Slowdown or not, Internet penetration in India has paved the way for online retailers' growth. To supplement this growth, the industry is looking for the best talent too.
According to Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), India's e-retail industry is likely to touch Rs 7,000 crore by 2015, up from Rs 2,000 crore currently. Going forward, the industry expects the e-commerce market to grow at 50 to 100 per cent.
“E-commerce is a booming space as the Internet audience is likely to double in the next two to three years. This industry will require talent from various sectors such as technology, product, analytics, sourcing, general management talent, merchandising and marketing,” said Ms Pearl Uppal, Co-founder and Chief executive Officer (CEO) of
Ms Uppal said her company is expecting to triple in size this year.
The company, which has staff strength of 800 people, plans to hire more than 400 people this fiscal year and will be seeking out candidates from Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).
Yebhi.com is likely to add 2,000 people to its staff strength. Last year the online retailer added 1,000 people.
Further, the company, which posted revenues of Rs 125 crore last fiscal, is looking at 300-400 per cent growth in this year.
“To support this growth we need much larger teams and, therefore, the team size will also grow by about 200 per cent. We are also looking to expand our back-end capability significantly,” said Mr Agarwal, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of bigshoebazaar.com , the brand owner of Yebhi.com .
The company plans to add a new fulfilment centre spread over 5 lakh sq ft this fiscal, scaling up from 1 lakh sq ft currently. It says it is likely to invest about $100 million over the next five years.
Mr Gaurav Gupta, Director, Deloitte India, said, “E-commerce is one of the booming sectors. Some of these players have private equity investments. Their focus is on building up their infrastructure back-end, customer acquisition, product acquisition, supply chain and others. The growth in this segment is phenomenal because of a small base and they are hiring in large numbers.”
Ms Anupama Beri, Head of human resources at Snapdeal.com , said the company is aiming at a growth of 300-400 per cent.
“Immediate requirement is between 150-200 people in the next month to month-and-a-half,” she said.
The company, which was launched in February 2010, has grown from 100-people strong company in October 2010 to 1,500 currently.