So What is Merchandising?

• Merchandisers work very closely with Buyers and determine

range of goods to be sold
• When to buy them
• Their price
• How they will be presented
• Merchandiser responsible for range of merchandise, contents,
price and give policy guidelines to Buyer
• Merchandiser could be responsible for promotion, display, sales
forecast and stock levels
Retail Merchandisers need to understand all
the buying systems related to:
• Buying
• Selling
• Transportation
• Warehousing of merchandise

The Merchandiser will:

• Produce current sales figures
• Sales History Reports
• Produce Forward Estimates
• Visit Supplier Base and Warehouses AND
• Determine a strategy with the Category or Merchandise Manager
• Plan the size of the “BUY”
• Monitor stock management & allocation to stores
They will:
• Manage one or two assistants and junior allocator
• Raise Purchase Orders to match range plan from buyers

And
• Develop detailed spreadsheets for the buyers

They
• Work closely with retail buyers in forecasting stock requirements and
mark down decisions
Retail Buyers offices increasingly operate with
combination of buying and merchandising teams
• Buyers responsible for the product selection
• Merchandisers responsible for planning and financial control

Wholesale merchandising

• This is where company is a supplier to the High Street

• The Merchandiser becomes Liaison between Customer and
Factory in UK and Offshore
The Role Involves:
• Ensuring purchase order raised to budgets
• Ensuring orders from overseas and UK factories arrive on time
• Taking initial brief from customer via buyer for the season
• Negotiating cost prices with factories
• Negotiating on cost to customer i.e. selling price
• Approving pre-production samples
• Organising shipping documents
• Monitoring pre-production
• Stock control and contract invoicing
Skills and Qualifications required of Merchandiser
• Sound judgement
• Decisiveness and maturity
• Ability to cope under
pressure
• Tough, business like
approach
• Absolute integrity
• Excellent communication
skills
• Negotiation skills
• Eye for detail
• Excellent numerical skills
• Ability to interpret data and
figures and make commercial
decisions based on them
• Good I.T. skills
• A degree or HND qualification
• Be self motivated
• Have the ability to rise to a
challenge
 Buying and Merchandising Director
£120K

Buying and Merchandising Manager

£55 - £75K
Merchandiser Buyer
£30K- £45K £30K- £45K

Assistant Merchandiser Assist Buyer

£22K- £25K £22K - £25K

Allocator Buyer Assist

£16K - £18K £16K - £18K
The Role of The Merchandiser
Retail Merchandising

• Work closely with Buyers to determine ranges of goods when to buy, price and
how presented
• Produce financial plans on a seasonal basis:
– Sales and stock level
– Gross/net margins
– Gross profit
– Space planning
– Mark up/downs
• Monitoring the performance of these measurable targets on a weekly basis
• Working within the buying team ensuring suppliers deliver on time
• Monitoring the allocation & distribution of stock
Wholesale Merchandising
(The step before retail)

• Where company is a supplier to the high street, merchandiser becomes

liaison between the customer and factory
• Ensuring purchase orders are raised to budgets
• Ensuring orders arrive from overseas and UK factories
• Critical brief from customer via buyer for the season
• Negotiates cost prices with factory and customer on sell
• Organising shipping documents
• Monitoring pre-production and stock control and contract invoicing

Visual Merchandiser organise methods of display concentrating on

colour,style, impact and ticket pricing.