A look at retailers’ new jobs

Confronting changing shopper habits and increased competition from online sellers, retailers are creating new jobs at their stores and redefining employee duties. Here’s a look at some new positions and shifting roles at major retailers.

Walmart

Personal shoppers: These workers fill online grocery orders from store shelves, in some cases finding one product every 30 seconds, and take the items to shoppers’ cars at the curb.

Checkout hosts: Not just greeters, they’re responsible for overseeing the self-checkout and scan-and-go areas and helping customers navigate them.

Target

Visual merchandisers: They create the kinds of fashion or home design vignettes that shoppers may be more used to seeing in specialty stores than discount chains.

Dedicated sales associates: These employees work only in a particular area, such as clothing, electronics, beauty and grocery, rather than shifting from department to department.

Best Buy

In-home advisors: They visit shoppers’ homes, for free, and recommend products suitable for their spaces to help them create a home office or set up a home theater.

Bloomingdale’s

Personal stylists: Some stylists now pull options for shoppers ahead of time based on their answers to an online questionnaire about price, favorite brands, style and sizes, and make refinements based on text conversations. That’s similar to styling services offered by some online firms.