A merchandiser’s job is to plan, supervise, and co-ordinate or carry out the installation of promotional material in a retail store. Nearly every kind of retail store needs someone to play the merchandiser role, but they are most common in fashion retail stores. When it comes to planning the display, they will handle all the nitty gritty details, including layout, lighting, composition, and all other visual aspects to help the store sell its products. In this article, we’re going to list the most important skills you need to excel in your career as a fashion merchandiser. But first, let’s find out what your duties and responsibilities are most likely to be.
They select products to display based on seasonal trends for promotional events and seasonal collections;
They plan, sketch, and setup various display layouts for the store owner to approve;
They coordinate and install displays, whether in-store or window displays using various signage, fabrics, and props;
They coordinate and install lighting for displays so as to better highlight products;
They schedule displays to match seasons and trends;
They train fellow staff to promote products;
They review sales figures and adjust their displays to maximize revenue.
Customer service involves offering assistance to both existing and potential customers. You should be able to provide all-round high quality service, including answering their questions and solving their problems. Customer service plays an important role in your bottom line in the long term, as happy customers will keep coming back, and you will build a strong bond with them, which will encourage them to recommend your store to their friends.
You should especially ensure that customers get exactly what they ask for. Inaccurate deliveries are a pain, especially when the order was made online and the return process is long and complicated. So make sure your customers rarely have to make returns, or they won’t return.
Part of good customer service is also being a good communicator, both in spoken and written communication. Whether you’re speaking to customers face-to-face or online via chat, you should always seek to understand their pain points and communicate clearly to them that you will do your best to solve their problems.
Depending on the size of the store, you might end up running its day-to-day operations as a fashion merchandiser. If you’ve got staff under you, you should have good communication skills so you can tell them what needs to be done. You should also be able to identify any possible issues with product availability, quality, and placement, and address them before they become a serious issue. In case you aren’t running the store management yourself, you should be able to communicate with store management, especially when it comes to reporting, restocking, and even building relationships with various suppliers.
As you may have already figured out, a huge part of being a fashion merchandiser is liaising with different parties. To do this well, you need to have stellar communication skills. This runs the whole gamut, including spoken communication, written communication, and more subtle forms of communication, like body language. You should be able to calm a customer’s fears, get staff under you to work together, and create killer blog post titles for the store's blog (if they have one).
A stock room is where the company stores its merchandise. This is where you keep all the outfits and fabrics until you need them, leaving the store floor itself uncluttered. You should exercise good stock room management as a fashion merchandiser. This includes maintaining a safe work environment and ensuring products are rotating appropriately in and out of the stock room. You will probably move goods around a lot from the stockroom to the sales floor and back, or you’ll have staff under you to do it. You should also be on the sales floor when customers are browsing so you can find out if a particular product they want is in stock or not. This isn’t a very intellectually demanding responsibility, but it does require you to be constantly alert.
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Working as a fashion merchandiser requires you to exercise a lot of discretion and be independent. You won’t interact with the store manager a lot, unless it’s to give a report or ask for something. Most of the time, you will need to figure out the best course of action to take to solve a customer’s problem, get something that might be out of stock, set up a display, or even develop a relationship with a supplier. As such, you should be able to work under minimal supervision and take initiative where necessary, with the store’s best interests at heart, of course.
Fashion merchandising is an active job, with lots of duties and responsibilities. The above are just some of the most important skills you’ll need to excel at this job. Focus on mastering them and you’ll have a swell time, no matter which store you work at.
Author BIO
Charlie Svensson is a fast, engaging freelance writer and editor working with assignment help UK, AssignmentHolic and dissertation writing services. He loves writing in the academic field and has a great love for blogging as well in the education, social media, marketing, SEO and self-growth niches. He writes with a flair that touches the right chords of a diverse audience group.
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