We all familiar with the term “merchandising” which actually functioning for contacting prospective buyers, do price negotiation, induce to purchase offering best price and quality, take an order and finally deliver the product to meet customer satisfaction. But now there is an advancement in the process of merchandising because of modern technology “Digital Communication System” for merchandising. Digital merchandising is also known as online merchandising or virtual merchandising. The person who is responsible for digital merchandising is known as a digital merchandiser. The demand for digital merchandisers is increasing day by day because of higher access to a digital device to the customers.
In other words, digital merchandising is the most popular form of merchandising in recent times where user get digital access to the online-based store to purchase the product offered by the digital merchandisers.
If you want to do digital merchandising course then you may find many online based platform available free and paid basis. Choose the right one for your study. Please do some study before selecting the learning platform.
Advantages of Digital Merchandising
Easy to Reach to the Target Customers
Cost Effective Way of Merchandising
Real-time monitor customer’s behavior
Offer the right product to the right person
Fast Response time to the buyers
The flexibility of offering different products
Easy to promote products
Easy access to all over the world
What is E-commerce Merchandising?
E-commerce is electric commerce where the electric device is used for buying and selling of product. Whereas e-commerce merchandising is also a form merchandising or digital merchandising use the electric device connected with an online platform for the purpose of buying and selling of product. Here online connectivity is mandatory to communicate with the buyers and sellers. Web-based e-commerce is now getting popularity because of easy to choose the desired products and place an order. Another thing is here you can compare the price of products among available options of different suppliers or sellers. The main disadvantage is many e-commerce merchandisers deliver the poor quality product.
In other words, simply we can say that e-commerce merchandising is the process of digital merchandising where sellers display their products to the digital platform to attract customer and customer come to this platform to choose their desired product, order the product and receive the product.
Advantages of E-commerce Merchandising
Web-based service creates a user friendly environment for the customers, apps accessible from the smart devices.
Connected with an online payment gateway, so that customer can buy the product and pay instantly with a digital payment system.
Opportunity to provide best customer experience with visual outlook.
Offer region wise promotional offers to the target customers.
Easy segmentation of products based on sex, age, price level (high to low, low to high), color, level of demand, etc.
Both buyer and seller can access the e-commerce platform whenever they want to
Easy to receive customer feedback
No need a large retail outlet to sell the products.
Cost of merchandising is less
Easy to serve thousands of customers at a time.
Finally, digital merchandising and e-commerce merchandising both are more or less similar to their core functions. This creating an extra edge to the flexibility of online buying and selling of products with minimum efforts. Here customer need not go the store which saves time and energy of the customer and for the buyers, they are getting enough flexibility in business operations with the lower operating cost of doing business.
Now visual merchandising is a widely used tool to bring success to the retail business. Visual Merchandising is getting higher acceptance because of its ability to visualize the idea. Attract the target customer through creating a visual effect on their mind. which induce to buy a product from the store.
3 Phases of Visual Merchandising
Three phases of visual merchandising help to clearly define the functions of visual merchandising. The phases are
Visualize
Attract and
Convert into Sales
What is Merchandising
Merchandising is a set of activities Merchandisers do to sell the product or services to the target customers. Here merchandising is done by the merchandiser. And visual merchandising is one of the popular tools used by the merchandiser.
What is Visual Merchandising?
A simple definition of Visual merchandising is a process of creating a visualization of marketing ideas for the purpose of creating attraction and interest in the mind of customers by visual means. Sometimes visual merchandising helps to make people better-understood the product and service type of business.
Examples of Visual Merchandising
Suppose you are planning to buy a new dress. For buying you normally go to a particular place. But you did not yet select the shop or brand from where you will purchase your dress. After reaching there you saw a well-decorated shop with beautiful dolls is placed. Gorgeous dresses are displayed. salespersons are well dressed and the outside display is showing they are offering a 50% discount. You saw all of these and become interested to go inside the shop/stall. So your mind induces to visit their shop and purchase a few items. Here the main focus thing is, you were first influenced. And this influence is created by their visualization which is as a result of visual merchandising. They successfully influence you to buy their product and merchandisers are actually working for selling goods and services.
Let See Another Example of Visual Merchandising
Look into this picture, a company trying to sell their product “Fresh Drinking Water”. so they put this image for promoting their product. Here they were trying to use the emotion of health conscious people by showing the sugar level in a particular product. People know that too much sugar is not good for health, and they are showing their drinks is sugar-free. Actually, they are using visual merchandising for sales promotion of their product which will help them to sell their product.
Characteristics of Visual Merchandising
From the above description of visual merchandising, you can identify the following characteristics of visual merchandising:
Visual merchandising is used for creating a visual effect.
This help to attract the customer and create an intention to the customer mind.
This idea is mainly applicable to a retail store of different products. But now you can see various uses of visual merchandising.
Success depends on how well you convert your ideas into the visual outcome.
One form of popular merchandising widely used in cloth shop/apparel industry.
Application of Visual Merchandising
The scope of visual merchandising is broadening day by day. The main reason is a worldwide improvement in living standard, earning power, spending capability, technological development, innovation, etc. If you have money then you will have an end a number of things to buy. And marketers are targeting people those have smart earnings power. High rise shopping mall is made, thousands of different shops are in there. And to display their varieties of product, they are taking help of visual merchandising. They decorate their shop in a way that anyone can easily identify what product they are offering. If you look around then you can see all the popular brands creating a visual effect in their shop. This is possible they applied visual merchandising. Now the question is, where we can use visual merchandising? The answer is in the following list:
In the early days, visual merchandising was used by popular brands. But now this trend is followed by a small business. Because of the advantage of creating brand awareness among the individuals.
Get Intention of Customer
It is easy to get the intention of the customer and influence them. People will be interested to visit your store with the help of visual merchandising.You made a design for your outlet in a way that looks attractive. You can expect that definitely, people will come to visit your store. And then all you need to offer your customer a better product and services.
