Retailing and Merchandising in Textiles and Appare 3(2+1)
Lesson 13 : Merchandising
Interfacing with Sales and Marketing
Line planning, style selection, and line presentation require a close working relationship among merchandising, sales, and marketing. Throughout the en tire product development process, merchandising should be obtaining valuable input from sales and marketing as to how current styles are selling at re tail and trend projections from retail buyers. Periodic style preview meetings to discuss line direction and line adoption meetings allow sales and marketing to "buy" into the final line. A good sales staff maintains constant communication with key accounts and can there fore provide valuable current information on changing market trends in retail sales.
Merchandisers may attend a few sales presentations during a season to get a firsthand understanding of how the buyers respond to the line. Attending sales presentations may be difficult for merchandisers because of their hectic schedules, but this opportunity to see buyers' reaction to the line can be quite valuable in helping to maintain a clear understanding of the target market. It is frequently heard that many designers and merchandisers spend too much time in their "ivory towers" and lose touch with their retail buyers and the ultimate consumers.
It is also critical for the merchandiser to maintain close communications with sales throughout the season in order to receive advance sales advice. This information may be in the form of:
Early sales estimates-estimates of sales potentials for each style gleaned by sales reps from reliable retail customers.
Early sales promises-commitments from key accounts that are not yet confirmed orders.
Early sales orders-confirmed orders that may not yet be entered into the order processing system. Many companies are focusing on captur- ing these orders at point-of-sale by equipping their sales forces with notebook computers and modems.
Participants