34 Apparel Merchandising

R. Sunitha

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Learning this lesson would enable you to
Understand the importance of Apparel Merchandising
Understand the outline of various Merchandising categories

Introduction

Merchandising is the process of acquiring goods and services and making them available at the right place, at the right time, at right price and in the right quantity, to get the target customer. It means buying and selling commodities for a profit. It involves processes such as sourcing, assortment, pricing and communicating the retailers merchandise to the target customers. Merchandising deals with showcasing the garment product in a way that it stimulates consumer desire for purchasing the particular product. In apparel merchandising the volume of stock varies greatly depending on sales. The space needs to be planned for flexible display. Today the retailers are highly competitive and have become master planners. Right merchandising is done by the retailers in their shops to bring about uniqueness. Visual presentations are given more importance. Merchandising services are global enterprises and in the retail industry these are assets for the manufacturers.

Benefits of Merchandising

Merchandising benefits the retailer as well as the customer. For the retailer, it enhances the possibility of the assortment of goods and an increased chance of sales. The types of merchandise are staple, seasonal, fashion, fad merchandise.

Significance of Merchandising in Apparel Industry

The term merchandising got its significance after the industrial revolution. It forms a bridge between design and sales to fill the needs. The apparel chain includes the raw materials and processing of them to prepare apparel products which are converted from paper to reality. It comprises of five major sectors namely fibre, yarn, fabric, garment and retail sectors. At each and every stage the quality should be maintained and monitored to obtain quality end product.

4.Apparel Merchandising

Apparel merchandising is defined as the development, execution and delivery of a product based upon the needs of the target market.

Need for Merchandising

Need for merchandising are dramatic growth, complicated raw materials and processes, complex networks advert of new style, reduced product life cycle, textile innovations, computer applications and global transition.

Organisational Structure of Merchandising

The emergence of new technology and drastic growth of apparel industry made the apparel manufacturers respond quickly to the changes. The evolution of distinct structural changes in apparel organisation comprises of five stages.

Stage 1

More importance was given to manufacturing and the sales team took order. The manufacturing division maintained stocks

Stage 2

The concept of marketing emerged at this stage (in apparel industry)
This satisfied the consumer requirements and also built up an image of the apparel manufacturers

Stage 3

Marketing gained more importance.
To fulfil the consumer demands product development departments were created.
To bridge the gap between the designing and business a new function emerged which is nothing but merchandising.
The merchandising ensured that the design development was done to the level of the satisfaction of the customers.

Stage 4

Merchandisers focussed on product innovation and development which became important for the apparel companies.

Stage 5

Sourcing was incorporated as separate division in some companies due to rising complications of product development and global sourcing.
The merchandisers concentrated on the design and product development.

7. Categories of Apparel Merchandising

7.1.Apparel fashion merchandising

7.2.Apparel production for export merchandising

7.3.Apparel retail merchandising

7.1. Apparel fashion merchandising

Apparel merchandising involves conceptualization, development and procurement of raw materials. Branded merchandise is identified by a name of symbol and is associated with product characteristics. Apparel fashion merchandising involves fashion forecasting design development and product development, production merchandising and retail merchandising.

7.1.1. Organisation of Apparel Fashion Merchandising

It involves the following members.

a.Designer – designer is highly creative. She is employed by the manufacturer. Some special areas of a designer are bridal wears, casual wears, pants, blouses etc.

