Retailing And Merchandising In Textiles And Appare

Retailing and Merchandising in Textiles and Appare 3(2+1)

Lesson 13 : Merchandising

Planning and Control

Another important function of merchandising and product managing is plan­ning effectively and maintaining control. These actions encompass all depart­ments of an apparel company. Merchandising is responsible for critical planning and control functions, such as the following:

• The merchandiser plays a vital role in strategic planning (identifying where and how a company's resources should be allocated) along with marketing, sales, production, finance, and administration.
• The merchandiser must ensure timely line development in accordance with market needs and the company's capacities and capabilities.
• The merchandiser must integrate company functions within the total supply chain, which is very complex in connection with global sourc­ing of both raw materials and finished products.
• In larger companies, the merchandiser coordinates intracompany ac­tivities with other departments.

The tools used to accomplish planning and control are:

• The marketing calendar is the basis for all other apparel company planning. It establishes the line preview date, which is the date when management will review proposed styles with sales; the line release date, which is when the line will be available for sale to retailers; the sales plan; and the shipping plan. The line release date is the pivotal point for each season's activities. It is the one date that is etched in stone and cannot be delayed or postponed since it usually coincides with major market weeks, industry shows, and sales presentations to key accounts.
• The merchandising calendar or line calendar is the primary control tool in an apparel company and retail company that develops private label merchandise. It establishes responsibilities for, and sets forth, start­ing dates and deadlines for completion of all key events for a season.
• The line plan focuses the efforts of the design team in one cohesive direction. It establishes the number of fabrics, styles, constructions, and stock keeping units (SKUs) in a line by product group.
• The shelf stock plan is made up of the styles and quantities by color and size that should be in stock on a weekly basis. The six-month mer­chandise plan is the retailer's counterpart to the shelf stock plan. A re­finement is the model stock plan.
• Merchandisers use computers for developing their plans and for tracking progress in various departments. Spreadsheet, relational database, project management, and task scheduling software have greatly aided the merchan­diser in accomplishing the complex responsibilities of planning and control.