Bring Target Customer
Through visual merchandising, you can design your store layout in an attractive way. That will bring your more target customer and increase your revenue. Proper merchandising planning is required to offer a better service.
Share Idea of Product
You may find both inside and outside of the store is decorated based on a particular product idea. The product which means the major value of your product. It can be in terms of value or in terms of quality. Share your product idea through visual merchandising will give you an extra edge of getting market competitiveness. Merchandising displays is the easiest way of sharing your product ideas.
Challenges of Visual Merchandising
Costly Process
Higher Need for Applying Creativity
Time Consuming
Higher Need for Applying Creativity
To ensure effective business there is a requirement for creativity. A creative mind can design a perfect visualization of promotional ideas. Without creativity in the visual merchandising field, it is not possible to get your desired outcome.
Costly Process
As the design of the outlet is one of the costly operations of initial business startup so money should spend carefully. Proper planning is required for initiation to the execution of merchandising ideas.
Time Consuming
Design of store and construct accordingly is a time-consuming process. You may require at least two weeks for interior design. Setup of furniture, a fixture of furniture and then arrange your product. Another thing is, when you design your outlet you must need to find out a good interior designer.
Three Forms of Visual Merchandising
Retail Store
Online (Virtual)
Trade Fair
Visual Merchandising for Retail Store
You already know that; visual merchandising is mostly applicable to the retail store. Because here visibility is important to attract the target customer. Normally retail store is to be a physical store rather than virtual. The business owner spends millions of dollars on the design and outlook of their store. Apparel retailers are now more concern about visual merchandising. The reason is higher competition in the market. The retail store is a point of sale where a customer can experience the products.
Visual Merchandising for Online Store
Earlier people thought that visual merchandising is only applicable for retails store. That’s why their core focus was for applying it to a retail store. But now because of the expansion of digital communication. And the flexibility of online transaction the demand for e-commerce is increasing day by day. People are now using online shopping facilities and shifting from traditional to digitalize. But the question is how visual merchandising can be used in the online shop? The idea is applying your visualization idea is through your website. Make a perfect design, which is attractive, user-friendly, auto responsive and also have an online payment option. As long as you provide the best product and services to your store customer, you will be successful.
Visual Merchandising in Trade Fair
Visual merchandising in the trade fair is another dimension. Where for local and international trade fair thousands of business owner participate, just to share their product and services. And also do some business through selling. But here they focus on visualization and induce visitors to come and see their products. If you closely look around at a trade fair, you must notice how organizers applied the visual merchandising. They use the visual merchandising concept to decorate the whole trade fair.
The Visual Merchandising Process
Product Selection
Identify Target Customer
Select Location of Store
Design Layout of Store
Plan for Promotional Activities
Create Visualization
Attract Customers
Induce to Buy
Sell the Product
Satisfy the Customer
The Process of visual merchandising involves 10 steps and these are explained below:
Product Selection
The first step is to select or identify your product for which you want to do merchandising. Based on the product type you need to develop a strategy for sales and marketing. So this one is the crucial step in starting visual merchandising.
Identify Target Customer
Identify target customer is the second stage. In this stage, you must work for identifying and selection of target customer. Whether your target customers are child, adult, male, female or any other group. Based on your target customer you need to design your store layout. Because of different things preferred by a different group of people.
Select Location of Store
The store location is one of the key success factors because a good location will give you more customer exposure. Store location can be in highly populated areas. Or it can be in the middle of the market. Or in a huge mall or any other place where your target customers are moving around. At the time of selecting your store location, you must consider the store cluster.
Design Layout of Store
In this stage, you can hire a professional or you can do on your own if you have enough expertise. When you design your store layout you must consider the following things:
Use of Glass
If you want to make your store more visible from the outside. You must choose a glass of different design which may increase attractiveness. For a multi-story store, you should have proper floor plans. So that you can decorate using glass or any other means.
Window Displays
Window displays are one of the popular and commonly used techniques for creating attractive store layout design. Because of the window displays, prospective buyers can see from a long distance, what kind of product and service they are offering. And what is the key benefit of that product is also displayed in windows.Here for designing window displays, visual merchandiser uses a high quality printed sticker. Which is attached to the outside and inside of the store wall.
Digital Displays
Because of flexibility in displaying advertisement and all other promotional activities digital displays are heavily used. A high-quality big monitor/ digital displays are set in the store through which people easily can get attracted. People also able to know the features of a particular product from the displayed information. The cost of digital displays is decreasing that’s why the demand and use of this product are increasing for visual merchandising. Digital displays are now more visually appealing for driving customers.
Color
The color of wall, window, door, and shelf everything matters in visual merchandising. Because this will increase the visibility of your store and your product. Color preference for both male and female is different, so you have to keep in mind who is your target customer. The color scheme is one of the preferential parts of visual merchandising.
Height
If you are targeting child then your inside decoration should be different. Your shelf should be set in a way that a child can see their desired cloth items. Eye level of different height should be carefully maintained.
Horizontal or Vertical Positioning of Products
Your product can be a position like horizontal form or vertical form. It is all about your choice. If you go to a superstore. You may have seen that product is displayed horizontally and vertically based on the product type. Every furniture store should be placed with proper planning. Right furniture should be in the right place.
View
Here, the view is the outside look of your store. If your store looks attractive from the outer view then you must definitely get a lot of customers visiting your store. A three-dimensional view will add an extra edge to your design. You can offer customer experience from the outside view also.
Lightning
Most of the time sunlight is not enough. so you must depend on lightening but here the important thing is, the color of light and extent of lightning. You can use moderate lightening rather than heavy lightening for your apparel store.
Temperature
If your store is always remaining hot then this is the problem. So, it will be better if you set air conditioning. But keep in mind that, before setting AC you need to calculate the air-cooling amount required for your store. A suitable temperature is preferable for the customer of the store.
