Industry Integrated Courses to Boost Luxury & E-Commerce Growth in India

If the latest market trends are anything to go by, there is a lot of scope for trained professionals in the luxury and e-commerce industries in the country. According to a recent KPMG Assocham study, India is one of the fastest growing luxury markets and is set to touch $14 billion by 2022. The Fashion and Lifestyle E-Commerce industry, on the other hand, is expected to grow to $32 billion by 2020 according to Technopak.

Considering the Indian market’s growing appetite for skilled professionals, Pearl Academy has launched undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Luxury Brand Management and Fashion & Lifestyle E-Commerce.

The programmes were launched at ‘What’s Next – Winning Ideas in Creative Business’ organized by the School of Creative Business of the Academy on March 12, 2015 at Four Seasons Hotel, Mumbai.

The international industry integrated 3 year BA Honours Courses are delivered in conjunction with Nottingham Trent University (NTU), UK while the 2 year PG Diploma courses are validated by Domus Academy, Milan (Italy).

The courses have been devised to churn out highly competent and global professionals who can find numerous opportunities in the field of marketing & communications, merchandising & buying, brand management, consultancy, distribution planning and other related areas in the luxury and e-commerce industries.

“We are extremely excited as we launch these two courses along with the industry. We are looking forward to being able to train talent that will add and grow the e-commerce and luxury dynamics of the Indian landscape,” Mr. Sharad Mehra, CEO, Pearl Academy, said.

The Luxury Brand programmes were launched by Tikka Shatrujit Singh, Advisor – Louis Vuitton I Fendi I Berluti, who was also the Guest of Honour at the event. “We are excited about introducing more talent to the world of luxury. The industry is extremely dynamic and is always on the lookout for new-age talent to add to its think set.”

Biren Vaidya, Managing Director, The Rose Group said, “Luxury is an exciting industry; you are on the treadmill and you have to keep running harder and harder to create that little bit of edge for your customer. The customer wants more; the lifestyle shift that India is witnessing at this moment is what luxury is all about. For the students today all that I want them to know is that no matter what you study, you get trained to sell luxury by teaching yourself to love it and live it, and only then will you be able to sell it to the customer.”

The courses in Fashion & Lifestyle E-Commerce were launched by S, Nagesh, Non-executive Vice-Chairman, Shoppers Stop.

“It is imperative for a company to channel their resources in a manner that you actually listen to the customer, be a part of their lifestyle, build their aspirations and actually walk that journey with them. It is great that courses like these are getting introduced to actually hone our talent towards that direction.” said B. S. Nagesh.

Mahesh Murthy, Managing Partner, Seedfund, said, “In the old world, competition was rising; in the new world, dominance and monopoly is rising. That is why it is very important that you focus on creating a unique and excellent product to fulfill an unfulfilled need and focus on ensuring that that product masters in design. It is important that you create a product that will have the ‘WOW’ factor.”

Biren Vaidya, MD & Creative Soul, The Rose Group; Mukesh Gajra, CEO, CaratKraft.in; Neeraj Nagpal, VP-Buying & Merchandising and Sourcing & Supply Chain, Pantaloons Fashion & Retail Ltd. (Aditya Birla Group); Parveen Shaikh, Entrepreneur-Luxury I Youth I Education (Ex-LVMH); and Satish Gokhale, Director, Industrial Design, Design Directions Pvt. Ltd., were some of the eminent speakers.

What’s Next, an initiative of Pearl Academy, is a series of intellectual workshops and confluences that brings together prominent global thought leaders to deliberate on key issues and ideas related to Design and the future of Design Education.