Merchandiser play a vital role in textile and apparel industry by maintaining a smooth connection between buyers and sellers. They act as a communication bridge, ensuring both parties understand each other’s needs, expectations, and requirements. They ensure smooth communication, timely delivery, and customer satisfaction throughout the process. Without a merchandiser, managing orders and ensuring product quality and timely delivery would be difficult.
Let’s explore how garment merchandisers connect buyers and sellers.
Merchandiser, Merchandising and Buyer:
Merchandising is the promotional activities of goods for sale, especially by their presentation in retail outlets. It can employ pricing, display, special offers, discounts, and other techniques designed to influence consumers’ buying decisions. Merchandising is the marketing activity responsible for ensuring a product’s desirability, both in qualitative and quantitative.
For developing customer loyalty, driving footfall/traffic, increasing sales, raising awareness of your brand, promoting business and so on merchandiser should follow all the merchandising strategies and techniques.
Buyer: Who buy the product?
Seller: Who sell the product?
Role of Merchandiser between Buyer and Seller:
A garment merchandiser acts as a link between buyers and sellers by managing communication, order details, pricing, production follow-up, quality control, and shipment etc. Roles or tasks of merchandiser which take place between buyer and seller are point out below with brief description:
1. Database: Merchandiser like a data base between buyer and seller.
2. Build up relationship: Merchandiser’s role is to build up relationship with buyers and acts as a seller.
3. Order execution: He plays a vital role in his organization in a sense that he bears more responsibility than others in regards of order execution.
4. Factory representative: He represents factory as a buyer.
5. Buyer representative: He represents buyer as a seller.
6. Inspection: He inspects quality as a buyer.
7. Quality inspection: He inspect s quality as a buyer from buyers point‘s of view.
8. Price range: He negotiates a price for the sellers.
9. Seller’s point: He looks at the deal from seller’s point of view.
10. Business development: He looks after the business so as to develop more in future.
11. Deal the offer: He tries to offer the deal more competitive by not compromising the quality.
12. Satisfaction: His object is to satisfy the buyer to progress more in future business.
13. Mark up: How much should be added to the cost the retailer paid for the product to reach a final selling price. Original markup is the difference between the retailer’s original cost and initial selling price.
14. Mark down: Occurs when the product does not sell at the original price and an adjustment is necessary. Shrinkage everyday low pricing off price retailing.
15. Gross margin: Mark up difference between the final selling price and retailer cost and is also the gross margin.
16. Wheel of retailing: How new forms of retails out lets enter the market.
17. Cross channel shopper: Online consumers are researches their required products on online and then purchase them at a retail store.
18. Multichannel marketing: Blending of different communication and delivery channels that are mutually reinforcing retaining and building relationships with consumers who shop and by in the traditional market place and marketplace.
19. Philosophy adoption: Merchandiser adopted and maintains the philosophy of buyer and seller.
20. Level of service: The degree of service provided to the customer. Self services limited service vs. full service.
21. Channel design consideration:
Which channel/intermediaries will be providing best coverage of target market?
Which channel/intermediaries will be best satisfying buying requirements of the target market?
Which channel/intermediaries will be the most profitable?
22. Reduce conflict: A merchandiser reduces the conflict between buyer and seller.
23. Aim: His aim is to impress the buyer by means of:
Right product.
Right quality.
Right quantity.
Right time.
Undamaged condition.
Conclusion:
Merchandisers are like the heart of the apparel business specially in export business. They are the vital link that brings buyers and sellers together, making sure everyone’s needs are met and business runs smoothly from start to finish. Merchandisers connect buyers and sellers by managing communication, production, quality, and shipment. Without merchandisers, maintaining smooth, professional, and profitable business relationships in the garment industry would be very difficult. Their role ensures that both buyers and sellers are satisfied, making them an essential part of the business chain.
Article written by: Hafsa Afreen Dept. of Fashion Design KCC Women’s College (Affiliated by Khulna University), Khulna, Bangladesh Email: afreenhafsa@ymail.com
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.