Buyer big retail organisation may have buyer. He does buying wisely. He analyzes, forecasts fashion and the customers buying patterns and abilitiesStudies about advertisement media and fashion publicationDoes intensive travelling to many fashion centres for selecting the designs
Comparison shopper assists the buyer. He compares and evaluates the quality and price of raw materials merchandise, checks with the competitors, and also does displays and overall merchandise.
Merchandising manager co ordinates and supervises the planning of all the depth. He should have leadership qualities good knowledge about the business, involvement and ability to blend with others.
Display director Does the displays in the store and is termed as visual merchandiser. He displays the clothes such that it motivates the viewers to buy the products.
Stylist is appointed in fashion retail business organisations or fashion sales promotion organisations. When a fashion item is to be displayed, the other items which are displayed should emphasize the main item.
Fashion director takes care of the overall fashion image and changing seasonal appearance and holiday. The planning made by the fashion directors will guide all the departments of the store to be ready to start their fashion promotion on the same day.
Customer fashion consultant is employed to provide consultancy for an individual customer on wardrobe planning, accessories, fashion budgeting and on the latest style.
Sales representatives: the success of wholesale and retail businesses mainly depends on the sales activities. The customer makes the purchase from the company sales representatives. The wholesale sales representative deals with retail stores and the retail sales representative deals directly with the customers. The sales representative should have a good personality and communication skills.
Copy writer may be employed by the fashion manufacturer or fashion retailer or advertising agency. He works closely with the buyers. They provide ideas for advertisement and need to approve finished advertisement before they are printed
Artist, art director develop advertising art and materials such as catalogues for sales promotion posters and he needs artistic skills along with fashion knowledge.
Photographer; specially making fashion photo work as free lancers accepting the individual assignments from retailer, wholesaler and advertising agencies.
Model: they pose for fashion photograph. They are hired for fashion shows. They are employed by manufacturers who have very specific size requests for fashion models.
Fashion editor: the national fashion magazine have their fashion editors who are fashion directors. He advises the magazines on fashion trends and photograph displays.
Garment technologist is technically qualified in the garment technology. Takes care of seam type and stitches; sewing machine used, details in the garment, size, quality specifications. He should have extensive knowledge about different types of fabrics and styles of apparels.

7.1.2. Steps in Fashion merchandising

Fashion director: It directs the company new fashion presentation for upcoming seasons. Fashion predicts is done by fashion director in the big organisation and by the owner himself in small organisations. The directors attend fashion shows, study of fashion trend and gives presentations regarding future trends. The most important challenge for a fashion director is identifying and keeping up with trends.
Design development: the designer will create many purchased designs as per trends. Care is taken that uniqueness is brought in the designs. Designer also supervises pattern and sample making.
Sample Development: The potential designs are selected from the number of designs created by the designer. Flat sketches of the selected designs are drawn for pattern making. The pattern is prepared by draping or flat patterns of sample size which is sent for testing.

The pattern is then transferred to the fabric, layout is made and cutting is done. Sample is sewn by the sample maker. Then this is tested for its fit and total workmanship. The design may be altered as it is transformed from two dimensional sketch to three dimensional.

7.1.3. Product specification

It guides the production department to develop and plan this merchandising, production planning, organize things for effective and efficient production of the merchandise. The contents of the product specification include the details such as style description, style number.

Season, name of designer, name of garment technician, name of buyer, fabric details like fabric strength, composition, weight, assortment details like size and color, design sketch and flat sketch of garment, measurement specification, technical details like seam and stitch accessories and trims, quality requirements, pack requirements and sample requirements.

Merchandising plan or policy

7.1.4. Preparation of Merchandising plan or policy involves following steps

1.Estimating the sales: the estimation of sales is done for the next season by analysing the previous year sale, population, the market competition, market trends, buying the selling cycle.

2.Planning the stock: estimation of stock to be maintained to meet consumer demands

3.Average stock: it should be planned for each season. An average stock can be estimated by dividing the sales plan by the turnover rate

Planning purchase: the determination of the monitory of the amount of the goods. The value of stock on hand in the beginning of the season should be considered while making the retail value of the purchases.

7.1.5. Assortment planning

Assortment in a co-operative retailer supplying process of determining the optimal product offering within a category that achieves target consumer satisfaction and enhanced business results. A good assortment planning will appeal group of customers. The objectives of assortment planning are to buy proper assortment of styles, color, size and prizes that fulfills the consumer demands.

To plan delivery time for the goods To arrive at the store at the right time To display and promote merchandise

The factors the consumers should consider are fashion image of the store and merchandising policies, degree of visual merchandising done in the store, type, promotional activities planned .

7.1.6. Buying

Buying is done after the merchandising and assortment planning. A buyer may purchase the merchandise directly from the manufacturer or through buying offices.

The responsibility of buyer are sourcing of selection of the suppliers order negotiation and place Sample development from the supplier, approval of various samples, color design, accessories, order follow up, receiving and distribution of the merchandise, organizing promotional activities, evaluating the sales.

