How should foreign companies go about recruiting retail personnel in China?

This depends on the kind of employees that the retail business needs. Rather simple roles, such as sales representatives or warehouse assistants, are found in abundance on Chinese online job boards, such as 51job.com or zhaopin.com. For senior roles, or roles that carry a greater importance to the management or strategic development of, say, a retail branch, it is recommended using a recruitment service provider. This also enables the retail business to bring in existing know-how from competitors and target certain retailers or individuals as valuable additions to their own business. For retail fields such as luxury goods, a certain level of seniority will also be expected by customers as they make comparatively higher-value purchases.