What is Fashion Merchandising

Fashion merchandisers are entrusted with several responsibilities to boost sales and increase revenue. They work in a variety of environments such as fashion retail stores, fashion brand headquarters, trade and fashion shows. Fashion Merchandising, as a career, involves collaborating with fashion designers, manufacturers, vendors and sales and marketing teams to augment the revenue stream and impact the businesses' bottom line. Following are various career options in fashion merchandising:

Retail Buyer: A retail buyer conceptualises buying plans, negotiates with vendors and orders merchandise. His role involves extensive travel to fashion runways and trade shows to keep an eye on the latest fashion trends, which will appeal to buyers.

Planning Merchandiser: A planning merchandiser is concerned with production planning. Planning merchandisers work closely with sourcing merchandisers on the delivery timeline of raw materials. They also coordinate with industrial departments to get the SAM value of apparel. He/She, along with the production team and planning merchandiser, plans the entire production process taking into account the efficiency, strength and absenteeism of the operators. His role also involves coordinating with cutting and packaging departments to ensure the delivery of accurate merchandise on time in the market.

Sampling Merchandiser: A sampling merchandiser takes care of sampling and ensures that samples are sent to buyers on time to meet their buyers' requirements. He/She also follows up on their delivery timeline and takes care of the quality of samples.

Buying House Merchandiser: A buying house merchandiser serves as the link between the buyer and manufacturers to fulfil the terms and conditions of the export order. A buying house merchandiser communicates directly with overseas customers to understand their preferences and purchase requirements. His role involves understanding the buyers’ market, ensuring quality control, overseeing logistics and documentation and much more.

Account Manager: An account manager oversees key relationships between manufacturers and retail stores, presents new product lines to buyers and shares product and promotional details to keep them updated with the latest information and influence their purchase decisions.

Store Manager: A store manager oversees the daily operations of the fashion store, ensuring that it runs smoothly. His responsibilities include mentoring and motivating sales teams, devising business strategies, developing promotional materials and hiring and training new staff.

Visual Merchandiser: The role of a visual merchandiser involves determining floor layouts, conceptualising 3D product displays and signage, and collaborating with various stakeholders, including manufacturers and retail headquarters' staff, to push sales.

Marketing Specialist: A marketing specialist promotes brands and products to the target audience through online and offline channels and develops strategic initiatives to boost sales.

Merchandise Consultant: A merchandise consultant aids fashion companies in achieving goals by developing strategic marketing and advertising plans, assessing current trends and sales forecasts, and developing financial plans.

Future in Fashion Merchandising

Fashion merchandising is a vital building block of a brand. The demand for fashion is ubiquitous from New York, Paris and Milan to local boutiques, national retailers and e-commerce brands. In this era of stiff competition marked by the proliferation of fashion brands, there has been an increased focus on branding and customer experience. Brands need to go the extra mile to highlight their unique value proposition, stand out from the clutter and strike a meaningful and emotional connect with customers. This has provided a fillip to fashion merchandising as a career. These professionals are responsible for showcasing a brand to the target audience across platforms, including offline stores and online.

The retail sector is the biggest employer for fashion merchandising professionals. These professionals are well-positioned to carve their niche in various fields of not only fashion but also marketing, sales, public relations and communications.

According to Statista, revenue from retail e-commerce, such as the sale of fashion apparel, footwear and accessories in the U.S., is projected to be worth $205 billion by 2025, compared to $102 billion in 2018. Moreover, emerging trends such as curated experiences, focus on sustainable fashion, phygital presence, experiential communication and the use of new-age technologies such as Metaverse, Blockchain, and Augmented Reality hold great promise to reimagine the sector.