Merchandising Skills

Skills Needed For Fashion Merchandiser 

Forecasting Ability 

While more methodical than fortune telling, fashion merchandising does require forecasting ability. A thorough knowledge of past fashion trends and an awareness of current industry developments will serve you well in a fashion merchandising career.

Analytical Ability 

Problem solving and analytical ability also come in handy in this field. A good sense of style obviously helps you; however, you must also determine how things fit into a budget and whether they meet the functional needs of consumers. Other criteria may also influence your fashion merchandising decisions, so you will need to be able to analyze a complex set of issues and stand behind your choices 

Communication Skills 

Fashion merchandising also requires good communication skills. From negotiating with manufacturers to getting your marketing message out to customers, there is ample opportunity to exercise your powers of communication in the fashion merchandising field. 

Additional Skills 

The world of fashion is a tough world to penetrate, and unless you are armed with the right tools, you may never get in at all. It's a hard fact, but a thriving, dog-eat-dog industry has no room for shy, timid and unlearned fashion wannabes Now, if you love fashion and everything about it, you already have an edge, but this is not enough. There are a lot facets in the fashion industry that you need to master or at least learn more about to be able to equip you better before entering the scene. Additionally, fashion merchandisers seek out the target market for a designer's clothing, such as children's clothing stores, department stores or discount retailers The final component of fashion merchandising is selling. A fashion merchandiser that works with a designer is responsible for selling fashion items to stores, who then sells to consumers. Again the merchandiser must have an idea about forecasting and market trends so they may give their recommendation regarding production of the item. Creativity is important, because a merchandiser must offer suggestions on how to display the items within the store. When a fashion merchandiser works for a retail store, responsibilities include buying and presenting fashion items within the store.

Customer Focused Merchandising (CFM) 

Top Ten Tips for being a CFM Merchandiser In today’s extremely competitive apparel industry, CFM – customer focused merchandising is the single most important factor that can differentiate you from others in the field, whichever side you may be on, be it retailing or sourcing as in buying offices or in manufacturing. We cannot afford to be satisfied with just being ‘nice’ to customer anymore. We must aim to offer them an unforgettable experience. This requires not just training, skills and knowledge, but creating an environment where people take pride in serving others. Buyers/Customers are not just buying the product or service from you, they purchase ‘how they feel doing business with you’. It’s the memory they retain of how it was to work with you...and that’s what keeps them coming back to you again. 

1. Be the Expert. You must know your job thoroughly so that your customer can trust you. An understanding about fabrics, fit/pattern issues, costing, lead times, etc is a must have for a CFM merchant. For example, if you get a request from the buyer for making a certain complex garment at a very sharp price, you as a CFM merchant should be able to act as a consultant to the buyer by giving them options of what modifications can be made to make the garment fit in the target price, as well as warn them of any potential lead time or production feasibility issues to allow the customer to make an informed decision right at the outset of development stage. 

2. Professionalism counts. Professionalism in every job that they do is what makes a CFM merchant shine above the rest. It’s a reflection of who you are as a person and as a professional. Whether it’s a swatch card you make or whether it’s a lab dip submit you prepare or whether it’s a cost sheet you send to buyer, in every job that you do, you can make a tremendous difference to the experience the customer will go through, just by being a thorough professional. I have witnessed a million frustrating moments which buyers face, when a job is not professionally done. Trying to figure out a badly hand written tag, scratched /rewritten information on swatch cards, incomplete information on submit cards etc are just a few examples. A professionally done job is what makes the customer go ‘wow’! 

3. Make it easy for the customer. CFM merchants will ensure to make life easy for customer. Simple. Let me give you some examples. If you are offering different fabric options to the customer, as a CFM, you will make sure to include complete fabric details in terms of count, construction, weight, width, lead-time, price etc...And you will even go a step further to give an estimated garment fob for each fabric option being offered. There! , you made life easy for buyer, by anticipating and proactively addressing all their needs, without being asked to! Wow! I am reminded of a situation I came across in my life as a merchant. A particular submit was rejected for quality by buyer with almost panic sounding remarks, when it was intended for colour approval! Now if you were a CFM merchant, the situation would never have arisen, because you would have simply made sure to write complete details on the submit including the purpose – ONLY FOR COLOR APPROVAL, NOT FOR QUALITY. 

4. Speed to customer. CFM merchants realise the importance of the need to respond quickly to the needs of the customers, especially critical in the fast paced dynamic world of fashion and apparel. You have to be able to get back with your price quotes, sample turnarounds, approval submits and the like within the limited time available. In fact, the best is to be chasing the buyers instead of being chased by them. 

5. Manage their deadlines. A CFM merchant will go one step further in not only keeping track of deadlines for various activities that they need to do, but also act as a consultant and advise the buyer of the deadlines that the buyers need to keep for activities owned by them to ensure on time delivery of goods. For example if your order involves an accessory which the buyer is going to develop directly with the trim supplier, as a CFM merchant, you will remind the buyer of the timelines they have for developing this trim and the latest by which they should approve the accessory with the trim supplier, so you get it in time for the order. 

6. Communication! Communication! Communication! One cannot stress enough about the essential communication skills which are a must have for CFM merchandisers. You have to be comprehensive, precise and crystal clear in your communication with the customer. Stick to the two insert rule and then draft a new email to avoid confusion. Think before you press the send button! Because once that’s done, you have no control over where your written email might land up. So be careful. Other than written communication skills, oral and non verbal communication is another important skill to develop. You cannot go wrong with a ‘thank you’ and an ‘apology’ so use these magic words as often as you can. Understand the subtle nuances of body language and the tone of voice while communicating. Sometimes, it’s not what you say, but how you say it that matters. A good thing to know with customers is you cannot win an argument with them. Do not even attempt it. Instead approach the issues with an agreement frame of mind and look for win-win resolutions. Put your point across, but before that make the customer know that you have understood their point of view. A simple trick like, replacing the use of ‘but’ with an ‘and’ in your sentences can do the magic in terms of how you can resolve conflicts faster. Try it. 

7. Do not forget the internal customers. My dad taught me this early in life- ‘clever is one who gets his work done’. A CFM merchant will apply all the skills that he uses with the external customer on the ‘all important’ internal customers as well. These are the people within your own organization across the departments, your own vendors etc. Building rapport and good relationship with people around you, helps in getting your work done faster. In the cross functional environment, you cannot survive without this skill. Appreciate good work done by others in public, and criticize in private. Be clear in communicating your expectations and above all be transparent and honest in your dealings. 

8. Cosmic force of Habit. Habit is a powerful force to break. A CFM merchant knows to use this force. By the sheer delight that they are to work with, they soon get their customers habituated to working with them. Once the customer is spoilt by your high level of service, it will be difficult for them to break that habit and switch to another supplier. 

9. Build trust based relationships. Anybody wants to do business with a person or organization they can trust. You must develop trust based relationships and win your buyer’s confidence. Reliability in keeping your commitments goes a long way in building your credibility. Sharing information in a transparent manner builds trust. Once you create a reputation for yourself, it goes along with you wherever you might be. People might change organizations and move on in life, but they will remember the credibility and trust you built with them in your past dealings. 

10. Take pride in making a difference. Nothing is more satisfying to a CFM merchant than a happy customer. They take pride in making a difference to other people’s lives. Go ahead and make the day of your customers by doing that ‘extra’ bit in everything you do. They will love you more and you will love yourself more too !

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