In the textile and garment sector, merchandisers are essential since they serve as the link between consumers and production facilities. Ensuring client satisfaction within certain timelines is their main objective. Merchandising is more than simply arranging things; it also includes strategic planning to guarantee that the appropriate products are offered at the appropriate time and location to maximize sales and satisfy customers. This is especially important for the garment business because of the short fashion cycles and ever-changing customer tastes. Without merchandisers, there is a lack of coordination between suppliers and buyers, making it difficult to satisfy client requests.
In the field of supply chain management, quick response to customer needs requires the integration of effective systems. Value chains, where producers and merchants put consumer happiness ahead of brand loyalty, are becoming more and more important in the rapid fashion age. The duties and difficulties faced by merchandisers along the supply chain, from suppliers to retailers, have increased as a result of this change. Essentially, merchandising is the foundation of supply chain management. It does this by using careful planning, procurement, inventory control, and visual display to drive profitability and customer happiness.
The main merchandising elements that impact supply chain management in the clothing industry are examined in this article, along with the duties and obligations of merchandisers in manufacturing firms.
Fundamental Definitions
- Merchandise: Items that are offered for sale are referred to as merchandise. Merchandise, as used in retail and commerce, refers to a broad variety of physical commodities, such as apparel, accessories, home textiles, and non-textile objects. Goods may be made to suit a wide range of customer tastes and market niches by differing in terms of quality, style, and cost.
- Merchant: A merchant in the garment business is a person or organization who purchases and resells products in order to make money. Generally, a merchant purchases apparel and associated goods from businesses or retail outlets and resells them. They take care of things like pricing, product selection, and inventory management.
- Merchandiser: A merchandiser is a specialist who plans, negotiates, plans, procures, and oversees the inventory of goods to make sure it meets consumer demand while optimizing profit and sales. A merchandiser serves as a middleman between buyers and producers in the garment business. To guarantee prompt delivery of the items, they collaborate with a number of departments, including sourcing, manufacturing, design, marketing, product development, and packaging. In order to find and supply the appropriate items to satisfy consumer demand and sales goals, they often collaborate closely with the merchandising team.
- Merchandising: Merchandising is the strategic process of organizing, arranging, showcasing, and selling goods with an emphasis on customer happiness, profit margins, and sales. With the goal of drawing clients and influencing their purchase choices, it includes all actions pertaining to product selection, price, marketing, and visual display.
- SCM: Supply chain management is referred to as SCM. It describes the control of the flow of raw materials, products, services, and information from suppliers to producers, merchants, and finally the final customer. To guarantee that clients get high-quality items on time, supply chain management (SCM) in the garment sector includes coordinating tasks including sourcing raw materials, production planning, inventory management, transportation, and distribution.
The functions and obligations of a merchant in the management of the apparel supply chain
- Management of Customers and suppliers: Establishing solid bonds with customers and suppliers is essential for an organization to be profitable. In addition to managing connections with both new and current clients, merchants are also in charge of handling necessary documents and samples, following up with consumers on a regular basis, and mediating communication between suppliers and vendors. These routine chores keep the supply chain running smoothly and promote confidence.
- Product Development: A merchant in the garment business has to have a thorough awareness of goods, including material kinds, the best suppliers, costs, and quality standards. From locating raw materials to producing the finished product, merchants supervise the development of goods in accordance with consumer standards. They keep good lines of communication open with all relevant departments, from product development to packaging, and make sure quality requirements are fulfilled. It is vital to possess knowledge about import/export legislation and standard operating procedures (SOPs).
- Follow-ups on Production: Merchants oversee the whole production process. Following the acceptance of the pre-production sample, they manage the manufacturing schedule, sample shipping, and buyer visits. Ensuring the end product’s quality, pricing, and timely delivery are important duties. In order to resolve production-related challenges, merchants must work with appropriate departments and use strong cost-management and negotiating techniques. Since obtaining future orders depends on providing the correct quality goods, quality assurance and control are also essential.
- Internal and External Partnerships: Both internal and external cooperation are advantageous for organizing, managing, and carrying out procedures as they strengthen bonds and close communication gaps. Merchants help teams communicate both internally and outside with suppliers, buyers, inspectors, logistical staff, and legal departments. They are essential in maintaining efficient operations, handling disputes, and managing communications both within and outside the industrial company.
- Inventory management: In order to avoid shortages or overstocks, merchants must keep their inventory levels at ideal levels. An excess of inventory that takes up space in warehouses and capital may be avoided by practicing proper inventory management, which also reduces the chance of missing sales due to product shortages.
- Demand Forecasting: To properly predict demand, merchants and data analysts examine past sales data, customer behavior, purchasing patterns, and market trends. This entails forecasting which designs, patterns, hues, and sizes will be in great demand at certain times of the year or for particular occasions. Understanding consumer preferences and requirements is aided by the ongoing study of various data sets.
- Product Selection and Procurement: In order to choose and acquire goods that suit consumer tastes and market trends, merchants work with manufacturers, suppliers, and designers. To guarantee the timely supply of raw materials and other goods, they bargain over terms, prices, and delivery dates.
