The retail industry offers a diverse range of careers
OPPORTUNITIES The boost in ecommerce activities has led to the diversification of job roles in the retail sector
With globalization taking over the world economy, India is fast growing to be one of the largest retailing markets in the world. As the retail sector amounts to about 22% of the country’s total GDP, sector is growing at a phenomenal pace.
Widely considered as the most challenging yet exciting industries, retailing is offers many job opportunities for a wide variety of roles available. It is not only the fastest growing industry but also allows one to pick any passion from the three broad areas in which the jobs exist: buying and merchandising, category management and brand management, retail operations and store operations.
TYPES OF JOBS
While buying and merchandising is primarily considered to be the heart of retailing and are responsible for the core function of a retailer like bulk buying and redistribution, category management mainly deals with retailing and purchasing concept. Some of the other areas with potential career options include areas like supply chain and logistics, information technology for all functions like back-end, point of sale: frontend and analytics.
Retail marketing as an option includes in-store marketing and point of purchase, while the other key elements comprise retail design, visual merchandising, and store lay out, store promotions and customer service.
The industry also sees a huge demand for floor personnel and retail managers, owing to the expansion of the retail industry. With multiple brands from Europe and United States making their way to the Indian market, the retail systems provide wide exposure and opportunity to work and interact with people from across backgrounds.
SKILL-SET REQUIRED
While formal education is not a pre-requisite for a career in retail industry, like it is in other areas like marketing, management, etc., it is always a bonus to equip oneself with skills that will help in the retail business. Many senior resources in the industry were initially hired as retail staff and support, who, with hard work, enthusiasm and unwavering customer-centric experience, went on to become veterans in the space.
Many colleges and institutes also provide full-fledged courses as well as diploma courses on retail management. For young individuals interested in availing opportunities and pursuing a career in retail industry, some of the skills and interests that one must have before joining the industry include:
• People’s person – enjoy working with people
• Customer satisfaction - enjoy constant customer interaction
• An enthusiastic, flexible and positive attitude
• Ability to step in another person’s shoes • Empathy and understanding
towards a distressed customer A good understanding of geography, anthropology, sociology and psychology also helps in managing many interesting functions within these broad roles mentioned above. Each of these functions are very specific and requires quite a lot of understanding of overall business function as well as micro functions.
Retailers also need people who know finance to manage their financial issues as well as legal problems especially in the case of franchising.
With the advent of internet, retailing has become omni-channel and a lot of new age retaining functions have moved to E-Com- merce which requires a lot of new skill sets like Coding, machine learning, predictive analytics, social and digital media understanding.
BENEFITS OF WORKING IN THE RETAIL SECTOR
The retail sector also offers better work-life balance through flexibility of the work hours and shit patterns. In addition to providing an interesting career option and lifestyle, a career in retail also potentially allows discounts on products.
The retail systems in general are very colourful and exciting. Individuals pursuing a job in this industry get wide exposure and an opportunity to interact with different kinds of people.
With AI taking many rudimentary jobs, retailers are evolving and creating a lot of tech enabled platforms, yet many core functions stay like operations and supply chain, buying and merchandising branding, consumer insights as well as customer service.
CONCLUSION
The retail industry is a booming one, with demand and opportunities at various levels, right from school pass-outs to skilled retail and supply management professionals. One can take up a career, basis their interests, skill-set and education and pursue the career with the right focus and attitude to lead a successful life.