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
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