INDIA. The Moodie Report’s new feature series again brings you impressions of our industry as portrayed (either by the industry, consumer media or travellers) in websites, Blogs and other social and digital media.
This week’s coverage comes from India where Cafe Coffee Day General Manager – Key Accounts (and former Bangalore International Airport Limited Senior Manager – Travel Retail) S Shriram (“˜Shri’) writes one of the best retail blogs we have come across.
Called “˜My Retail Journey’ and tagged “˜Notes of a retailer by profession and choice’, Shri’s blog provides consistently candid and timely insight into the opportunities, challenges, successes and occasional disasters of Indian retailing, both in the local market and travel retail channels.
In his latest post Shri notes that retail staffing has a long way to go in India. He relates a recent visit to the Montblanc boutique at the iconic UB City in downtown Bangalore.
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The sales assistants, he noted, were amicable but the service levels were not those befitting one of the most respected brands in the world. “In both cases,” he writes, “there were no efforts made by the staff to show something new within the store – “the interactions revolved around just fixing the problem rather being engaging or exhaustive”.
Shri concludes: “Retail staffing is one of the most complex challenges that Indian retailers have been facing over the years.
“Most retailers in India today have a training & development department but it’s quite a challenge to retain front-end employees especially, thanks to the lure for a small hike in salary! Most of them do not have long-term goals and hence keep jumping jobs, partially for the sake of salary and partially for other conveniences – such as proximity to their residence, designation, and not to mention shorter working hours or lower work-load.
“Thankfully, Indian customers at the moment are not as demanding as their western counterparts, but it is just a matter of time before they too shall be demanding superior product knowledge and high levels of customer service – from boutique stores to hypermarkets.
“Needless to say, retail employees would also understand this themselves, with personal experiences. More than the employers’ interest, I foresee employees (in the front-end) taking a lot more interest in training themselves – for their own long-term success and existence.”
In his previous Blog Shri writes informatively on the burning issue of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Indian retail. The Committee of Secretaries headed by Cabinet secretary Ajit Kumar Seth was due to meet on July 22 to finalise the blueprint of a proposal for political clearance.
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Source: My Retail Journey |
One of the major issues to be discussed was whether the cap on FDI should be 49% or be increased to 51%. At the moment, 100% FDI is allowed only in cash & carry formats while up to 51% FDI is allowed in multi-brand retail formats. Earlier this month, the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion issued a proposed policy paper to State Governments for their thoughts and invited feedback and discussions.
The proposed policy states that foreign retailers can open their stores in cities with a minimum population of one million based on the 2011 Census. In a country as populated as India that means 35 cities.
It’s a highly sensitive issue, one that could encourage as much political posturing as it does reasoned, intellectual debate, Shri says. For more on this and many other issues pertinent to this burgeoning, complex, occasionally infuriating market, join him on “˜My Retail Journey’. It’s well worth the trip.
Note: S Shriram will be one of the speakers at The Power of India, the biggest-ever airport commercial revenues conference to be held in India. Hosted by GMR and co-organised by The Moodie Report and Airports Council International, it will be held on 6-8 December at the Novotel, Hyderabad.
