Customer Profiling in Apparel Merchandising

Kazi Md. Rashedul Islam
B.Sc. in Textile Engineering (DUET)
Author & Founder of Textile Trainer
Email: textiletrainer@gmail.com

Introduction:
In the apparel industry, a merchandiser is a person who is responsible for managing buyers and their orders. He observes the manufacturing activities of the company to ensure timely delivery. He also ensures the right quality and quantity of products. In other words, we can say, that a garment merchandiser is a person who buys raw materials, and accessories for producing required garments and exports them to buyers in different countries at the right time. There are lots of responsibilities of a merchandiser. Preparing customer profiling is one of the most important responsibilities for a merchandiser. In this article, we will discuss the customer profiling method and the benefits of customer profiling in apparel merchandising.

What is Customer Profiling?
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, customer profiling is defined as “a description of a company’s typical customers” or “detailed information about a particular customer”. The purpose of customer profiling is to generate a description of a particular group of customers to assist a company in making decisions about specific services. Simply we can say, that customer profiling involves understanding customer’s needs and wants.

Effective Use of Customer Profiling:

Customer profiling helps to deliver tailored services with efficiency and effectiveness.
It also helps to organize resources according to priority.
It also helps to create responsive services that reflect and encourage customer engagement.
Customer profiling helps to improve customer service and satisfaction.

Process of Customer Profiling:
Consumer data collection and maintenance is not a new practice; it has just become more elaborate. A profile is only as useful as the point of time when it was created, so it needs to be updated regularly to remain useful. The process of customer profiling is given below:

Fig: Customer Profiling in Apparel Merchandising

1. Collect data and store it accurately: In the first stage, we have to gather relevant data about customers. We can collect data from various sources such as transactions, surveys, and social media. we must have to ensure that the collected data is accurate and store the data securely.

2. Extract data and match to profiles: After date collection, extract relevant information and organize it into customer profiles. We can categorize customers, based on purchase history and demographics.

3. Map to see geographic patterns: Now, we analyze the geographical distribution of customers to identify trends. Mapping customer locations can provide insights into regional preferences, market opportunities, or areas.

4. Analysis of information: In this stage, we analyze the information and identify gaps in customer needs, preferences, or satisfaction levels.

5. Look for supporting information: We may use market research, industry reports, or customer feedback surveys to enrich our customer data.

6. Identify the actions needed: In this stage, we need to establish specific actions or initiatives to address identified gaps based on the analysis.

7. Implement plans: The planned actions or changes should be implemented across relevant departments or business functions. These actions may include updating marketing strategies, refining product offerings, and improving customer service processes.

8. Share learning: When our profile is ready, then the profile needs to be shared with everyone in the company. All other employees can learn about customer’s behavior.

Customer Profiling Methods for Apparel Merchandiser:

a) Demographic / Geo-demographic profiling: Demographic or geo-demographic profiling approach that uses online and offline records to collect data and location-based information about an individual customer. This method is useful to target a broad audience.

b) Transaction data profiling: In transaction date profiling methods, customers are profiled and targeted based on their recent purchase behavior.

c) Explicit profiling: Based on their explicitly declared profiles, new customers are identified in this method.

d) Contextual profiling: The concept of contextual profiling refers to the process of displaying ads and messages based on the context of the user.

e) Behavioral profiling: Based on their previous tracked activities, behavior profiling targets users based on their interests.

f) Look-alike profiling: In this method, identifying new customers by modeling the browsing behaviors of actual brand converters.

Benefits of Customer Profiling:

By understanding the customer effectively about who uses the services- vices, and products, the Service can be delivered more specifically to that particular customer with a more effective process.
Through this understanding, we can tailor the channels and communications to users’ needs for the most efficient and effective targeting process.
Better understanding of the customer helps to provide better service; it ultimately leads to the soul requirement of the business “satisfied customers”.
A profile can help us understand who isn’t a customer and why. Customer profile will help the company expand its market.
A better understanding of the geo-demographics of the customer can aid in tailoring marketing campaigns to change the customer’s behavior.
Profiling can help measure service use for continuous learning and performance management.

Company Profile Template:

1. Vendor Name:
2. General Information
Primary contact for sales/client services
Address
	Postal code:
	Country:
Telephone:	Fax:
Email:	Website:
Parent company, if any
Subsidiaries, associates, and/or overseas Rep (S), if any
Year established
Types of organization	Public enterprise () Private company () Organization sponsored: Other:
Types of Business	Manufacturer () Retailer () Authorized Agent () Consulting company () Other:
Summary of main business activities
List of products/services/work offered*
Staff turnover rate
In-house working language
3. Financial information
Gross annual sales for last 3 years*
4. Prior experience with the international organizations*
5. Does your company have a written statement of its environmental policy?
Yes () please attach copy	No ()
6. Any disputes that the customer has been involved in previous business*
7. Reference projects and contacts
8. Recent experience of working with customers*
9. Does this contract involve any circumstances or contracts that may introduce a conflict of interest for the parties? If so, describe the conflict of interest and explain how this will be mitigated*
Evaluate by”	Verified by”
*Attach necessary documents if required

Conclusion:
The purpose of customer profiling is to better understand the needs and wants of customers. In this article, I have tried my best to explain customer profiling simply. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comments section.

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Mazharul Islam Kiron

Founder & Editor of Textile Learner. He is a Textile Consultant, Blogger & Entrepreneur. Mr. Kiron is working as a textile consultant in several local and international companies. He is also a contributor of Wikipedia.