According to IBEF, India’s e-commerce platforms reached a historical milestone with a GMV of $60 billion in the fiscal year 2023, which is a 22% increase over the previous year. Furthermore, the Indian e-commerce industry is expected to expand from US$123 billion in 2024 to US$292.3 billion by 2028. From these figures, it’s safe to conclude that online retail is thriving.
If you own an online e-commerce company, you can’t just wait and watch as this happens. You must be on top of current industry trends and statistics. Otherwise, your business would most likely struggle to grow and scale efficiently, let alone have a competitive edge.
Soft Skills and Retail
One non-negotiable to be on top of your game is developing essential retail skills. These skills consist of a wide range of skill types, a major part of which will help your internet business leave a mark: soft skills, which are evaluated through soft skills assessments.
Customer Is Everything in Retail
The whole ecosystem of a successful retail and e-commerce industry runs on good customer interactions. It can be a sales associate helping a buyer find the right product or a customer service representative handling inquiries or complaints online. Soft skills play a crucial role in creating positive experiences in all these relevant scenarios. However, this can happen only when the workforce is equipped with the required soft skills through customer service skills assessments.
Till recent times, hiring managers relied solely on their gut instinct and face-to-face interviews to somehow try to assess the candidates’ communication, empathy, and problem-solving skills – an approach that is highly inefficient, subjective, and immeasurable. In today’s digital age, businesses need smarter, more structured ways to assess these critical skills that have the potential to build or break the brand. That’s where smart digital skills assessments come in, which are capable of providing objective insights into a candidate’s soft skills – 100% of the time.
Why Soft Skills Are Important in Retail & E-commerce
Unlike what people commonly think, retail is much bigger and more complex than just selling products; it’s majorly about ensuring a seamless customer experience. Whether online or in-store, a brand’s success depends on its employees’ ability to interact with, empathise with, and resolve its customers’ issues efficiently. Here’s why soft skills are a must-have in this industry:
- Customer-Centric Approach: Employees with strong communication and empathy skills build the customer’s trust and hence loyalty.
- Adaptability: E-commerce landscapes shift rapidly; quick thinking and flexibility are needed to keep up with the ever-evolving customer demands.
- Conflict Resolution: Handling grievances effectively can turn an unhappy customer into a lifelong champion of the brand.
- Collaboration: Smooth operations are possible only with effective teamwork, regardless of whether the setup is a warehouse or a digital storefront.
But How to Measure an “Immeasurable” Skill?
Technical skills come with a pretty convenient advantage: they can be assessed through coding tests or multiple-choice quizzes – and most of the time, there are absolute right and wrong answers. On the other hand, soft skills are inherently subjective. A resume might highlight a candidate’s ability to ‘work well under pressure,’ but how do you measure that in real-time? Now, that’s where digital skills assessments step in.
Tools & Assessments Shaping the Future of Hiring
- AI-Powered Video Interviews
- Now, AI is also helping organisations analyse the candidate’s facial expressions, tone of voice, and speech patterns to evaluate traits such as confidence, clarity, and emotional intelligence.
- Situational Judgment Tests (SJTs)
- In this kind of test, candidates are presented with real-world retail scenarios, which can be any relevant situation such as handling an irritated customer or managing a team under pressure. Their responses help the interviewer assess their problem-solving as well as decision-making skills.
- Gamified Assessments
- All online industries are adopting gamified assessments that keep things interesting for the candidate through interactive simulations and role-playing exercises. Retail and e-commerce are not far behind. These tests assist them in testing the candidate’s interpersonal skills in a more engaging and interactive way.
- Personality & Behavioural Tests
- As the name suggests, behavioural assessments help identify desirable behavioural traits in a candidate such as resilience, empathy, and teamwork. This helps the organisation identify candidates with the right culture fit.
Case Study: How a Leading E-commerce Brand Improved Its Reputation and Customer Satisfaction with MeritTrac
A well-known e-commerce giant faced high attrition rates because of poor customer interactions and conflicts that took a long time to reach the resolution stage – externally with clients and internally within the customer support team. Traditional hiring methods fell short in correctly identifying candidates with the right soft skills since they heavily relied on the manager’s “opinions” of the interviewees – which weren’t turning out to be objective.
Solution: The company partnered with MeritTrac to implement AI-powered communication skills tests and situational judgment tests. These assessments evaluated communication, empathy, and problem-solving skills before candidates moved to the final interview stage.
Results:
- Reduction in customer complaints related to service interactions.
- Improvement in employee retention within the first year.
- Higher CSAT scores, leading to improved brand reputation.
The company built a stronger, more customer-focused workforce by making use of structured soft skills assessments.
Bringing Science to Soft Skills Hiring with MeritTrac
As India’s leading provider of testing and assessment services, MeritTrac understands the unique challenges faced by the retail and e-commerce industry. Our scientifically designed assessments go beyond traditional hiring methods, offering data-driven insights to help businesses make informed talent decisions.
From AI-driven video interviews to immersive situational judgment tests, our solutions ensure you’re hiring candidates who not only meet job requirements but also embody the soft skills that drive customer satisfaction and business growth.
The Future Is Here
The way we assess soft skills is completely different from how it was – as little as even five years ago, all because of AI in this digital age. Now tools and data-backed assessments are advanced enough to substantially help retail and e-commerce businesses build teams that truly excel in customer interactions and hence their loyalty.
It’s time to move beyond guesswork and embrace a structured, tech-driven approach to soft skills assessment. And with MeritTrac by your side, finding the right talent has never been easier.
FAQs
- Do soft skills assessments improve hiring quality? If yes, how?
Yes. Soft skills assessments always take the objective route to identify traits like communication, empathy, and problem-solving. This way organisations get candidates who align with customer-centric roles through the right soft skills.
- Can digital tools accurately measure interpersonal skills?
Yes. AI-powered video interviews, situational judgment tests, and gamified assessments analyse key behavioural traits to predict real-world performance. However, a human review is always recommended at the last stage before hiring.
- Why should retail and e-commerce brands give importance to and invest in soft skills assessments?
They should do it, as with the right soft skills up their sleeve, a well-trained, customer-focused workforce enhances brand reputation, improves retention, and leads to higher customer satisfaction, which are all factors directly impacting the business’s success.
