Always selling

A people-oriented industry, retailing came to India in the mid- ‘80s. A retail professional is primarily involved in selling products and services to consumers.

The lowdown
A people-oriented industry, retailing came to India in the mid- ‘80s. A retail professional is primarily involved in selling products and services to consumers. There is a huge demand in the retail sector for trained professionals for processing merchandise shipments, look after the store administration, and to communicate with clients. Aspirants should be sound in handling operations as well as the store properly, at both the front and back end, including footfall management and management of stock and inventory

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Clock Work
Work at retail stores is done in shifts. For morning shift:
9am: Reach the store
9.30am: Take instructions from seniors about targets for the day
10am: Get ready to welcome customers
1.30pm: Lunch
2pm to 5pm: Interact with customers keeping in mind the targets to be achieved
5.30pm: Report to senior and assess targets achieved
6pm: Leave for home

The payoff
The starting salary of a retail salesperson is R6,000 a month. After two years of experience as an assistant manager, plus an MBA degree, the salary can be around R22,000 a month. Head of operations gets around R4 lakh a month. Apart from salary, you get bonus and incentives on attaining targets

Skills/TRAITS
. Communication skills must be excellent
. Dignified conduct
. Patience while dealing with clients and physical fitness
. Ability to convince customers of the usefulness of a particular product
. Updated knowledge of changes in the retail market

Getting There
After Class 12, one should ideally do graduation and then go for a general MBA or an MBA in retail management. One can also do a BBA course and then top it with an MBA. There are also numerous PG diploma and certificate courses offered by various institutes