The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), an umbrella body which represents interests of small traders, is setting up these 'retail schools' across the country. The move comes to help them face the increasing competition from retail giants.
Praveen Khandelwal, secretary general, CAIT, says: "The schools will seek to change the traditional outlook of the traders and educate them to adopt a contemporary approach to retain customers and increase profitability."
Industry experts estimate the number of small traders in the country between between 12 and 15 million though the association claims the number to be closer to 50 million.
The first school is scheduled to start in Delhi this month. The second will come up later in Nagpur. CAIT has convinced Indian Retail School to collaborate with them as the domain knowledge partners.
"Our fight is not against the big names in the retail industry, but to help the kirana stores transform their business from traditional retail to modern format of retailing," said Khandelwal according to a report by PTI, published by Business Standard.
Retail experts from different parts of the country will conduct the classes in these schools. NK Pandey, CEO, Indian Retail School, says "The course scheduled has been well-structured and customised." The traders will be trained in subjects like visual merchandising, customer servicing, marketing and retail operations monitoring. |