Career Wise - Careers by Choice - A career in the Retail Industry - India

What is the career path in Retail Management Industry?

All these years experience was given a greater importance than formal degrees in the field of Retail Management. With multinationals growing in number by the day the number of people required to work in a formal environment is increasing. A clear and visible career path too has become a reality.

There are three factors which decide a career path in the Retail Industry for those who join in a junior position and wish to traverse the growth path:

1.   Experience

2.   Qualification

3.   Soft skills, attitude, aptitude and approach

People with cross functional expertise do enjoy a quick growth prospect in the industry. It is an industry hungry for people to work at various levels, youngsters who have just completed  school final and have basic skills, to the well qualified supply chain and retail management professionals all are welcome with open hands.

 
Being a sunrise industry growing and highly dynamic the remuneration earned is highly variable based on various parameters such as

1.   Geographical location

2.   Organizational policy

3.   Candidate’s profile

4.   Skills required to perform the job

5.   Nature of work

6.   Experience

7.   Job profile etc…..

Salaries could be as low as Rs.4, 000 to 5,000 to Rs.12, 000 to 15,000 for beginners in a junior level. Being a sales oriented profile the packages generally include performance linked bonuses etc. Qualified youngsters with a graduation degree joining at a executive level could expect anything between Rs.20, 000 to 30,000 or even more in exceptional cases. As the retail industry competes with the other industries for the best talent, the compensation depends on the type of institute and the profile offered and is up there among the best pay packages offered to marketing profiles among B school graduates.

The growth opportunities are tremendous, pace of growth is fast, job in offer are vast, I believe and have witnessed many a times that people working in large retail organizations have enjoyed promotions every year…. Provided they have an aptitude and attitude to perform well in their jobs. The career graph is totally dependent on one’s abilities and qualification….now a days the definition of experience is slowly transforming from number of years to 3cs….comprehension (understanding of job profile), customer relationship management and calibre. One could start his career as a management trainee, and very soon could climb up the ladder to reach the managerial position.

People with retail management degrees can also find jobs in advertising agencies, airlines, insurance companies, banks etc as all these organizations are laying emphasis on customer service, relationship management and all those attributes and aspects as needed in retail organizations.

Job Profiles in Retail Industry
Below are given different profiles on offer in a retail management career:

•    Sales:  

This is usually the entry level post in retail business. Even a management graduate entering the retail business has to go through a compulsory stint in sales to understand the pulse of the industry and then later he/she can choose to remain in sales or move into other verticals depending on the company.  To be a good sales person first and foremost one must be good with people – both in terms of understanding the customers and also managing his/her co-workers. Along with this, a good understanding of the retail outlet and products it offers is essential….of course this is something that can be picked up on the job.

The nomenclature of the posts will vary from company to company but Sales associate, Sales Manager, Department Manager etc are some of the posts one could progress to under this vertical.

•    Store Manager:

Also called General Manager or Store Director, are the people who are responsible for managing the store's day to day operations. He/she is in charge of the employees and is responsible for the P&L of the store to the regional heads. He himself may report to a District or Area manager or the store's owner

•    Retail Manager: 

Plans and coordinates the operations of the outlet along/under the store management. His/her work can include layout of merchandise, monitoring the retail orders and stock, analyzing the supply etc. Candidates with MBA can start off as retail manager. Graduates from NID and NIFT etc are also preferred for this job.

•    Retail Buyers and Merchandisers: 

These profiles are involved in buying /sourcing for the shop. Though this part is largely moving into IT enabled areas, there is still a need for the human element. The profile involved understanding and anticipating the needs of the customer, should be aware of the trends in the market and make suitable purchasing recommendations.

•    Visual Merchandisers: 

These people give the brand a face, so they hold one of the very important positions in the industry. Being a part of concept and design one could also be a technical designer, product developer and store planner.

•    Supply Chain Distributors:

 
They are involved at the head of supply chain management of the products for the stores. Optimization at this level help the shops compete with other shops on price and are very important in India.

•    Logistics and Warehouse Managers 

There is a great need to have the right product, at the right time, at the right place and in the right quantity. This is a particular logistics demand of the retail industry.

The requirement for freshness, hygiene, sell-by date, temperature control etc become the chief concerns of a Logistics and warehouse manager. A perfect distribution management system asks for continuous flow of materials, maximum availability while increasing quality standards and reducing logistics costs are important.

A warehouse manager is responsible of planning, organizing and controlling of a warehouse’s over-all operations; he organizes activities & assigns jobs accordingly to the staff. He also has to manage stock control, the receipt, storage, retrieval and ensure the timely delivery of goods. In most cases, the manager also has to supervise shipment loading & transferring and keep records of documents by entering data into the system.

•    Marketing Executives

There are lots of retail jobs in the present market, and a person can start with an exciting career in this field with basic knowledge of retail marketing. Retail marketing executives are responsible for initiating sales promotion schemes, marketing communications, and PR activities. Retail marketing professionals strategize based on marketing requirements and implement their plans according to consumer demands.

Building good customer relationships and developing advertising and media plans for enhancing brand identity are all part of the job for a retail marketing professional. A retail marketing professional must also manage resources and negotiate with clients and media for better deals. Retail marketing professionals also work in conjunction with sales teams and marketing teams to design annual marketing programs, investment plans, and advertising strategies. 
Other roles include customer care executives, merchandise officers, public relations executive and so on.

·         Customer Relationship Executives & Customer Relationship Managers

It costs five times more to acquire a new customer than to retain one. The Retail Industry understands that effective loyalty management systems cement business relationships and help to retain existing customers. To enable the same the retailers, employ customer relationship executives and managers in order to:

• Develop or enhance the value proposition offered to customers
• Acquiring new customers
• Transforming the customer experience
• Enhancing customer loyalty and retention to increase profits
• Using Data mining tools to best understand patterns in customer behavior along multiple dimensions
• Focused customer delivery & support based on customer's Segment
• Budgeting and Forecasting revenues/volume of sales for segmented customers
• Designing strategic solutions for enhancing effectiveness of promotions & loyalty programs

The retail industry is using technology tools which provide a built-in flexibility to integrate best-of-breed functionality and technology to effectively address a retailer's CRM needs in part or full, as appropriate.

Thus we can summarize that Indian Retail Industry is no more a store and sell network but has much much more to offer… which means it has more number of jobs, more complex, better pay structure, better prospects and better career graph.