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ASIDE from looking for the right location to put up a retail business, retailers now also have to contend with competition for quality manpower, said a management school official.
Rodolfo Ang, dean of the John Gokongwei School of Management, said the trend is not just to find the right location but also to get and keep quality personnel from competing industries.
“Competition for quality manpower comes from call centers that are "mushrooming" everywhere and overseas, recruiting people with the exact skills needed in retail industries, luring them away with more attractive employee benefits,” Ang said.
Ang discussed new challenges and opportunities for Philippine Retailers during the 2nd Regional Retail Conference on June 21 at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino.
He advised retailers, whose businesses are in sub-prime locations, to have exceptional product quality and service to keep customers from coming back.
Ang said that for retailers to cope with the trends, they should increase the quality of their product and the uniqueness of their selling proposition.
Ang cited today’s retailing trends which include the power of the mall, increasing amount of prime retail space, rising cost and competition for qualified manpower and rising customer expectations.
Ang said most of these trends show the power of landlords over the retailers and for retailers to survive, they should find other means to succeed.
One way to cope is by expanding the retailers’ knowledge of business and marketing.
Jorge Mendiola, president of the Philippine Retailers Association (PRA), said that the PRA has programs and advocacies that can help retailers survive.
Mendiola also cited the dynamism of the country’s retailing industry.
He said that retailing makes up 15 percent of the country’s gross national product, 33 percent of the country’s service sector and 19 percent of the country’s workforce jobs. Correspondent Ara Chawdhury
