Talent shortage will be one of the prime bottlenecks that will affect the Indian retail industry. So much so that India is expected to witness a shortfall of almost a million people in the retail sector by 2012.
Speaking to Indiaretailing, Asitava Sen, vice president, Technopak, said, “The top three bottlenecks that Indian retailing faces at present are talent shortage, retail space shortage and lack of supplier base”.
The latest Technopak Consumer Outlook study on top trends in the Indian retail says that taking an estimate of 30 per cent extra people required for the back-end, the direct employment generated by the organised retail sector in India over the coming five years can very well surpass the figure of 1.5 million direct jobs.
Though the huge demand of retail staff is a boon for the Indian economy, it is a challenge for the organised retail industry to get access to trained manpower.
Technopak estimates that there will be around 40 per cent shortage to meet the demand of about 240 million square feet of mall space by 2011. Also, there is heavy dependence on metros and mini metros, as far as mall development is concerned.
On the challenge of supplier base, the study says that with most of the supplier base in India geared to cater to the small-scale industry, it will be difficult for large supermarket and hypermarket chains to find sources of supply that provide the benefits of economies of scale, quality and consistency.
– Raja Ghoshal
