Key roles of a Fashion Merchandiser.
Introduction:
The term “Merchandiser” defined as a ‘Person who do buying and selling of goods for
the purpose of making a profit.’ In fashion industry there are different types of
merchandising profiles which are meant to perform different types of functions all together at
different stages of fashion industry. Over the years of the growth of merchandising as a
discipline in the fashion industry, there have been many changes in the job profile of the
merchandiser. It has charges from a simple to a much more complex job transcending
almost all functions in fashion industry. This has led to a change in the skillsrequired for the
job and evolution of the discipline of fashion merchandising.
Different types of merchandising in fashion industry can be described in following way.
The role of merchandiser is very crucial and
demanding in fashion industry. The development of
design, production execution and sourcing, selling
the merchandise to customer and displaying the
merchandise at retail shop, these are the functions
of fashion merchandiser at different level of industry.
The skills requirement of fashion merchandising
tuning with current trends in market, forecasting of
upcoming fashion trends, technical parameters like
fabric and trim details, garment quality, deciding the
sourcing strategy, communication and coordination
along with concern people in the
industry.Fashionmerchandiser takes design or
sketch from designer and develops it in such a way
that it will be market feasible, production feasible,
and meets customer demands.
Structure of fashion industry:
The structure of fashion industry is changes from
strategies adopted by the buyers from different
country. But the common trend followed in the
industry is as.
All over the world this structure is followed,
sometimes buyer directly places the order with
exporter. But about 60-70% of total business of
fashion products is run through the buying
house. In all this process the merchandiser
plays the important role.
Need of merchandising:
The need of merchandising in whole
fashion industry is summarised as follows
From buyers perspective:
To find out the market trend
To make the forecast of market, in order to develop the new style
Product development is done by merchandiser
Development of new line for the next season
Line plan is developed by the merchandiser
Make the marketing calendar
To make Communication and coordination with buying house and manufacturer
merchandiser is needed.
From buying house perspective:
To make the coordination with thevendors as well as buyer
Follow up of the export order.
Analysis of market is done by buying house merchandiser
Bring the orders to buying house
Costing is done by merchandiser
Filling the daily reports that buying house deals with
From manufacturers perspective:
The production merchandiser plays the bridge between the manufactures and buyer
The need of merchandiser starts when enquiry of buyers comes for new order
Buyer communicates all the information to the merchandiser, while merchandiser
needs to convert that information into format which is understandable to production
executives.
For the proper order follow up merchandiser is needed
The fabric and trims consumption and costing is done by the merchandiser.
Advantages of merchandising:
Merchandising Job is very demanding
Well paid designation
Opportunity to travel
Personal growth
As it is a multiple activity job designation, hence easy to move in related area.
Wide varieties of job opportunities are available.
Contact with the people from different background, culture, country, languages.
Development of soft skills.
Disadvantages of merchandising:
Excessive work load
Excessive travelling
Antisocial approach
Huge competition
Rigidity in training program
Long and late working hours
Different forms of merchandising:
Export Merchandising
Export merchandising is the bridge between the buyer and the manufacturer. It is the back
bone of apparel export industry. As the structure of industry is routing through the buying
house hence, export merchandising can be divided in two types
In export production house
In buying house
1.1 Merchandising in Garment Production:
If the garment production house is small then all the job of merchandising is done by one
person, but at the same time if it is big production house then job of merchandisers is
specified, and divided according to the function merchandiser perform, e.g. Marketing,
sourcing, sampling, product development, planning, etc.
Marketing Merchandiser:
The main job of marketing merchandiser is to do the marketing of the factory in the market
and get the new buyers and the new orders. Once order is confirmed from the buyer, then
marketing merchandiser will hand over the orders to the production merchandiser for the
further follow ups.
Production merchandising:
Production merchandisers are the face of garment industry. They normally represent the
garment industry to the buyer. The role of production merchandiser is very crucial as the
success of any export order is largely depends on performance and coordination skill of
production merchandiser. The role of production merchandiser can be summarised as
follows
Communication with buyer
Coordination within the production
Follow up of different approvals
Product development
Costing
Sourcing or purchasing of raw material
Preparation of BOM, TNA and trim card
Shipment scheduling
Communication with freight forwarder
Sourcing merchandiser:
Sourcing merchandiser works for the sourcing of fabric and trims. He will take care of only
sourcing procedure, follow up of the fabric, negation on cost and lead time with vendors.This
is much specified work in the industry. In bigger organization this work is done by different
person, production merchandiser will give only specifications related to fabric and trims.
