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Merchandising:

Is concerned with all of the activities necessary to provide a stores customers with themerchandise they want to buy, when and where they want it and at prices they canafford and are willing to pay.

American Marketing Association defines merchandising as the planning involved in

marketing the right merchandise at the right place at the right time in the right quantitiesat the right price.

It involves: (a) Making Buying Plans (b) Understanding the customers (c) Selecting theMerchandise (d) Promoting and Selling the Goods to the consumer.

Manufacturers Merchandising:1. Designing the Goods2. Estimating customer demand in term of styles, sizes, colours, quality and price.3. Selecting the fabrics

4. Designing the packaging5. Pricing6. Determining Promotional activities.7. Directing the Sales Team.

Retail Merchandisers:1. Forecasting Customer wants and desires.2. Project Sales in terms of money and volume.3. Selection of Merchandise in terms of colours, sizes, styles, prices and other

selection factors.4. Determining resources from where to perform, selecting and purchasing thegoods.

5. Receive, Mark and prepare the goods for sale.6. Presenting the merchandise attractively.

Various Positions:

1. Fashion Coordinator / Fashion Director:This job demands an understanding of fashion trends and fashion shows production and

staging techniques. He is responsible for identifying fashion trends for seasonapurchase and promotion in order to project the stores fashion image.

2. GMM:Responsible for establishing and interpreting the stores merchandise policies and guidethe merchandise division in achieving profit.

3. DMM:Functions as advisors to and coordinators of the various buyers in their division.

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4. Buyer:Responsible for implementing company policies, plans and procedures within thedepartment. Mainly responsible for planning purchases and buying the merchandise fora department. Usual Responsibilities:

a. Determining buying plans.b. Selecting Merchandise.c. Establishing Retail prices.

d. Placing orders and reorders.e. Maintaining proper Vendor Relation.f. Maintaining Merchandise Assortments.g. Coordinating promotional plans.

Merchandising Division:

General Merchandise Manager

1. Comparison Shopping Office

2. Fashion Office3. Testing Office Divisional Merchandise Manager4. Unit Control Office5. Research Office

Buyers

Associate Buyer

Assistant Buyers

Clericals Head of Stock

Salespeople

Stock people

Merchandising Staff Bureaus:Staff bureaus that provide specialised information of importance to the buying andmerchandising of goods.

1. Comparison Shopping Bureau:Check competing stores and provide the buyer and merchandise manager withinformation concerning competitors stock assortments, prices and services.

2. The Fashion Bureau;Check that merchandise selected by fashion buyers is coordinated to project the desiredfashion image for the stores and sometimes plans and directs fashion shows to bepresented to the customers or to show store employees current fashion trends.

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3. Quality Assurance:

They serve the buyer by testing and evaluating merchandise to determine if qualitystandards are met as established by the retail firm.

4. Unit Control Bureau:

It is a system of record keeping of individual units of merchandise on hand, amount ofstock on order and amount sold. This helps the buyer in planning proper inventory levelsand balancing assortments.

5. Resident Buying Office:

This provides assistance to store buyers when they visit the markets and serve as thestores market representatives at all times.

Functions of the Merchandising Division:

1. Determining future customer demand in terms of styles, quantity, colours, pricesand fashion emphasis.

2. Planning to meet future customer demand and assure a profit.3. Selecting resources and buying merchandise.4. Coordinating advertising and sales promotion to assist in bringing the customers

into the store to buy the merchandise.5. Projecting store image.6. Establishing sound merchandising policies to ensure the success and growth of

the business and to assist in meeting competition.