00 qualified retail professionals in the market by the end of 2023. In Japan, WMH Group has the largest market share of recruiting sales professionals for the fashion and beauty industry. “Our presence in Japan, Taiwan, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam is going from strength to strength. In every country we are in, luxury retail in beauty and fashion is doing well,”  Shinsuke Kafuku, CEO of WMH Group, told Inside Retail. WMH Group’s branch in Malaysia is all about creating “human equity”, Kafuku said, and the company’s MyBrands job portal is also part and parcel of this vision. It aims to match the government’s commitment to reviving and transforming the retail scene. Gap in the market Inside Retail has previously reported on the labour shortage in the retail sector in Malaysia, making the company’s foray into the country a timely one.  In April, WM Malaysia will launch MyBrands, a jobs portal that is used by many brands in Japan and Singapore. The company hopes to expand this platform to other countries in APAC and expand its database of registered candidates. WMH Group believes it is in a prime position to groom the next generation of retail staff with its customised integrated solutions and methodology. In Japan, the Group has successfully placed around 120,000 retail staff for its clients in the fashion and luxury industry. Hiring and training services for retail professionals remains one of its biggest strengths. “We want to bring our expertise to Malaysia and introduce the concept of the ‘working dream’. The concept represents the support that we can provide to turn retail professionals’ dream of succeeding in a retail career into a reality,” he added. There are six business pillars under WMH Group’s expertise, each specialising in different areas of retail, such as recruitment, placement, training, store operations management, digital marketing, e-commerce, CRM, store promotion, retail technology and visual merchandising. Angeline Yap, director of WMH Asia Pacific, hopes to build a community of about 1,000 qualified retail professionals through WM Malaysia. “We always have a ‘triple win’ aim – firstly, to upskill and develop retail professionals, secondly, to help our retail clients benefit from elevated branding, and finally, to provide an enhanced customer journey at the retail stores, ” she told Inside Retail. The APAC sphere Kafuku sees a lot of potential in the APAC marketplace, as brands are clamouring for more retail staff. He believes WMH Group will play an important role in meeting this need.  “We are committed to enhancing the minds, skills and knowledge of retail professionals so that companies can improve their productivity. Our store management solutions, merchandising and retail technology completes the picture,” Kafuku noted. As of now, the MyBrands job portal is already in operation in Singapore and Japan, and Kafuku noted that it is the only job portal primarily focused on the fashion and beauty space in the region.  “I believe that job seekers in the fashion and retail industry will be attracted to this portal, and when we ultimately launch it in every country in the region, we can connect job applicants in an international manner, and I feel people will cross borders in order to land their dream retail position,” he stressed.