Plan for Promotional Activities
After layout design and required activities, you can plan for promotional activities. That is how you are going to promote your product or services. For promotion, you will be required to make a promotional tagline which you can use for creating a visual effect. People will see your promotional message from outside and if they become interested then definitely they will visit your store.
Create Visualization
It’s time to create a visualization effect in your store. If you can successfully create a visual effect which will help you to attract your target customer. The visualization effect will come from your interior and exterior design, your product setup and all other promotional activities.
Attract Customers
A positive visualization effect will attract your target customer. And it depends up to you whether your customer converts into a loyal customer or not.
Induce to Buy
Your store, your product, your price and the attitude of your salesperson will induce the customer to buy your product.
Sell the Product
When you convert your target customer into an actual customer through visual merchandising. You must get your desired revenue and profit from your business. All your hard work will pay off to you as a reward.
Satisfy the Customer
You know the long-term success of a business is depends on the satisfaction of a customer. A customer will be loyal if you provide prompt service. And your product quality is good enough to meet the customer satisfaction with the price they had paid. And as a visual marketer, it is your responsibility to ensure the satisfaction of your customer.
The demand for Visual Merchandising in the Apparel Industry
The demand for visual merchandising is increasing day by day. Because you can get your target customer by creating a visual effect of your apparel store and your garments item.All local and international brands are trying their best to display their product in an attractive manner. So that we get influenced by their promotional activities. And go there to buy their product. And for displaying their product is the best possible way would be a visual merchandising policy.
Qualities of Visual Merchandiser
If you want to be a good visual merchandiser then you must have the following qualities:
Ability to Visualize
Ability to Think Out of the Box
Creative Mind
Understand Customer Needs
After all these discussions, hopefully, you can now clearly understand the idea of visual merchandising. And how it works for boosting your business. If you have any query, then please let me know.
The question may arise in your mind that what does visual merchandiser do. Here is the answer, actually the overall function of a visual merchandiser is to market their product. By creating a visual effect and the ultimate objective is to sell the product.
If you talk about retail visual merchandise then their function is limited to retail merchandising. For making a retail store with a beautiful design, create attractiveness and stimulate the positive buyer’s behavior.
On the other hand, online or web-based visual merchandising is depends on website design and product offering. It is your responsibility to ensure the right product in the right place with adequate promotional offers.
Visual Merchandiser do the Followings
Design of window display
Do whatever required to plan and design for in-store displays
Set promotional tagline for business
Communicate with the prospective buyers
Negotiate with buyers to bring the best possible revenue for the company
Display product in the right place with the right quantity
Motivate buyers to influence the buying decision making
Provide suggestion and tips to buy the best suitable product for them
Forecast future trends of product
Monitor the overall visual implications, how buyer’s reaction to our visual merchandising efforts.
What is Retail Visual Merchandising
One of the popular forms of visual merchandising in retail visual merchandising. Where visual merchandising focused on the retail store or retail sales point. Actually, all the efforts of merchandiser are to meet the customers demand at the retail store. And persuade them to buy more and more to become a loyal customer of the business. With the help of this, maximize the company’s revenue and profit will be easy.
A trainee merchandiser post is an entry-level post of a merchandiser. A trainee merchandiser will be promoted as a merchandiser and then senior merchandiser. Sometimes a trainee merchandiser is known as a junior merchandiser. The post title varies from company to company. Before recruiting a trainee merchandiser, the recruiter must disclose what will be the job responsibilities for that position. Although a trainee merchandiser will do all merchandising task as they are junior, their job responsibilities will be less than the senior post. If you want to be a merchandiser for apparel industry then you must know trainee merchandiser job description so that you can have an idea of your future responsibilities.
To become a trainee merchandiser, you are not required to have a textile engineering degree. You can work as a merchandiser if you are from a marketing background also. In real life, you may find people came from a different background but working in the apparel industry as a merchandiser. There is nothing wrong to become surprised because if you have the qualification of merchandiser then you can be a successful merchandiser, your degree does not matter in this case.
A trainee merchandiser or junior merchandiser works as a probationer where he/she will get on the job training. Step by step they will learn how a merchandising process is going on a normal basis and how to manage all the tasks.
Remember one thing that at the early stage of merchandising career you will have to go through many tough situations as you are to work will all the responsibilities of merchandiser but the extensity of responsibility will be lower.
Now come to the point of the job description of trainee merchandiser or junior merchandiser or garments merchandiser or merchandiser.
Merchandiser Job Description
As a garments merchandiser, your job description may include the following responsibilities.
Search for a new buyer
Communicate with existing buyers
Costing of Garments
Negotiate with buyers/customers
Develop Sample
Take an Order
Follow up order status
Make liaison among factory and exporter
Regular Factory Visit
Look for Sub Contractor
Maintain and update Buyers Database
Promoting Products
Market Study and Demand Forecast
Supply Chain Management
Support Senior Merchandisers
The job responsibilities of apparel merchandiser are not limited to these but there may have many more tasks assigned by the managers or your supervisors.
Search for New Buyer
As a trainee merchandiser, your boss may ask you to look for a new buyer. So that company can enlarge their buyer basket. Although it is a challenging task to get new buyers from the competitive market. But sometimes a trainee merchandiser can manage new small buyers. Take it as a challenge and as well as opportunities.
Communicate with Existing Buyers
A good merchandiser always plays an active role in communicating with buyers. If buyers have any queries, then you need to give them the information. If you do not have the answer, then definitely you need to talk with your seniors or supervisor. Basically, for foreign buyers, communication is done through a phone call or through email.
Costing of Garments
This task is one of the main tasks. As a merchandiser, you need to know all the basic costing related to garments and accessories, so that you can calculate the offering price for a particular product to the buyer. Costing may include; fabric costing, trims and accessories costing, knitting cost, washing cost, dyeing cost, printing cost, garments cost of making, etc. For calculating the cost you may use formulas and textile and garments conversion factors.