7.1.7. Receiving and distribution

The goods are received at the shipped Buyers warehouses .there the goods are checked for quality, quantity, style and colors. Repacking is done if necessary in the warehouse and are distributed to various retail stores

7.2. Apparel export merchandising

Apparel production for export merchandising involves sample development, planning and programming, manufacturing and shipment. It falls under production merchandising.

All the planning and activities involved right from the buyer communication and order receiving till the execution or shipment of the order. It fulfils the following factors – right time, right quality, right quantity and price, code, conduct and replace

7.2.1. Process flow

Buyer sourcing

It is the foremost activity; the details about buyers can be collected from websites, magazines, journals, trade fares, shows, agents, hotels, word of mouths, contacts and trade directories.

Buyer communication

After sourcing the buyers, communication is done to them through the letters, emails, fax etc., the buyer may ask the exporter to send few sample with price to evaluate exporters quality and workmanship.

Enquiring and sampling

The buyer may send an enquiry once he is satisfied with the exporter’s quality. The general content of the enquiry may have details of garment style, fabric, colour and assortment. But this enquiry may not be order confirmation.

Pre costing and reply

After receiving the enquiry from the buyer merchandise has to do the pre costing for the product which is mentioned in the enquiry. Pre costing is the tentative price estimation of product. While doing costing various aspects like style, fabric, colour design, accessories are taken into account. After pre costing is done the price is arrived which has to be sent to the buyer

Order confirmation and acceptance

If the price offered to the buyer is acceptable to him then he confirm the order to the exporter. The order confirmation should be in the form of order sheet. The purchase order from the buyer duly signed with seal of the buyer.

Order review

Reviewing the order sheet as there may be variation in quantity. It is an important activity for the execution of order.

Planning and programming

Planning and programming time calculation and scheduling of the order where as programming is the decision of certain activities in a particular order

Samples are product that represents whole lot in order to access their quality based on this the buyer would give approval or comments for alterations. It reflects the quality of the manufacturer. These are made to get a desired style, design, fit and good quality.

Accessories, sourcing and purchasing

This has become an important and critical function in the apparel industry . As it takes more time, planning should be done such that it reaches the factory in time.

Inspection and testing

Inspection is a process of visual identification of defects. There are three types of inspection

Raw material inspection; where the raw materials are inspected used for apparel production it is called incoming material inspection.

Online or in process inspection done during the manufacture process for rectifying the problems at that stage itself. This is done by the quality controller.

Find inspection alone after the goods are manufactured and packed in carton boxes and ready for shipment.

Testing quality is tested, the test with standard procedures are carried out

The tests are fibre composition, GSM, Dimensional stability, Colour fastness, Pilling, Bow and skewness, Bursting, Azo and Fabric count. The fabric is also tested for special tests.

Cutting

Before cutting the sized samples, accessories. In house testing reports, fabric inspection reports should be approved before cutting

Approvals: the approvals to be obtained are

Fabric approval, garment sample, accessories, colour , design, packaging, quality , quantity, time extending factory, document approval.

Shipment marks

Shipping marks are the symbols or logo which are given by buyers to be printed on the carton boxes for easy identification may be rectangle or triangle or circle

Shipment

After thorough inspection shipment is done. The transportation may be by sea or air or road or combination of all or courier or post.

7.3. Apparel retail merchandising process

Retailing includes the activities related to direct selling of products or services to the ultimate consumers. Apparel retail merchandising involves apparel merchandising retail promotion and sales, visual merchandising, inventory control, sales evolution and retail operation. This is done by retail personnel along with merchandising team. Retail fashion merchandising is the buying and selling of apparel product to consumer for a profit. This is done by considering the following factors.

7.3.1. Analysing the local customers

Sales in a particular store is determined by the factors namely the geographical location of the store, population of the area, social activities, economic conditions, fashion influences of the particular population.

7.3.2. Selecting a fashion image

The retail store has a public image in the customers mind. According to the target customers, the fashion image is selected.

7.3.3. Merchandising policies

The choice of merchandise policies is to affect the fashion image. The decision is made about at which stage of fashion cycle the goods are pure based. Merchandise assortment is done on sizes, colours and styles. The price line decisions for the products are also made in store.

