Retail Ind. needs a passionate workforce: Nimish Shah

In the age of technological disruption, the Retail industry is in need of a passionate yet skilled workforce, effective brand communication and the work models that offer promising career for the new breed of students aspiring to make their career in Retail. Talking on the same Nimish Shah, COO, Lifestyle Retail (Landmark Group) spoke to Indianretailer.com at a round table conference discussion on ‘Retailing in an Age of disruption’ concluded at one of the institutes of Management Development and Research in Mumbai.

In the current age of technological disruption, how are the front-end CSRs representing the brand image?

We have to accept employees with ear rings, goti beards, different hair styles etc. We have to accept them from their stand point and not ours. Today, we are open to employees greeting the consumers in casual ways like saying ‘Hi’ and ‘How are you?’ so on and so forth. People (employees) in the industry have to themselves understand fashion and they should be passionate about word ‘fashion’. If they are not passionate then they themselves won’t understand fashion, and ultimately wouldn’t be able to guide and educate the customers.

For us, when we are launching a collection, it is equally important to explain to each one of our employees the reason behind the tie-up; or the reason behind doing a campaign with Farhan Akhtar (or Anushka or Deepika) and what does it signify with the brand, because fashion has to be with frontline personnel or staff as the are the ones selling it for you.

What kind of skill set you are looking for retail enthusiasts to have?

Students who are passionate about retail and want to make their carrier in it can sustain. There are certain things about retail, like retail professionals cannot have weekend holidays, enjoy festivals and spend time with families on weekends. And over the years things haven’t changed. If a person wants to make a career in retail then he has to be passionate.

Earlier, retail used to be high-paid job in India so it was seen as aspiring, but once you get into the profession you realise that it’s sheer hard work and sheer passion. Because out of 12 hours of working a day 8 hours you are standing, which causes body and back pain. What happens then is that people don’t like it for a longer period of time and then they start comparing their job with their peers working in FMCG, banking or other sectors. Finally, it’s like you are doing things which are not normal and for which you are not paid adequately.

What is a model that you are currently working upon to make Lifestyle Retail the most aspiring place to work with?

The model which we work upon is not high paying, but what makes one stand apart is within one year a pupil can get into a leadership role, where he will have at least 8 to 10 people reporting to him. He will be managing a store which will be doing Rs 8 crore to Rs 10 crore of sales a year. We have people moved in to senior leadership positions who have worked as front-end CSRs earlier.

In our model, a model business manager would head the store with around 8 to 10 years of experience, a team of 150 people reporting to him and a store turnover of around Rs 60 to Rs 70 crore. The key thing in this industry is that you get across customer interaction, similar to the hotel industry, so it gives you a lot of experience.

What are the core benefits of working in retail for the current generation of aspiring students?

In retail, you understand the depth of the industry, products and consumer behavior. Students need to know what’s happening in the industry, which brand is doing well and which brand is not and that’s entire thing develops them fully if they are interested in learning.

What are your brand communication strategies?

We use to have plastic cards but we have discontinued them. Though we have a loyalty program, but there is no plastic card. Everything is now linked with the person’s (shopper’s) mobile number. Second change is that we are not making members with the buying amount or ticket size. So, if the customer wants to become a member, he has to pay for it. Our objective for it is looking at what various segments are buying, what are their likes and dislikes. We are trying to get some feedback in terms of improvement in product ranges and product qualities. In fact, we use that data to talk to them about latest fashions and trends. 

We also have bloggers meet where we invite bloggers to the store. A lot of customers come in to interact with bloggers. And with this we come to know which category would work and which would not. Hence, a lot of meaningful interaction is happening today, which is more to do with the learning process of the industry.