One of the most popular avenues in the fashion arena is Retail Management. With India being such an emerging market and having a fast-growing retail space, professionals have a rather exciting job to perform. Businessdictionary.com identifies the definition of Retail Management as “A process of promoting greater sales and customer satisfaction by gaining a better understanding of the consumers of goods and services produced by a company”.
What your job entails
Retail management encompasses everything that keeps a retail chain up and running. It’s like a well-oiled machine that involves store operations, merchandising, buying, selling, customer service, strategising, supply chain management and more. The job will entail many different tasks, like overseeing vendors, analysing market trends, monitoring sales, maintaining budgets, inventory, and developing and executing sales and promotion, among others.
What you need
A person wanting to work in the retail management sector will have to be well-rounded with a number of different soft skills. Your job will involve interacting with a lot of people on an everyday basis, which is why you need to have good communication skills. At the same time, you need t to be a good listener with utmost patience. At the managerial level, you will have to have the leadership qualities, and the ability to train, motivate, and help your peers grow. Companies also look for candidates will good negotiation skills. Above all, your job role is very much result-oriented, so someone with a strong work ethic who meets their targets efficiently finds immense success in this field.
Courses
A typical retail management course will essentially encompass business communication, financial accounting, marketing management, logistics, international markets and businesses, entrepreneurship, legal issues and ethics, consumer behaviour, brand management, strategy formulation, B2B selling, merchandising, store operations, tax planning and much more. These courses are ideally Post Graduate Diploma Courses. Additionally, there are also Masters’ and MBA programs that a lot of colleges offer.
Employment
There are a number of brands that conduct on-campus placement. Some of these include Tommy Hilfiger, United Colours of Benetton, Puma and others. Luxury brands may be a little dicey to get into at the entry level, but it isn’t impossible. If you have considerable experience in the field and some solid skills, there’s no reason why any brand shouldn’t hire you. Choose colleges that do offer placements, as their course will make the students job-ready, rather than just make them seem impressive on their resume.
Top Universities offering Retail Management Courses –
KJ Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research, Mumbai (PGDM + MBA)
Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, Pune (MBA)
Birla Institute of Management Technology, Noida (PGDM)
IMS Unison University, Dehradun (MA)
Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai (MBA)
