Online retailers have almost doubled their staff strength in India during the current financial year and will continue hiring to fuel the service sector's latest growth engine. Estimates by financial services firm Avendus Capital state that the number of e-buyers will grow to 38 million by 2015 and the booming sector has already hired 80% more this fiscal. For instance, Snapdeal.com hired 500 executives this fiscal and apart from hiring 50 from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), the company has hired 15 graduates from Stanford, Columbia and Harvard. For 2012, Sbapdeal.com is targeting the Indian Institutes of Management. As far as Yebhi.com is concerned, about 25 of the company's top executives are from IITs and IIMs. Tradus.in plans to go to the IIMs and Indian School of Business in 2012 to hire.

The growth potential of e-tailing presents a very interesting challenge for talent acquisition. Manpower requirement is linear to business volume. The sector may be nascent, but manpower commands a premium. As per Elixir Consulting, a senior-level executive comes at Rs 75 lakh to Rs 80 lakh (per year), mid-level at Rs 60 lakh, while junior executives take home Rs 16 lakh to Rs 18 lakh. Career prospects are lucrative and there is a lot to look forward to. A 35% growth in e-shoppers will transform the sector from the current $800 million to $11.8 billion in 2015, predicts Avendus Capital.

Source: The Economic Times