Sampling merchandiser:
Sampling merchandiser takes care of sampling only; production merchandiser provides all
the details to sampling merchandiser. According to specification sampling merchandiser
makes sure that sample will be send to buyer on time with correct requirements of buyer.
The role of sampling merchandiser is to take follow up of all sampling as well as take care
for quality of the samples.
Product development merchandiser:
Some organizations have in-house design studio or design development department,
exporter proactively develops designs seasonally. These designs need to develop in the
form of samples and needs to present to the buyer. PD merchandiser takes care all the
activities like design development, availability of the fabrics and trims for the same, get follow
up of development samples. Sometimes some organizations have in-house fabric
production; hence development of fabric is also followed up by PD merchandiser. To bring
the business to the organization is the potential role of PD merchandiser.
Planning merchandiser:
Main responsibility of planning merchandiser is to do the production planning. Planning
merchandiser normally coordinates with sourcing team to get all the raw material delivery
dates and with Industrial Engineering department for get the SAM value of the garments.
Then along with production team planning merchandiser will do the planning of production
by considering the efficiency and absenteeism of the operator. Planning merchandiser also
needs to coordinates with cutting and packaging department in order to send the accurate
merchandise on time to buyer.
1.2 Buying house merchandising
The role of buying house merchandiser is slightly different from production
merchandiser.Buying house is an agent who works with the buyer and
manufacturer/exporter to fulfil the obligation of the export order.Buying house merchandiser
directly communicated with buyer.The function of any buying house is to represent their
overseas customer. The work done by buying house is depends upon size of buying house,
volumes handled, services provided to buyer. Prime purpose of merchandiser is to ensure
that delivery of the order is on time. The role of buying house can be described as
Research information
Identifying vendors
Keeping tracks on trends, understanding the buyers’ market
Product development for buyer
Development of new fabrics
Total costing of particular style
Placement of orders
Sourcing of fabric and accessories
Quality control
Updating the production tracking charts
Documentation and logistics
Timely delivery of shipments
Retail merchandising
Retail Merchandisers are responsible for ensuring that products appear in the right store at
the right time and in the right quantities. This involves working closely with the buying teams
to accurately forecast trends, plan stock levels and monitor performance. While the buyer
selects the lines, the merchandiser decides how much money should be spent, how many
lines should be bought and in what quantities. In smaller companies, the same person may
be responsible for both buying and merchandising.Merchandisers play a key role within
organisations, as profitability can be affected by how successfully they undertake their work.
Merchandisers set prices to maximise profits and manage the performance of ranges,
planning promotions and markdowns as necessary. They also oversee delivery and
distribution of stock and deal with suppliers.
3. Visual merchandising
As a visual merchandiser, display designer or window dresser it would be job of visual
merchandiser to create eye-catching product displays in shops and stores. Visual
merchandiser is responsible for presenting products in a way that attracts customers and
maximises sales. This could meananything from decorating a store in aseasonal theme –
like Christmas or spring sales – tomaking sure store’s displays fit the
company’s brandimage.
Conclusion
‘Merchandising’ is very wide terminology used in industry. The role of the merchandiser is
varies from stages of the fashion industry like production, buying house, retail and sells,
visual merchandiser. The work of merchandiser dynamically changes from organization to
organization. In some organization merchandiser plays wide role while in some organization
role of merchandiser is very specific.The job profile of merchandiser is also changing with
the growth of apparel industry today it becomes more complicated than previous. The
requirement of skills for merchandising changes drastically with respect to organization and
stage of fashion industry.
BUYER
A buyer is an individual responsible for deciding, what to buy, where to buy from, how
much to buy, and what price to buy and sell.
Types of buyers:
1. Importer Buyer
2. Retail Buyer
Buyer has constant contact with salespeople, merchandise managers, staff
personnel, other store buyers, and customers.
The consumer is the one who consumes the goods, i.e. the user of
the goods. It is commonly misconstrued with the term customer,
which refers to a person who buys the goods or commodity and pays
the price for it.
Companies use marketing concepts to promote and sell their products or
services, and consumer behaviour is how consumers act and respond in
the retail environment. In order for a company to create a strong marketing
campaign, it is important to understand how and to what the consumer will
respond. This relationship between marketing and consumer behaviour
involves studies, focus groups, psychological analyses and other methods
of studying the market for a particular product or service.
Consumer behaviour and the marketing concept
The relationship between the marketing concept and consumer behaviour is that
marketers have to understand markets before marketing strategies can be
developed.
Buyer behaviour is the decision making process and acts of individuals or
organisations involved in buying and using products or services.
