SMART SKILLS
Bag a role in retail

TRAINING TALK

Pearl Academy of Fashion, New Delhi (www.pearlacademy.com) K.J. Somaiya Institute of Management Studies And Research, Mumbai (www.pantaloon.com, http://simsr.somaiya.edu) Birla Institute of Management Technology, New Delhi-(www.bimtechindia.org) International Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi- (www.iiftindia.net) New Delhi Institute of Management Studies, New Delhi Welingkar's Institute of Management Development & Research, Mumbai (www.welingkars.com) IIT Mumbai (The list is not exhaustive)

With supermarkets and shopping malls coming up at an increasing pace, retail management is possibly one of the fastest growing careers. The Indian retail segment is one of the largest in the world; a joint report by McKinsey and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has pegged the Indian retail market at $180 billion. And though it has a long way to go as far as organised retailing is concerned, it is growing at a steady rate of 11-12 per cent and accounts for around 10 per cent of the country's GDP. In fact, AT Kearney places India 6th in the global retail development index, and CII predicts that 1,000-1,500 stores will be coming up in each of the metros in the next year. Certainly, a career with great potential!

Shop talk

Retail management involves understanding and interacting directly with the customer in a store so as to be able to provide him/her the product closest to what he/she wants.

A retail manager, therefore, plans and co-ordinates the operations of retail outlets, be it small franchisees like specialty shops, fast food chains, or sections of supermarkets or department stores. This would involve determining the layout of merchandise so that it is presented as attractively as possible, monitoring the stock levels, placing orders and managing the supply chains and keeping and analysing records of sales figures and financial transactions. A retail manager is also expected to maintain a high level of customer service by observing customer preferences and ensuring that complaints are quickly resolved.

Often retail managers have to use innovative retail formats to enhance the shopping experience. Crosswords, a leading retailer of books, encourages customers to browse, has strategically placed couches and seats, serves coffee in the store, and has author readings.

Retail managers work long hours in different areas of a store, obtaining practical experience of each department and gaining selling, marketing and managerial skills. At the senior level, retail management involves stock management, and overall supply chain management, looking at ways to cut costs, increase sales, maintain quality, trading analysis and planning

Route into retail

If you have the right aptitude and a personality to match, your academic background really doesn't matter. Graduates from any discipline are taken in at the entry level, while MBAs join in at the supervisory level. It does, however, require good communication, organisational and leadership skills. You also need good numerical skills and have the ability to work accurately and neatly.

Money matters

Opportunities are aplenty in this field. Departmental stores, designer boutiques, fast food chains, super markets, company stores, music stores, electronics showrooms, automobile dealers all employ retail managers. Starting salaries are in the range of Rs 72,000-1 lakh pa. In a couple of years, you will be earning around Rs 2-2.5 lakh pa. MBAs from premier business schools can start at Rs 6 lakh pa, while other MBAs are paid in the range of Rs 3-4 lakh pa.

Often these figures are inclusive of the basic salary and other performance based incentives.

The industry is set for a boost with the entry of big industrial corporations into the retailing sector. Rising incomes and improvement in infrastructure are enlarging consumer markets. The companies, which are in the field for about 5 years, are also going for massive expansion drives. Domino's pizza chain is planning to set up 100 new stores in the next two years. Shopper's Stop is expanding in cities like Calcutta, Delhi, and others. RPG group's Music World and Food World is also expanding fast.

And while the shopping malls have so far made themselves conspicuous in the metros, smaller cities like Pune, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Jaipur and Chandigarh with growing discretionary incomes are also expected to follow suit.. In fact according to CII, the retail business has the potential to employ over 2 million in new (direct) jobs within the next 6 years. So it's boom time for the retailers and so too for the Retail Managers.

The writer is a noted career expert.