Negotiate with Buyers/Customers
A proper price negotiation may help to satisfy both the maker and the buyers. It is your responsibility, first, do the costing of final garments and then negotiate with the buyers to offer a competitive price.
Develop Sample
Before placing an order, it is required to develop a sample for the buyers. Based on the sample garments if it meets the buyer’s requirements then they place an order. So, as a merchandiser, you need to work on developing a sample according to the buyer’s specifications.
Take Order
When garments buyers are satisfied with your sample garments, they will place an order and as a merchandiser, it is your responsibility to take an order on behalf of a company.
Follow up Order Status
After receiving an order, you have to follow up order status from time to time with the buyer’s so that they can have a proper idea of what actually going on. This will help to ensure the on-time delivery of the product.
Make Liaison among Factory and Exporter
It is merchandisers responsibility to ensure a proper liaison among factory/garments maker or exporter if you are working in a buying house, they do not have any factory of their own.
Regular Factory Visit
Whether you work in a buying house or garments factory, you are required to visit the factory regularly just to check the garments production status which must be as per the specifications of the buyers.
Look for Sub Contractor
If your company does not have enough capacity to make all the order garments then you must look for sub-contractor those will work for making your garments. But this will be a challenging job for a merchandiser to choose the right sub-contractor who will offer a better price with the best quality product.
Maintain and Update Buyers Database
Every garments export maintains their buyer’s database so that they can evaluate and prioritize their buyers according to their values. It is merchandisers responsibility to maintain a proper record of buyers and update the database from time to time.
Promoting Products
Your sales will depend on the promotion of your products. You know the demand for fashionable garments is increasing worldwide. As a trainee merchandiser if you are targeting a large number of future buyers then you must work for promoting your products.
Market Study and Demand Forecast
Merchandising job is one of the challenging jobs in the apparel industry because to become successful in merchandising career you must collect market data, study and analyze the data and forecast accordingly so that you can be prepared for the future challenges.
Supply Chain Management
Now a day’s properly managed supply chain is one of the success factors of the garments industry. The reason behind this is, an effective supply chain management will help you to minimize your product cost. Your supply chain will help you to source your product from least cost sources and deliver your product through least cost channel.
Support Senior Merchandisers
As a trainee merchandiser or junior merchandiser, you need to support your seniors if they require your support. On time support will increase your companies operating efficiency.
After these discussions hopefully, you understand what can be the responsibilities of merchandiser and what may include in trainee merchandiser job description. If you have still question then you may ask through a comment.
Merchandising is a process of selling goods and services. The process of merchandising starts with identifying target customers, setting a price for a particular product, do the negotiation and finally deliver the product to the customer. I asked the question of what is merchandising to several people who are involved with the apparel industry just to hear from them how they actually define merchandising. Most of them said that all the activities to sell a product is merchandising. So, the scope of the job merchandising is not limited to how we define merchandising is rather than all activities are related to selling is merchandising.
As a process of merchandising in the apparel industry, wholesaler/manufacturer use merchandiser to communicate with the buyer of garments or to bring new customer, negotiate with them and make them induce to place an order. So, in this case merchandising is related to wholesale of merchandise (garments).
Example of Apparel Merchandising
Suppose H & M buy different types of garments from Epyllion and those people responsible for communicating, placing the order, bargaining, receiving an order, sampling, etc. are a merchandiser and all together these tasks are merchandising.
So, the process by which a merchandiser sells its products to the target customer is called merchandising. Merchandising is a commonly used term, mostly applicable in the apparel industry. Every year in apparel industry many merchandisers are recruited for the purpose of merchandising.
The demand for merchandising is increasing for-profit motive organization but the question is who will deal with merchandising for the organization. A person deals with the selling of products who is known as a merchandiser. Remember one thing that it is not necessary to involve merchandising for an export purpose it also can be used for local business.
Retail merchandising is mainly applicable to a retail store. The scope of retail merchandising is broad because we can use it for every type of products sold in the retail store.
On the other hand, visual merchandising is another form of retail merchandising where the main stimulating factor is visualizing the product and service to create attraction and interest and ultimately selling of products.
Recently Another two forms of Merchandising are visible from the functional characteristics of merchandising. These are:
Virtual Merchandising (Online Selling) or Digital Merchandising
Wholesale Selling (Merchandising on behalf of Wholesaler or manufacturer)
Garments Merchandising
Garments merchandising is both applicable for wholesale and retail merchandising in the apparel industry, Where merchandisers work for manufacturer, wholesaler and retail store. It is also known as apparel merchandising. It is one of the popular forms of merchandising because of its extensive use in the apparel industry. Merchandising process make it easier to meet the buyer’s requirement through time to time follow up and ensuring on-time delivery of garments items.
Garments Merchandiser
Garments merchandiser is the person who is responsible for the merchandising of garments products and services. Merchandising is the core function of a merchandiser. A garments merchandiser need to have several qualifications to become a successful merchandising. Garments merchandiser basically contact with garments buyers, negotiate with them, take orders, manage samples and send it to the buyers, take the order and finally, ensure the delivery of the product to the buyers at the right time.
Difference Between Merchandising and Marketing
Many people become confused about whether marketing and merchandising are similar or different. There is a difference between merchandising and marketing. Marketing is a broad area of business where merchandising is a part of marketing activities, which deals with the selling of goods and services.
Finally, briefly, we can define merchandising as a set of activities we (Merchandisers) do to sell our product and services to the target customers for the purpose of generating revenue and satisfy our customer.
Merchandising is a set of activities for selling products, merchandise, service to the target customer with the help of merchandiser.
In the early days of human history, people were not concern about fashion. But with the improvement of living standard around the world people are becoming fashion conscious. People are ready to pay a higher price for a fashionable dress. But the question is how we can make a fashionable dress and how we can meet customer’s desire through delivering the right product. Here the responsibility goes to the fashion merchandisers and the person who is responsible for merchandising of fashionable dress is known as a fashion merchandiser. To become a successful fashion merchandiser a merchandiser, need to have qualities of a fashion merchandiser which may help to deliver the right product to the right customer at the right place for a right price and by this process business of fashionable dress expanding.
