Moving from store manager to area manager brings a wider remit, but it also means less time with customers and more travel, while your results depend on store managers you lead from a distance. Instead of running a single store, your focus becomes elevating the performance of an entire network.

Jacqueline Bonati, Fashion & Luxury Talent Advisor, Career Coach and Lecturer, outlines the experience, leadership, and digital expertise required for the transition, along with less obvious changes to working life—from fewer direct interactions with VIP clients to more collaboration with corporate teams. Above all, she explains how to reskill or upskill for a high-demand role, where the right abilities can open doors to new opportunities.

Store Manager to Area Manager: What Changes?

Becoming an area manager is more than a promotion: it is a fundamental shift in leadership style. The focus moves from hands-on daily management to leading through others, mastering delegation, and driving performance across different markets.

Jacqueline Bonati emphasises the importance of building solid foundations before making this transition: “To make this transition as smooth and successful as possible, it is essential to have developed and implemented a strong mix of both technical and soft skills. This requires a solid background in store management, long enough to fully grasp both operational challenges and business strategy, while recognising how crucial effective people management is to delivering outstanding customer service. In particular, experience managing different stores and teams across various cities, or ideally*, countries, is key. This background helps build the necessary sensitivity toward culturally diverse markets and teams, enabling the execution of strategies that align with corporate guidelines while meeting the specific needs of each local market.”

Experience across different locations is a real game-changer. Every market has its own customers, dynamics, and business opportunities. Recognising these differences is essential for balancing global brand consistency with local relevance.

The biggest challenge? Letting go of direct control. “Undoubtedly, one of the main shifts required is moving from overseeing all activities within a single store to a delegated control across multiple locations. It is crucial to understand that direct responsibility for a single retail unit no longer applies; instead, only a strong, trust-based relationship with store managers can ensure corporate strategies are implemented consistently and continuously. Control is no longer the sole keyword; rather, the ability to delegate and, even more importantly, to influence others’ actions becomes paramount.” 

In other words, great area managers don’t micromanage. They build trust, empower store managers, and make sure teams deliver results even when they’re not physically present.

What Does an Area Manager Do in Fashion Retail?

The transition also comes with lifestyle and professional changes that are easy to underestimate. With less time on the shop floor, area managers interact less with customers, including VIP and VIC clients, and spend more time with corporate teams, senior management and other business functions. Frequent travel, unpredictable schedules, and weekend commitments also factor in.

As Bonati explains: “This professional growth involves several changes that newly appointed area managers often underestimate. For instance, having little to no direct contact with customers, especially VIP and VIC clients, can sometimes be a source of dissatisfaction. Moving from the retail floor to corporate HQ and working more closely with executive management requires a new set of teamwork and relationship-building skills. Anticipate a substantial shift in work rhythms, which can significantly impact personal life: frequent travel, highly variable schedules, and ongoing weekend work. The role demands a high degree of flexibility and availability. At times, it may even seem less independent than a store manager position, yet it offers a broader strategic scope and greater responsibility over broader markets.”

What Skills Does an Area Manager Need to Lead Multiple Stores?

Leadership and people management consequently take on a new dimension. Coaching, recruitment, training, and performance evaluation become strategic levers for building stronger teams and achieving corporate KPIs.

“Leadership and people management are soft skills that are already relevant in a store manager’s role, but they become crucial for this career transition, taking on different nuances,” Bonati stresses. “Leadership gradually shifts from direct oversight to strategic delegation, while people management increasingly evolves into a coaching-driven approach. Additionally, the area manager serves as a key reference point for core HRM functions. Processes such as recruitment, training, and performance evaluation become critical to ensuring that results match the KPIs set by HQ. In this context, strategic thinking is indispensable for maintaining a big-picture overview. It enables leaders to anticipate future challenges and implement short-term strategies that guarantee sustainable results over the long term.” 

The message is clear: tomorrow’s retail leaders must know how to develop people, not just manage performance.

What Experience Helps You Become an Area Manager?

Ready for the next step? Diversifying professional experience is essential. Participating in new store openings, managing pop-ups, engaging in cross-store projects, and leading training initiatives help professionals develop a broader business perspective. 

Bonati suggests taking an active approach to career development: “As previously mentioned, to successfully step into an area manager role, it is essential to have gained experience across multiple retail locations and different geographical areas. Therefore, diversifying one’s professional background through concrete initiatives becomes a strategic move: participating in new store openings, managing temporary stores, supporting the training of new colleagues, and attending professional development courses to acquire new management tools. If the current company does not offer room for growth, considering a store manager role within a different organisation represents a viable option to broaden one’s skill set.”

“Equally crucial is developing language skills and proficiency with new digital tools, both of which are fundamental for enriching the technical profile,” Bonati points out. “Ultimately, the key to career progression lies in constantly monitoring market trends and maintaining a proactive, innovation-oriented approach.”

How Is Omnichannel Changing the Area Manager’s Role? 

The future of fashion retail lies in connecting physical and digital experiences. Click and collect, digital clienteling, CRM, endless aisle, and ship-from-store are transforming how customers interact with brands. 

“The retail world is known to be undergoing rapid and significant transformation, and many roles within this sector will inevitably evolve as a result,” adds Bonati. “Customer experience management will remain fundamental to a store’s success, with an increasing need to deliver experiences that connect with the target audience and local market, while remaining fully aligned with the brand’s global strategies. Increasingly, the area manager will serve as a champion for changes and new opportunities within their managed territory.”

“Moreover, omnichannel strategies will become a core focus for the area manager, who will no longer simply supervise in-store sales, but will act as an enabler for the integration between physical and online channels,” the luxury recruiter notes. “In this role, the area manager will drive change management on the ground, motivating store managers and sales assistants to embrace this seamless integration between the physical and digital space. In companies where omnichannel strategy is a core strength, this professional role will become increasingly strategic in driving both operational efficiency and financial results across both channels. 

The challenge, then, is not simply to adopt new technologies, but to get people to embrace them and make every touchpoint feel seamless.

What Skills Will You Learn in a Fashion Retail Management Course?

Developing these new capabilities requires continuous learning. Istituto Marangoni’s new professional course, Retail Management, Buying and Visual Merchandising – Shaping the Future of Fashion Retail, is a 16-week, 150-hour programme covering the fundamentals of fashion and luxury retail, distribution analysis, omnichannel strategy, buying techniques and visual merchandising. Participants learn to create impactful product displays and anticipate emerging retail trends, gaining a broader understanding of the forces shaping the industry.

The future of fashion retail belongs to professionals who can connect business strategy, product, people, and customer experience. The next generation of retail leaders won’t just manage stores; they’ll define how fashion brands engage and connect with the world.

Angelo Ruggeri
Journalist and Tutor for Styling, Business and Design Courses and Master’s Programmes, Milan