Summer 2012 will be remembered for a variety of reasons the Golden Jubilee, the Olympics, Euro 2012 and rain, rain and more rain! Way back in Autumn 2011 Fashion Buyers and Merchandisers were gazing in their fashion crystal balls, planning the colours, trends and designs which were going to be big for Spring Summer 2012.
A Typical list may have been....
Scarf print.............✓
Sorbet Colours...........✓
Sports Luxe.....................✓
Sandals...........................✓
One big assumption made when buying ranges is that the right weather conditions will be there to support the sales of clothing . Retailers are banking on dry sunny and mild weather conditions. However Summer 2012 has been a complete wash out and has provided retailers with two huge problems.(1) Summer stock has to sell in order to meet projected profit margins and (2) Secondarily Summer stock has to be sold to make space for Autumn Winter 2012 stock.
With fashion being the fickle beast it is, key trends are as quickly "out" as they are "in". Decisive action has to be taken and the mantra of "Sell Sell Sell" has been swapped for "Slash Slash Slash".Summer sales have been launched around 2 months early and there are much more larger quantities of individual lines to flog! Retail Hell from a retailers point of view and Retail Heaven from a consumers as there are bargains galore at very competitive prices.
So who knows what the rest of the summer has in store? Summer 2012 is very fashionably late and Autumn Winter 2012 is unfashionably early.Autumn Winter Previews are online and in store, quick of the mark to appeal to those who want knitwear and heavier weight clothing. Not forgetting the fashion savvy who do not want to buy into old trends and want to get ahead of the fashion pack, with Autumn Winter trends now.
Wednesday 11 July 2012
Monday 2 July 2012
Every Journey starts with a small step....
Following redundancy from a Property profession I decided to embark on a career change.Whilst researching areas of interest I stumbled on Fashion Merchandising.
Merchandising as in creating pretty Selfridges worthy window displays you ask? Nope Merchandising as in sales, profits, gross margins, range plans and mark downs. Picture the scene sale time is around the corner you can almost breathe and smell the bargains.Patiently waiting for the most fabulous/divine/ can't live without/got to have it/must have piece to go into sale? Yes, I can see you nodding away, well it's the Merchandiser with the power to reduce your item from £100 to £60 with a click of a button and the giver of those bargains! Have you ever thought your eyes were playing tricks when the item you saw last week had increased in price by £15, well its that pesky Merchandiser at work. Increasing prices to increase profit or to slow down the sales of that line.
If you love fashion but don't fancy the usual Buyer/Designer/Pa/Stylist roles then Merchandising may be for you. So how did I convince a company to give me a go. I carried out an retail merchandising internship with expenses for a charity. I then applied and got a job with a huge High street retailor as a Sales Advisor hoping to boost my applications for fiercely competitive entry level jobs.
I applied for many positions over the past 2.5 years and received a few enquiry telephone calls, however one particular company called me back with an invite to interview. I had to prepare a SWOT analysis, conduct a store visit, as well as a basic maths test and 1 to 1 interview. After completing those hurdles I was offered a job as an allocator aka merchandise admin assistant aka trainee merchandiser and a few weeks in, I am loving it. This blog will be all thing Merchandising, focussing on the business side of Fashion
Merchandising as in creating pretty Selfridges worthy window displays you ask? Nope Merchandising as in sales, profits, gross margins, range plans and mark downs. Picture the scene sale time is around the corner you can almost breathe and smell the bargains.Patiently waiting for the most fabulous/divine/ can't live without/got to have it/must have piece to go into sale? Yes, I can see you nodding away, well it's the Merchandiser with the power to reduce your item from £100 to £60 with a click of a button and the giver of those bargains! Have you ever thought your eyes were playing tricks when the item you saw last week had increased in price by £15, well its that pesky Merchandiser at work. Increasing prices to increase profit or to slow down the sales of that line.
If you love fashion but don't fancy the usual Buyer/Designer/Pa/Stylist roles then Merchandising may be for you. So how did I convince a company to give me a go. I carried out an retail merchandising internship with expenses for a charity. I then applied and got a job with a huge High street retailor as a Sales Advisor hoping to boost my applications for fiercely competitive entry level jobs.
I applied for many positions over the past 2.5 years and received a few enquiry telephone calls, however one particular company called me back with an invite to interview. I had to prepare a SWOT analysis, conduct a store visit, as well as a basic maths test and 1 to 1 interview. After completing those hurdles I was offered a job as an allocator aka merchandise admin assistant aka trainee merchandiser and a few weeks in, I am loving it. This blog will be all thing Merchandising, focussing on the business side of Fashion
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)