The demand for fashion merchandiser is increasing over the years in the Indian subcontinental areas. People have more desire for fashionable clothes that’s why fashion merchandising getting preference. Near future, this will create a huge job opportunity. So this is the right time to take a degree in fashion designing and apparel merchandising.
Difference Between Apparel Merchandising and Fashion Merchandising
The main difference between apparel merchandising and fashion merchandising is, fashion merchandising is a specific area of apparel merchandising. Where fashion merchandiser focus is only a part of that specific area. Although if you consider the functional qualities the job is more or less similar. But here the sense of fashion is more focused rather than normal apparel goods.
Qualifications Required to be a Fashion Merchandiser
To become a fashion merchandiser, you need to have knowledge of fashion, fashion designing and how it works. If you have a good perception of fashion trends, then you can be a better fashion merchandiser. It will add value if you have merchandising and fashion designing degree.
List of Qualities of a Fashion Merchandiser
To become a successful fashion merchandiser, you need to have the following qualities
Ability to Communicate
The Ability to Understand Fashion Trends
Ability to Convince People
Ability to Visualize Market Needs
Ability to Analyze
Ability to Negotiate
Knowledge of Costing
Ability to Apply Creativity
Language Skills
Active Learner
Being Self Motivated
Ability to Work Under Pressure
Team Player
Think Out of the Box
Ability to Meet Customer Satisfaction
Ability to Communicate
The first thing is a merchandiser need to have good communication skill because in every stage of merchandising a communication media is required. Communication can be oral, written, or digital communication. Fashion merchandiser should be smart enough to deliver the message clearly.
The Ability to Understand Fashion Trends
As a fashion merchandiser, you need to understand fashion trends. How current trends are moving and what can be in the future. So it is necessary to collect all the information related to that particular fashion you are working with. Although the apparel industry is huge, it is better to work in a particular field so that you can focus accordingly. To become successful in the fashion industry as a merchandiser this quality of understanding fashion trends is must. Because the better you understand the trends then better you will work to deliver. In this case, fashion merchandisers have to have the trait of pro-activeness.
Ability to Convince People
Merchandiser always works for the convincing of their clients. You can use a different strategy to convince because it varies from person to person, company to company. Convince about the design of cloth, price offering and finally induce to buy that particular product from you. This is also one of the key qualities of fashion merchandiser.
Ability to Visualize Market Needs
Based on market needs, we want to meet the desirability of the customer. Market needs of fashionable dress are influenced by the season and occasional change. So as a fashion merchandiser you need to be careful about the market needs.
Ability to Analyze
Analyze each and every factor which is related to the merchandising of goods. The better you understand the better you will be able to deliver to the customer. For understanding what the customer is demanding and what you have to meet that demand if you are able to analyze the situation quickly then you can deliver the service quickly.
Ability to Negotiate
Your employer always wants from you that you will get a competitive price of your fashionable cloth. So as a fashion merchandiser you must work as a good negotiator. If a person has this quality, the owner of that fashion clothes will generate much profit for their company.
Knowledge of Costing
Before offering a price you need to know the costing of that fashion products. Every time you cannot get other people to support so it will be better for you if you have enough knowledge of cost. I think there will not be much problem if you understand the costing method properly because the costing method will remain the same but the amount will vary.
Ability to Apply Creativity
In fashion designing creativity brings success. A fashion merchandiser needs to be creative to apply creative ideas for getting more buyers attention. Creativity is the outcome of creative ideas and it is generated from a creative mind. As a fashion merchandiser, you will have more scope to apply your own creativity.
Language Skills
As a fashion merchandiser, you need to communicate with different parties. If you have a good language skill of a different region, then you may get extra benefit from it.
Active Learner
One of the key qualities of a successful fashion merchandiser is an active learner. Active learner person basically learns fast and apply their learning for selling the merchandise. This behavior also helps to improve the knowledge and skill of an individual.
Being Self Motivated
If you are self-motivated then no one can stop, you from what you want to do. As a fashion merchandiser, it is not necessarily that every time you become one of the top successful people. Sometimes you may not be successful but if you learn from your previous experience and motivated by your own then definitely success is yours.
Ability to Work Under Pressure
Everyone cannot work under pressure. If you can work under pressure, then you have the quality of becoming a successful fashion merchandiser.
Team Player
A team player has the advantage of working together. You may learn a lot of things from the members of a team. If you work in a fashion house as a merchandiser, then definitely you will be required to work with your team.
Think Out of the Box
The new idea came when you think out of the box. A new idea can bring a new fashion and a new fashion can bring success to a fashion merchandiser. Critically thinking is not bad if critical thinking generates new ideas.
Ability to Meet Customers Expectation
Merchandiser always works for the purpose of meeting customer expectation. So you must be able to provide what your customer is desiring from you and your product. The more you meet customer demand the more your customer will grow and become loyal towards your fashion brand which is one of the pre-condition of becoming a successful fashion merchandiser.
After reading this hopefully, you already understood what are the qualities are required to become a successful fashion merchandiser.
Calculation of Earnings and Loss for Garments Industry
Calculation of earnings and loss for garments industry is required to monitor whether factory operation is generation expected revenue or not. Based on your calculation of earnings and loss you can set production target to meet your expected level of profit for your business.
As sewing is one of the main operation of garments, you can take sewing as a factor and calculate earnings accordingly. You can use same formula for calculating profit or loss of your industry after shipment of your final product.
Let’s see the calculation at a glance.
