Study on Retail Salesforce Competency in India

Abstract

The retail industry has seen a transformation over the years. With the increasing trend moving towards online retail, the role of salesforce has become more critical in physical retail stores.  Retail organizations train their salesforce on product specific skills but have failed to map the competencies based on customer expectations. The paper investigates the prominent competencies of salesforce with respect to the products sold. Customers visiting three retail organizations in different formats in Pune were surveyed. The data was collected based on responses gathered from a questionnaire designed from review of literature. The results based on statistical tests indicate that customer service is the most important competency and the responses are not impacted by gender.