Ideal Retail Course

By Prof. Dr. Uday Salunkhe

Retail being a very dynamic field cannot be studied only in the classroom.  The ideal retail course should be a combination of classroom teaching and hands on experience at the store level.  We have tried to achieve this with the retail program that we run in association with pantaloon, whereby students actually spend time on the shop floor and the internship forms and essential part of the curriculum.

Promise that the retail sector holds

The promise that the sector holds for India can be gauged from the fact that India has topped the AT Kearney's annual Global Retail Development Index (GRDI) for the third consecutive year, maintaining its position as the most attractive market for retail investment. The Indian retail market, which is the fifth largest retail destination globally, according to industry estimates is estimated to grow from the US$ 330 billion in 2007 to US$ 427 billion by 2010 and $637 billion by 2015. Simultaneously, modern retail which presently accounts for 4 per cent of the total market is likely to increase its share to 22 per cent by 2010.

India has one of the largest number of retail outlets in the world. Of the 12 million retail outlets present in the country, nearly 5 million sell food and related products. Even with this large number of outlets, organised retail accounts for only 4 per cent of the total market, opening huge growth potential in this segment. Driven by changing lifestyles, strong income growth and favourable demographic patterns, Indian retail is expanding at a rapid pace. Mall space, from a meagre one million square feet in 2002, is expected to touch 40 million square feet by end-2007 and an estimated 60 million square feet by end-2008, says Jones Lang LaSalle's third annual Retailer Sentiment Survey-Asia.

Alongside, Indian cities are witnessing a paradigm shift from traditional forms of retailing into a modern organized sector. A report by Images Retail estimates the number of operational malls to more than double to over 412 with 205 million square feet by 2010 and further 715 malls by 2015, on the back of major retail developments even in tier II and tier III cities in India.
Given this scenario, there is a dearth of trained manpower at all levels in the sector. In the next three years, India would need 2.2 million people in the retail sector, of which organised sector would account for nearly 10 per cent of it.  This is the potential that the sector holds

Job opportunities

Job opportunities exist at all levels and in all functions, given that the sector is booming and there is a dearth of trained manpower

Emerging trends in the retail sector – While the growth of the retail sector will enable a development of infrastructure as it is a key requirement of efficiency for this sector, manpower training and retention will also hold the key. India will see perhaps India specific formats which will begin to emerge and ofcourse a situation of more choice and power to the customer.



The author is director, Welingkar Institute of Management; president, AIMS, (Association of Indian Management Schools).

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