Suppose, Your Factory’s last 3 Month Expenditure= 1466400$
So, Per month Expenditure = (1466400$/3) = 488800$
So, Daily Expenditure = (488800$/26) = 18800$ [if fty run 26 days per month]
Your fty produced = 8800 Units per day
Per GMTS CM= 2.20$ (It’s vary style to style, you need to calculate style wise from buyer given CM)
Then, Daily Earnings = (8800 X2.20$) $ = 19360$
So, Your Daily Earnings = (19360$-18800$) = 560$
Template for Calculating Earnings and Loss for Garments Industry
I have developed an excel template to calculate earnings and loss for your convenience. You can use this template for any industry; specially for your daily garments production. I hope this will give you well understanding. You can download this template for free, just click on daily production & CM earnings report.
This template can be very helpful for any Garments professional. Based on the output of this template you can prepare your report maintaining professionalism.
You will get not only earnings and loss report but also production report. In this way it will be helpful for everybody to see actual status of a factory. If you face any problem of understanding then please do not hesitate to contact with me.
Visual Merchandising Implementation Techniques and Its Importance in Retail Apparel Showrooms
This is the article about visual merchandising implementation techniques and importance of the visual merchandising in apparel retail showrooms. Through implementing these techniques you can increase the sales rate and increase the visitors. Visual merchandising is a process of enhancing and embellishing of a product or brands to attract the customer by the way of display. Here window display is shown in the figure: 1
The objective of Visual Merchandising
Visual merchandising it helps our showroom or retail shop looks tidy and neat. It avoids the time taken for product searching and confusion of products for customers. It also increases the customer visit to the shops and showrooms. Also, promote new brand and new product in the market.
Tools and Techniques used for Visual Merchandising
There are a lot of tools used for Visual Merchandising. Such as
Lights
Mannequins
Marquees
Banners
Sound
LIGHTS
Lightings are a powerful tool of visual merchandising between retailer and consumer. Some various types of lights are used in visual merchandising. Spotlight and focus light is used in ceilings. Ceiling height will be varying with different showrooms or shops. In warehouse or discount mass merchant the ceiling or mounting height will be in the high level. In department stores or specialty have the medium ceiling height. In boutique and designer showrooms the ceiling height will be low. The spotlight ceiling is used to express bright color products. The focus light ceiling is used to expose light color product as bright. The LED lights are used for display and decorative purpose.
MANNEQUINS
There are several types of mannequins used in retail shops and showrooms.
Natural mannequins
Faceless mannequins
Headless mannequins
Abstract mannequins
Bendy mannequins
Leg mannequins
Head mannequins
Natural mannequins
These type of mannequins looks like a real human being. It poses like human beings. These types of mannequins are mostly made up of wax.
Faceless Mannequins
It is a type of mannequin which is like faceless. They have a blank face doesn’t have any emotions in their face. It is mostly in black and fleshed skin color. These mannequins are used in a display of ladies lingerie like brassieres etc.
Headless Mannequins
This is one type of mannequins which doesn’t have the head. it is mostly used to display wigs, clothes, bags, shoes etc.
Abstract Mannequins
It’s a type of mannequins which is unique from others. It is made up of glass fiber material.
Bendy Mannequins
It is very flexible mannequins with adjustable body parts and it is easy to dislocate parts to wear the garment. We can make different type desirable poses according to the garment with bendy mannequins.
Leg mannequins
These are mannequins of mid-thigh to foot. This type is used in stockings display.
Head mannequins
These are mostly used to display wigs and fancy hats.
MARQUEES
This is a special type of tool used to display a brand name or store name in exterior and interior. It helps in the identification of store or brand.
BANNERS
It helps in the background presentation of a product.
SOUND
Sound doesn’t come under visual, but it also correlation with visual merchandising. This gives a pleasant environment to a customer while purchasing. Mild music and karaoke are used in retail showrooms and shops.
Visual Merchandising Techniques used in Retail Showrooms
Creating themes and stories
Blocking
Co-ordination
Triangular formation
Signage
Creating Themes and Stories
It is a type of technique in visual merchandising, to attract customers and get the best result. Theme or story should be simple and easy to understand. If we are using words to express our theme or stories, too much of words will get bored to a customer.
Blocking
Blocking is a technique of separating the products on shelves. In blocking garments may be in plies or hankering. By blocking technique the customer can easily purchase their desired product easily.
Coordination
In this technique, one main product joined and coordinates some match able sub-products. Ex: For displaying casual wear accessories like handbags, shoes are used.
Triangular Formation
It is a technique which seems like a triangle. The main product and low quantity product is in top and sub-product of medium quantity is in middle and more quantity in lower.
Signage
Exposing the logo or brand label in a product is signage. By signage, it’s easy to identify brand and size.
Types of Visual Merchandising
There are two types of a visual merchandising method followed in India. These are
In this, only one product is merchandised. It can be one product showroom. Ex: In a bag, showroom bag can be only displayed.
Departmental Merchandising
Arrangement in each department is known as departmental merchandising.
Factors Affect Visual Merchandising
Traffic of products will make confusion in products and irritation.
A same and repetitive display will bore the customer.
Unpleasant smell and uncomforted aisle will affect the neat display
Some Eco-Friendly Visual Merchandising
Here the draping done by using papers and tree leaves for attracting customer and get in them to shop. This draping is done by students of Angel college of Engineering and Technology, Tirupur.
Conclusion
According to visual merchandising, the above is about tools, techniques, and factors are used to expose the display. Visual merchandising is a visual communication between retailer and consumer to make them purchase. In India Visual merchandising is done according to festivals. And the theme and story are also based on a festival. It will surely help to increases the sales rating in showroom also increases the visitors of the apparel retail showrooms.
AUTHORS BIOGRAPHY
V.GUNA POORANA JYOTHI
The author is currently an undergraduate student at the Department of Fashion Technology, Angel college of Engineering and Technology, Tirupur, her area of interest is visual merchandising.
