The Indian FMCG sector with a market size of US$13.1 billion is the fourth largest sector in the economy. A well-established distribution network, intense competition between the organized and unorganized segments characterize the sector. FMCG Sector is expected to grow by over 60% by 2010. That will translate into an annual growth of 10% over a 5-year period. It has been estimated that FMCG sector will rise from around Rs 56,500 crores in 2005 to Rs 92,100 crores in 2010.

The stature of the Indian Retail Industry is significant, with a whopping 5 million retail outlets spanning across the country. However, most of these are self-styled traditional units, with significant local presence, lacking anything close to a modern retailing industry. For this very reason, industry experts feel that opportunities in organized retailing are going to increase manifold.

The market research report, "India Retail Sector Analysis (2006-2007)", accredits the Indian Retail Industry as a significant revenue churner, with a market size of Rs. 10 Trillion as in 2005. Organized Indian retail sector market size hovers around Rs 351 billion and is rapidly gaining ground.

An analysis of the Indian retail sector reveals that average growth rate for this segment stands at around 32% in comparison to a modest 8% in the unorganized sector. Rural India is the major revenue driver for unorganized retailing in India with a share of 76%.

The overall Indian Retail Industry contributes 10% to the GDP and a source of employment for more than 41 million individuals.

Retail/FMCG Sector is the most booming sector in the Indian economy and is expected to reach US$ 175-200 billion by 2016. With this rapid expansion and coming up of major players in the sector, the need of human resource development has increased. Lack of skilled workers is the major factor that is holding back the retail sector for high growth.

24x7 Learning's Talent Lifecycle ManagementSM solution will help the industry meet the challenges. Through its end-to-end eLearning solutions 24x7 Learning can help reach out domain specific training programs on sales training, customer relationship management, body language and grooming, business etiquette product training, process training, skill training to sales team, team-building and leadership, change and conflict management. Since retail is largely dependant on consumer satisfaction, even the managers need to be highly competent in people management, viable skills, business insights, analytic skills, succession planning, and resource development to be successful in their positions and move up the value chain.

24x7 Learning has the capability to build a corporate virtual university to address each of the training needs above. Retail outlets can effectively and cost efficiently reach out standardized eLearning programs to a large number of geographically dispersed employees and help them provide the best customer service across regions. 24x7 Learning's solutions will eventually help them chart out a prosperous future in the industry.