A huge round of applause to the merchandisers for shaping India’s retail growth story. Their patience and ability to ensure stock availability at all times allow people like us to have all our retail needs met on time. They have to be sharp in time management and material handling so that customers feel unique and good while shopping. Their proactiveness ensures retailers continue to earn while providing customers with a positive experience. All that translates into enhanced customer loyalty. Customer retention is as important as finding new customers. Such a crucial role merchandisers play. As a budding merchandise executive, you need to be aware of the required skills, job roles and other critical information.
Defining Merchandisers
Merchandisers come as retail inventory professionals ensuring the right volume of products at stores and websites. It ensures a consistent retail experience. They need to supply products adequately while monitoring, planning and forecasting stock levels. Visual merchandisers partner with the retail store executives to ensure improved retail experience and enhanced sales. They need to display products smartly and strategically to ensure maximum product visibility and accessibility.
What Do Merchandisers Do?
Merchandisers’ work involves planning and management of the stores. Typically, their job revolves around the following activities.
- Checking warehouse inventory
- Submitting comprehensive inventory reports
- Figuring out feasible prices based on consumer and market surveys
- Creating budgets along with demand/supply forecasts
- Helping create an organised warehouse structure to ensure product accessibility
- Stocking shelves and displays on the floor
- Creating compelling displays on the sales floor
Skills Required for Merchandisers
Organisational Skills
Organising products effectively is the key responsibility of merchandisers. Merchandisers need to organise products for sales displays while also communicating effectively with inventory management teams to organise warehouses.
Creativity
Doing work is fine, but doing it creatively matters more. It’s all about compelling buyers to buy products. So, merchandisers must be creative to assemble visually distinct and compelling sales displays. Creating unique products grabs customers’ attention, resulting in enhanced sales.
Communication Skills
Merchandisers need to communicate with manufacturers, business owners, store staff and suppliers. So, they must possess effective communication skills to put the right point forward. They must be able to write and speak effectively besides being comfortable negotiating.
Time Management Skills
With lots of tasks on hand, merchandisers can’t afford to be complacent. Each work assigned to them is important. Fulfilling all of them requires prioritising tasks. Finish the most important ones first and then other tasks. Setting time for each of the tasks and adhering to the same will be critical.
Computer Skills
As merchandising involves customer data, maintaining the same becomes crucial in Excel sheets. As a budding merchandiser, be familiar with mathematical formulae applied to Excel sheets to record a large volume of data correctly and effectively.
Market and Product Knowledge
Merchandisers, which act as a link between retailers and manufacturers, must understand the products and their target customers. They need to clarify doubts retailers and store owners may have regarding products. As a merchandiser, you need to make manufacturers aware of the market scenarios and best retail practices.
Final Thoughts
Merchandisers are critical to both manufacturers and retailers recording strong growth. Their effective organisational skills, communication skills and the ability to hustle through make a positive difference. If you are looking for merchandise work, consider signing up on reBLISS – a work platform that ensures work for people across retail, logistics, FMCG and similar segments of the economy.
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