Merchandiser plays a very important role in getting and keeping key customers for the company through communicating and delivering the service as required. As merchandisers are responsible for contact with clients (local or international) and make contact on behalf of the company he/she working for. So you should properly know about the simple job description of a merchandiser. Basically, a merchandiser works as a media among buyers and sellers.
Job Description of Merchandiser
The simple job description of merchandiser contains all probable list of responsibilities a merchandiser needs to be done when working as a merchandiser for a particular company. Although the core responsibility of merchandiser is common for all level of merchandising but the job description can be different for different types (retail merchandiser, visual merchandising and fashion merchandiser) of merchandiser or different level (trainee merchandiser, junior merchandiser, assistant merchandiser, merchandiser, and senior merchandiser) of merchandise.
Core Responsibilities of Merchandiser
Under the core responsibilities, all major merchandising tasks must need to perform by the merchandiser assigned by the organization. Adequate knowledge and experience may be required to do these tasks.
A merchandiser is responsible for the following tasks
Ensure timely and regular contact with the clients as required
Visiting suppliers/ manufacturers factory or business area to monitor the production quality according to the specification.
Calculating the consumption of different apparel items (shirts, pants, trousers, or any others). This to be done perfectly within a stipulated time.
Estimating the cost of different consumption items so that on the basis of actual costing information contract can be made.
Negotiate with the customer to fix the selling price of the goods.
Additional Responsibilities of Merchandiser
In addition to the core responsibilities, the merchandiser may need to do the additional task assigned by the superior or respective supervisor under whom he/she is working for.
Involve in planning and marketing activities if required by the selling and marketing department.
Prepare report daily, weekly and monthly basis to show the prospects of sales volume.
Make a list of the potential customer and try to build a good customer relationship with them.
Involve in sales promotional activities so that sales can increase.
Not necessarily the job description of merchandiser limited to all these above-mentioned things, it may contain many other things that are considered important by the human resource manager.
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Visual merchandising is now one of the most demanding jobs for merchandisers in European countries. With the change in choice of consumers and the standard of living, people are now more conscious about fashion and style. The customer-driven visual appearance of goods and services is done by the visual merchandisers. Actually, the person who is responsible or involved with visual merchandising is considered as a visual merchandiser. They are the key success factor of a retail store.
If we define visual merchandiser broadly then we can say that they are the individuals or group of people who are actually working for creating the attractive visual look of a retail store which will work as a driving force to bring the customer. So that as a retail merchandiser you can continuously drive your prospective customers and meet their demand. Every popular retail brand has its own visual merchandiser. Visual merchandisers are one of the key success factors of apparel retail store because they create an eye-catching visual look of the store.
Visual Merchandising
Visual merchandising is different from any other traditional type of merchandising in a sense that for traditional merchandising, merchandisers actually work as a media or communicator between buyers and sellers. On behalf of a seller, a merchandiser deals with contacting with different current and prospective buyers located in the local market and international market. But the visual merchandisers work for ensuring visualizing product or services more gorgeously to get the attention of the customer which helps to increase the sales.
Basically, the involvement of visual merchandising is more common in a retail store where they work for the management of visual display of physical product to attract target customers.
Educational Qualifications of a Visual Merchandiser
Bachelor degree from fashion designing institute with a tremendous academic record.
Bachelor degree of architecture with good exposure to designing.
A student from marketing also can involve in visual merchandising but the important thing is, that person required to have knowledge about a choice of customer and ability to visualize the outlook of the store and display of product which will get the attention of the customers.
A person does not have any academic qualification of fashion designing, apparel, architecture, etc. can be a successful visual merchandiser only if he/she has real life experience and good exposure of visual merchandising. The important thing here is the experience that the person acquired through working and becomes a perfect visual merchandiser.
Qualities of a Good Visual Merchandiser
Ability to Visualize
Ability to Understand Customer’s Perception
Good Communication Skills
A Sense of Color and Design
Creative Mind
Awareness of Trends
Knowledge of Displaying Product
Ability to Use Modern Technology
Ability to Visualize
One of the main qualities of visual merchandisers is an ability to visualize the outlook of a store where the product will be displayed. Before actually doing arrangement to give the physical appearance of the store it is required to visually how it will look like and whether this will serve our purpose or not. Also, it is required to visually how the arrangement and the display of the product will create a positive attitude towards the customer’s mind and influence the customer to actually buy the product.
Ability to Understand Customers Perception
The responsibility of visual merchandiser is to plan to decorate the shop in a way that will attract the customers those who come to the store and buy the product. So the important thing is to understand the customer’s perception and choice then decorate and place the product in the right place in the right way. Which will helps to influence the buying behavior because the more attractive the product shows the more it will be demanded.
Good Communication Skills
Visual merchandisers sometimes assigned to arrange module of a showroom for particular business which is going to participate in any kind of trade fair. To attract thousands of people it is required to make the showroom attractive to the potential customers. So according to the requirement of the different department, visual merchandiser needs to communicate with different people working in different departments, that why visual merchandisers have to have good communication skills.
In other sense, a visual merchandiser actually communicates with the customer through his/her creative arrangement of the product or services in the showroom.
A sense of Color and Design
As a visual merchandiser, it is required to keep in mind the visual effect of the work because it will help to create a positive first impression. You can use any color for decorating but using proper color can make things more gorgeous. The color of a wall, color the of the roof, color of the floor, the color of the structure everything matters. So special consideration must be given when selecting a color, also for designing a product or service layout you have to consider the color combination that gets the intention of the customer.
Creative Mind
A creative mind can bring innovative ideas which actually can create a huge impact on the market. Sometimes you can see that for new and unique design customers are ready to pay the premium price that’s why companies always looking for a creative mind so that they get the unique product through making and selling. A visual merchandiser must have the capability to think differently by using their creative mind for the company for which they are working.
Awareness of Trends
Proper awareness of trends helps to work with the potential product. If a visual merchandiser is aware of the trend then he/she will work for ensuring the visual effect according to the market trends. On what basis customer choose their product, is it the quality or brand or any others factors. You can see that peoples are now more conscious about fashion, style, visual appearance, so merchandiser should keep in mind the current trends of the consumer’s demand.