7.3.4. Buying the merchandise: the buyer must plan to purchase merchandise which should be delivered at the right time. A delayed delivery leads to loss in business. Too much of merchandise will reduce the profit. Too little merchandise will also reduce the sales. The consumer used types of inventory controlled system are physical and perpetual inventory system.

7.3.5. Receiving and stocking the merchandise

The quality and quantity of the goods received should be checked before they are sent for display or selling. After receiving the goods these are marked, tagged and kept in stock for sales. Marking is done with computers using barcodes. In small stores, it is done manually, The marking includes received date of the item, suppliers or manufacturers, department number, class of merchandise, wholesale cost of the item and retail price of the item.

7.3.6. Display

method of displays is very important for sale. Good displays enhance the sales. Care should be taken to display the goods such that it attracts the customers.

7.3.7. Sales promotion

Sales promotion is important for successful sale, fashion merchandise. It includes activities like advertising, publicity, visual display, fashion shows, special events and personal selling. The communication purposes the sales promotion are to introduce a new product attract new customers and establish the stores authority or image.

7.3.8. Customer services

Customer services is important tools to retain the customers for long term basis. This includes offering membership cards, free delivery, good parking facilities, customer credit, credit card facilities, etc. Customer services can be classified into three categories.

Presales customer services – Welcome drinks, chocolates, test samples etc
Point-of-sale – customer services which is offered when the customer makes the actual purchase like free delivery, gift wrapping, discounts, free gifts, etc.
After sale customer services – after sale like free services, warranty and guarantee for spare parts.

7.3.9. Retail selling

The main objective of the retailers is to make the shoppers to buy. Apparel retailing means assisting, forcing and encouraging a customer to buy a particular item. The ultimate retail selling is to encourage repeat sales.

7.3.10. Sales evaluation

Analysing of the sales of a product related to size, style, colour and price are done. The effect of sales promotion and visual marketing is also assessed. This would be helpful for making and taking decision for the next season market plan.

Visual merchandising

This helps the customers to see the product before they purchase. It is an art of displaying things in an attractive way. So as to attract the customers and to persuade them to buy. It is a team effort. Visual merchandisers functions are to plan the merchandising themes, make visual merchandising display as per seasonal calendar, select the merchandiser for display number of visual merchandising display to be made processing and arranging. Visual merchandising elements, evaluation of the effects for future modification and comparative study with competition and forecasting.

The visual merchandising elements include mannequin, forms, fixtures, hanging, poles, stands, platform, paintings, wall decoration, fabrics, banners, table lights, accessories and music. It can be interior display or exterior display.

The interior display includes store lay out, store design, display space item, item display and assortment display. The exterior display includes window display and store front display.

Private labels

Private label merchandise bears the name of the retail store in which it is sold or the name exclusively used by retailer. Private labels products branded by the whole sale distributor. It is called retailer brand, store brand or in – house brand. These products are developed by the retailers. The image of the private label brands is about occupying the low price segment of the market. These goods are priced 20-30% less than the branded ones. The department stores with private labels and private brands retailing, have more than one collection of these exclusive names. Some trends of private labels are an increase in the proportion of private labels in the merchandise mix. Licensing agreements on the rise partnership is becoming a factor in private retailers expansion of established store in the brand concept and resident buying after expansion in private label offerings. Private label merchandise as used in the fashion industry, refers to goods produced exclusively for one retailer. Retailer have better profit on private label goods that are produced exclusively for one retailer and it carries only a name of the retailer.

Conclusion

Thus the fashion merchandising helps in promoting the apparel goods to make it reach the customers. The appropriate method of merchandising should be used suitably for various goods and products to be sold.

you can view video on Apparel Merchandising

REFERENCES

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Web links

http://www.fibre2fashion.com/industry-article/83/fashion-forecasting?page=1
www.awaionline.com/what-is-copywriting/
https://www.google.co.in/search?biw=1366&bih=674&q=fashion+director
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fashion_photography
www.designersnexus.com/fashion-design-portfolio/digital-fashion-flat-sketches/
https://www.inc.com/encyclopedia/sales-promotion.html economictimes.indiatimes.com/definition/visual-merchandising