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Career in Merchandising: “The decisions that a merchandiser makes are crucial to the success of the business.”

What is merchandising?

A merchandiser decides which stock to allocate to which stores and in what quantity. For example, a large store based in Delhi may sell more dresses than a smaller store based in Lucknow. As such, the merchandiser responsible for dresses (or perhaps for clothing in a supermarket) has to decide how many dresses or how many different lines of dresses each store needs. If the merchandiser were to give the smaller store the same amount of stock as the larger store then they may run the risk of not being able to sell it all. This could mean having to pay for the stock to be stored in warehouses. Or it could mean having to sell off the stock at a reduced price in order to get rid of it. Alternatively, if the merchandiser underestimated the amount of stock the larger store would get through it could cause a demand problem.

Customers might not be able to get the product they want and so may turn to a different retailer. The decisions that a merchandiser makes are therefore crucial to the success of the business; if they get it wrong, there could be considerable financial implications.

Merchandisers work closely with buyers to identify any upcoming trends that they need to satisfy. Buyers choose which products the retailer should sell and the merchandisers decide how much of each product to buy and where the stock should be allocated. In order to make these decisions, merchandisers constantly review sales history and monitor how well different products are performing; this helps them to identify which products need restocking and which ones aren’t selling as well as expected. They need to understand customer trends and consider factors such as how variations in footfall and demographic will affect the type and amount of stock required in different stores. The main priority of a merchandiser is to make sure that the departments or stores for which they are responsible meet their sales targets and ensure a healthy profit margin. If margins are below expectations, they will need to analyse the reasons behind this and alert management to the problem.