Knowledge of Displaying Product
Proper knowledge of displaying a product is required to have by the visual merchandiser because, a product should have some specific qualities, features, price etc. These things must be visualized in a proper place with the product so that the customer can get the idea about the product when they are observing the product.
Ability to Use Modern Technology
In every aspect of our life we are now dependent on modern technology, with the help of the computer, the internet we may have access to information located on a web. As a visual merchandiser, you can design the outlet by using different AutoCAD software which helps to see how a design will look like. On the other hand, by using the internet you can get the idea of the latest trend, latest design, and the latest concept of visual merchandising around the world.
These are some of the qualities that a visual merchandiser required in his career. Although according to the product or store the concept may vary and also any other types of qualities may be required. The success of merchandiser depends on own qualities of how he/she can convince people to buy a product. As merchandiser works as a mediator between buyer and seller they actually influence by using their words and attitudes. You may find many visual merchandisers working in the same company and they are devoting their effort to get the same goal of organizational success through increasing sales of a product. And they are paid higher than other types of merchandiser because of their expertise.
If you want to be a good visual merchandiser then you have to understand how visual merchandising actually works and acquire knowledge about every aspect of merchandising. If you have the ability then you will definitely be successful in your merchandising of different sectors.
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10 Qualities a Successful Merchandiser Should Have
Merchandisingis the process of getting the right merchandise to the right people in the right place at the right time. This process also ensures the delivery of the right quantity to the buyers. A person responsible for these functions is basically merchandiser. And there are 10 Qualities of a Good Merchandiser which make a merchandiser successful in his/her career.
Retail Merchandiser
A person responsible for ensuring goods is in the right stores, or online at the right time and the right price. They analyze data to set selling prices and plan promotions and price reductions. In short, they maximize sales and profits whilst minimizing stock and costs. One of the common responsibilities of retail merchandising is helping visual merchandisers to make a plan of store layout.
Fashion Merchandiser
Fashion merchandiser works for buying and selling and promoting fashion items i.e clothing or other materials. The demand for fashion merchandisers is increasing because of increasing concern about fashion among people. The key role of fashion merchandise is to predict the future fashion trends to ensure delivery of fashionable products according to the needs of the society.
Visual Merchandiser
Visual merchandiserbasically works for the purpose of setting a store layout and promote the business to maximize the sales of the company. Actually, a successful visual merchandiser helps to increase the sales of a product by attracting potential buyers through visual merchandising.
Qualities of a Good Merchandiser
To be a successful merchandiser it is required to have several qualities and this requirement depends on what type of merchandising job a person is involved with. For every type of merchandising job a person should have the following characteristics and qualities:
Ability to Create a Halo Effect
Ability to Calculate Fast and Accurate
Decision Making
Business Communication Skill
Ability to Convince Buyers
Ability to Work with Team Members
Good Analytical Capability
Enough Knowledge of Garments Industry
Basic Computer Skills of Office Applications
Hard Worker and Self Motivation
Ability to create a halo effect
Halo effect is the first impression a person creates for the others. A positive impression help to bring the outcome easily, but there is a huge negative effect of the negative impression. As a successful merchandiser, every merchandiser tries to create a good impression to their clients so that future dealings may become easy.
Ability to calculate
As a merchandiser, you need to calculate several measurement and consumption which will help you to find the result easily and make a quick decision. Basic conversion factor must be known by the merchandisers. To improve these skills ones can practice more and more with a numerical digit.
Quick Decision making
When dealing with clients sometimes merchandiser may require taking an important decision, this should be quick enough so that normal flow of conversion not interrupt. Thinking the power of a person helps to make a quick decision.
Communication Skills
This one is the most important skills of all types of merchandising jobs. Every merchandiser must have this communication skill because most of the time they need to contact the clients or suppliers. Merchandisers make communication directly or over the phone call. Now a day’s communication with clients around the world is easier because of easy access to the internet.
Ability to Convince
Convincing power of a person added value to the personal skills if a merchandiser can convince then it would be possible to get the order from the customers.
Ability to work in a team
Merchandiser work in a large organization may require working in a team and the success of the team is depending on the cooperation and coordination among the group members. Those who can easily adapt to a group easily are getting extra support from the group members. In a merchandiser team, a group o people work for a particular objective that’s why they need to have the ability and intention to work in a team. Remember one thing; a team is more effective than a group.
Analytical Ability
Analysis of the situation helps to identify future demand and supply of goods. If a merchandiser has a good analytical ability of trends then he will get some extra benefit.
Knowledge of the Industry
Every merchandiser must have adequate knowledge about the industry for which he is working. Lack of knowledge may lead to an unsuccessful contract with the buyers. Think about it, if you do not have any idea about your industry and your product then how you will manage your customer. As merchandising is very challenging job ones must have a clear concept of your own industry product and services.
Computer skills
Now a day’s virtual media is one of the easiest ways to communicate with each other where computer holding the important part of it. Any kind of record keeping or forming database these technologies is used. For dealing with day to day office work computer is used by the merchandisers, this makes their job easier. So to become a qualified merchandiser you must have basic knowledge about how to deals with basic operation with the help of computer technology.
Responsibilities of a Merchandiser
Some common works or responsibilities of merchandiser are
Contacting buyers (foreign or local buyers).
Visiting suppliers and manufacturers place to check the status of the factory.
Negotiate with suppliers and buyers about the price of goods.
Communicate with another department of the company to ensure the free flow of the activities.
Forecasting about the future demand for the product and report to the supervisors.
Sometimes they work directly or indirectly to promote the product by developing an advertisement campaign and deliver it to appropriate media.
If a person really wants to be a merchandiser then he/she will be required to have all these qualities. All these qualities make their job easier with effectively.