- Price and Margin Management: In a competitive market, merchants use price strategies to maximize profits. Their understanding of margins, markups, and costs enables them to establish the best prices for various items and market niches. This ability is essential for optimizing business margins and conducting successful negotiations.
- Supply Chain Coordination: To guarantee smooth coordination across the supply chain, merchants collaborate with cross-functional teams made up of designers, production managers, sales, and marketing teams. To support effective product development, production, and delivery processes, they inform all team members within manufacturing units on the specifications, deadlines, and expectations for the product.
The Function of Data Analytics and Technology in Contemporary Merchandising
The garment industry’s manufacturing and merchandising techniques have been greatly improved by the introduction of current data integration methodologies and technology. Inventory management systems, artificial intelligence, and predictive analytics are just a few of the tools and methods that enable merchandisers to make data-driven choices, optimize inventory, enhance consumer experiences, and optimize supply chain processes. It is anticipated that the influence of these technologies would increase, spurring further efficiency and innovation targeted at boosting profitability.
Systems for Managing Inventory
In order to ensure ideal stock levels and the availability of the correct items at the right time, location, and quality, effective inventory management is essential in the garment sector. Since inventory is a valuable resource for investors, it is essential and difficult for retailers to preserve, optimize, and use their supply. Merchandisers have a major duty to utilize raw materials properly from the time they are extracted until they are transformed into final items. This process may be substantially aided by using technology, with technologies like automatic replenishment, real-time inventory tracking systems, and inventory analysis and optimization being especially helpful.
- Inventory tracking in real-time: This is a very efficient way to keep an eye on stock levels. Among other things, this technique is used to compute dead stock, necessary inventory, and ABC analysis. Sophisticated software with radio frequency identification (RFID) devices, barcodes, scanners, and centralized databases are all part of modern tracking techniques. Merchants in the clothing business often utilize barcodes and kanban cards in addition to other technologies to track samples and raw materials. RFID devices are often used for packaging and completed items. Production teams and merchandisers can accurately trace inventory as it travels through the supply chain, from manufacture to the point of sale, with the use of barcodes and RFID tags. This real-time insight facilitates a clear grasp of supply chain management and helps avoid stockouts and overstock scenarios. A single source of transparency for inventory levels across many sites is provided by a centralised database, which makes it easier for the whole unit to coordinate and allocate resources.
- Automated replenishment is made possible by sophisticated technology like data analysis and demand forecasting, which are based on historical sales data and present market trends. These systems use inventory stock standards, repeat purchase data, and buying behavior analysis to forecast future demand and initiate automated restocking procedures. With the use of this technology, merchandisers may minimize superfluous inventory while guaranteeing that in-demand commodities are constantly available. By integrating suppliers, manufacturers may reduce lead times and guarantee a consistent supply of goods throughout the production process by enabling automated replenishment orders.
- Inventory Optimization: Cutting production costs and lead times requires efficient inventory management and optimization. To do this, the manufacturing team makes use of inventory tracking systems. ABC Analysis is one of the greatest techniques for inventory optimization in the garment sector. Using this method, inventory is divided into three groups (A, B, and C) according to its significance and rate of turnover. Classified as A, high-priority goods are closely monitored to guarantee continuous availability. Depending on their relative worth and significance, items in classes B and C are handled differently.
The garment business has undergone a change thanks to the current merchandising approach that integrates technology and data analytics. Merchants may optimize their inventory, save expenses, and boost customer satisfaction by using advanced inventory management systems, automated replenishment procedures, and efficient inventory optimization strategies. It is anticipated that as these technologies advance, they will have a greater influence on the clothing sector, spurring more efficiency and creativity.
Predictive Analytics
A crucial part of data analysis is predictive analytics, which forecasts future events by using statistical algorithms, machine learning methods, and historical information. This may contain numerical data, percentages, trends, algorithms, and visual aids like pie charts and graphs. Predictive analytics is essential to the clothing business in a number of ways, including:
Demand Forecasting: Data analysis methods may be utilized in retail establishments to predict demand for a range of trends, such as production costs, profit margins, seasonal patterns, and market trends. Merchandisers may better arrange their stock by identifying trends in historical sales data and using predictive algorithms to estimate demand for various seasons. Demand forecasting is the process of analyzing past data sets to anticipate future trends. Furthermore, retailers may anticipate demand more accurately thanks to predictive analytics of external variables like customer behavior, fashion trends, and economic data.
Pricing Strategy: One useful tactic for maintaining market competitiveness is dynamic pricing. In order to maximize revenue and profit margins, a variety of predictive models are able to analyze market circumstances and give rival pricing in real-time. This allows for dynamic price adjustments. By anticipating the ideal timing and amount of markdowns, this strategy aids in markdown optimization and enables clothes merchandisers to get rid of extra inventory without having a major negative influence on profitability.
Customer insights: Increasing customer engagement and loyalty via personalised marketing is a potent strategy. Predictive analytics allows for the creation of tailored marketing campaigns by studying the past purchases, preferences, likes, and dislikes of customers. This optimizes product assortments and contributes to the creation of personalized shopping experiences.
