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Business News/ Industry / Human-resource/  Retailers on hiring spree to drive e-commerce biz
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Retailers on hiring spree to drive e-commerce biz

Companies plan to hire senior executives to grow their fledgling online businesses and to lead new brands

Rapid growth in online retail, led by firms such as Flipkart and Amazon, has made matters worse for organized retailers. Photo: iStockphotoPremium
Rapid growth in online retail, led by firms such as Flipkart and Amazon, has made matters worse for organized retailers. Photo: iStockphoto

Mumbai: Retailers such as Future Group, Arvind Ltd, Wal-Mart India Pvt. Ltd and Godrej’s Nature’s Basket are hiring senior executives to grow their fledgling online businesses and open new stores.

After a lull of two years, hiring is increasing in the sector with around 100 senior executives expected to be placed, especially in niche positions during the year, hiring firms say.

Search firms EMA Partners International, Executive Access (India) Pvt. Ltd, Transearch India Pvt. Ltd and ABC Consultants have each got five to 15 mandates in the past quarter.

The retail sector, which employs about 35 million people, took a hit when the economy slumped to a 10-year low in 2012-13. Retailers shut unprofitable stores, even as rising inflation slowed discretionary spending. In addition, the rapid growth in online retail, led by companies such as Flipkart and Amazon, made matters worse for organized retailers.

Organized retailing, mainly brick-and-mortar businesses, makes up just 8% of the $478 billion retail market in India, according to a May report by Technopak Advisors, a consulting firm. The fast-growing e-commerce market is already worth $3.1 billion, or 10% of organized retailing, according to a 2013 CLSA report.

This has led most retailers to adopt the online model, and they are roping in the best talent to drive it.

“Demand for senior-level hiring has picked up in the last quarter, where we have received about 8-10 mandates from lifestyle, apparel and e-commerce companies," said Avisekh Agarwal, associate director, Executive Access (India) Pvt. Ltd. He added that the growing online business is making retailers look at talent, differently.

Kishore Biyani-led Future Group and food retailer Godrej Nature’s Basket are among those scouting for senior executives in niche positions.

“New roles are being created to make our online business more robust," said Mohit Khattar, managing director, Godrej Nature’s Basket, which has 32 stores. The company is scouting for positions including the head of online operations and head of loyalty programmes for its online business it launched a year ago.

The 35,000-strong Future Group has gone one step above selling online. It adopted an omni-channel model in 2013, where its inventory is sold directly through a group of franchisees, who, armed with a tablet, secure orders at the doorstep, followed by product delivery over the next few days.

To enable this, the company is looking to hire specialists in technology, customer service, supply chain and sales and delivery functions. This is part of its bigger “people design change" (a change in job roles and responsibility) being executed to keep up with changing environment in retail, said Kaustubh Sonalkar, chief people officer of Future Group, that has retail chains like Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar and Ezone. For this kind of specialized talent, hiring firms are turning towards expats.

“Retail firms are at a stage where they can’t afford to experiment or make mistakes. We need talent from mature markets who understand the complexities of the business, even though they come at 30-40% higher salaries" said K. Sudarshan, managing partner, EMA Partners.

Besides the online focus, for some retailers such as Arvind Lifestyle Brands Ltd, the new brands they have brought into the market, is driving hiring.

“Hiring will be a key activity for us this year. In the first quarter, we closed 60 positions (mid and senior level) to grow our new brands Children’s Place, US Polo and Gap. We expect to continue this hiring momentum this year," said Phani Raja, head of talent acquisition and retail human resources at Arvind.

With 100% FDI in multi-brand retail still in limbo, domestic retailers are using the inaction to capture more market, said Shiv Agrawal, managing director of executive search firm ABC Consultants, whose firm is working on 14 mandates for senior executives.

It is not just at the top, even at the entry level about 10,000 to 15,000 people are expected to be hired in organized retail, a 20% growth over last year, said Kumar Rajagopalan, chief executive of Retailers Association of India. This is besides the hiring activity in e-commerce, which is expected to grow by over 30% creating up to 60,000 jobs in the next one year, according to A.G. Rao, group managing director, ManpowerGroup India, a staffing firm.

Job generation for the retail sector at the entry level would partially be driven by wholesalers, who are expanding aggressively in the country. Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Metro AG are each planning to add 50 wholesale stores in India by the end of the decade.

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Published: 28 Aug 2014, 11:25 PM IST
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