortar retail are close to three times less than those in manufacturing. They also earn less than half of what the omnichannel and online retailers do.
Enterprise brands in retail pay the most
Total Retail’s 2018 Salary Benchmark Report again shows the tremendous difference between base salary and total earnings. Enterprise companies pay their executives close to $20,000 more than the second highest base salary.
However, when the total earnings are considered, the margin is considerably less. There is only a $2,000 difference between enterprise brands and the second place.
The second highest earning executives are from the $5 million – $25 million category, which went from a base salary of $83,454 to total earnings of $203,244. Perhaps this is due to companies in this range having fewer employees, meaning lower employee overheads and therefore the executives reap the benefits.
What else?
Other findings included that vice-presidents earned the biggest bucks, followed by the C-level executive (other than CEO), with the CEO/president/founder coming in third.
Sadly, a disparity in compensation between male and female respondents is revealed. The average total compensation for women respondents is more than $11,000 less than what it is for the male respondents.
Merchandising, supply chain and general management come in as the top three earners with customer service scraping the barrel at less than a quarter of the top earners.
Location wise, the best total annual packages are found in the East North Central, West North Central, West South Central and Mid-Atlantic. However, the lowest paid respondents come from Mountain and East South Central.
Read the full Total Retail’s 2018 Salary Benchmark Report here.
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