Essential Skills for Successful Supply Chain Management Merchandisers
Merchandisers need to consistently improve their skills and handle a variety of tasks in order to guarantee efficient supply chain management. The following are some crucial abilities for merchandisers:
- Knowledge of manufacturing Processes: Since merchandisers serve as the intermediary between the customer and the business, it is essential that they comprehend the various manufacturing activities.
- Soft Skills: Effective communication and negotiating abilities are essential, particularly for businesses that export products.
- Merchandisers need to be capable of managing many client accounts at the same time.
- Costing Expertise: To guarantee that items are priced appropriately, a thorough grasp of costing is required.
- Customer Requirements: It’s critical to understand what customers want in terms of design and quality.
- Material Review: One of a merchandiser’s duties is to assess the materials used in the production of clothing.
- Cooperation with Other Departments: For smooth operations, tight coordination between the company’s manufacturing, design, and other departments is required.
- Time management: Managing many orders at once requires effective time management. This emphasizes how crucial inventory control and logistics are.
Merchandisers need to possess these skills in order to efficiently manage issues that arise in the process or on the spot and guarantee the supply chain’s overall performance.
Merchandisers’ Contribution to Increasing Supply Chain Competitiveness
Merchandisers are essential to the garment business because they connect different activities and improve the competitiveness of the supply chain. Their roles have a direct impact on performance standards, which in turn affect how competitive the supply chain is overall. The three primary components of this connection are supply chain competitiveness, the merchandiser’s job, and the sourcing criterion for clothes.
Criteria for Sourcing Clothing
Merchandisers need to take into account many crucial variables while procuring clothing, which include:
- Cost: Controlling and reducing expenses while guaranteeing timely and high-quality delivery.
- Minimizing the duration between the creation of a product and its distribution.
- Flexibility: The capacity to adjust to shifting patterns and levels of demand.
- High standards of product quality are ensured by quality.
- On-Time Delivery: Fulfilling product delivery deadlines.
- Capacity: Controlling output to match demand.
- Communication: Keeping lines of communication open and efficient with all parties involved.
- Innovation: Using cutting-edge concepts and tools.
- Trust: Establishing and maintaining trust with clients and vendors.
From the procurement of raw materials to the final delivery of goods to clients, merchandisers are essential to the integration of various clothing sourcing tactics and the improvement of supply chain efficiency.
Criteria for Apparel Supply Chain Performance
Merchandisers influence the supply chain’s performance in the following ways:
- Cost: Being competitive is ensured by efficient cost management.
- Lead Time: Shortening the lead time makes the market more responsive.
- Quality: Satisfied customers are happier when there are high standards.
- On-Time Delivery: Keeping delivery dates on track increases dependability.
- Capacity: Sufficient capacity planning accommodates variations in demand.
- Communication: Errors and inefficiencies are decreased via clear communication.
- Innovation: New ideas lead to advancements and a competitive advantage.
Competitiveness of the Supply Chain
The merchandiser’s job has an impact on the following more general elements of supply chain competitiveness:
- Cost: Economical and efficient pricing.
- Logistics: Productive transportation of products.
- Supply chain flexibility is the capacity to adjust to shifting consumer demands and market dynamics.
- Quality: Upholding strict guidelines all the way through the supply chain.
- Delivery: Ensuring prompt delivery to satisfy consumer demands.
- Innovation in Products and Services: Constant innovation to keep ahead of rivals.
- Better and Value-Added Services: Improving offerings to provide clients more value.
- Relationship between Customer and Supplier: Establishing solid, trustworthy connections with both suppliers and consumers.
A skilled merchandiser guarantees innovation, prompt delivery, quality, and cost effectiveness—all of which support a competitive supply chain. By concentrating on these areas, the merchandiser raises market competitiveness overall and improves supply chain performance.
In summary
Merchandisers are essential in the garment sector since they work as a mediator between buyers and producers, guaranteeing smooth communication and satisfied customers. They handle strategy planning, purchasing, inventory control, and graphic display in addition to product arranging. These activities are essential for keeping an effective supply chain management system and adjusting to quick fashion trends.
Merchandisers supervise manufacturing processes, manage product development, and foster strong connections with vendors and customers to guarantee timely and high-quality delivery. Their proficiency in demand forecasting, pricing, and working with cross-functional teams is what makes them competitive and profitable in the market.
Merchandising practices have been changed by the integration of technology and data analytics, which has improved inventory management and predictive analytics. Systems for inventory optimization, automatic replenishment, and real-time inventory monitoring make sure that stock levels satisfy customer demand without going overboard.
A wide range of talents, such as time management, negotiating abilities, and manufacturing expertise, are necessary for merchandisers to be effective. Their work eventually improves supply chain competitiveness by having a direct impact on supply chain performance metrics. By concentrating on these areas, merchandisers get a competitive advantage in the quick-paced garment market by fostering innovation, efficiency, and client happiness.
