Page 181 - DMGT552_VISUAL_MERCHANDISING

Visual Merchandising

Notes 9.2 Principles of Merchandise Presentation

Following are the basic principles of merchandise presentation.

9.2.1 Define Your Merchandise Policy

Every retail organisation must have a vision in order to provide it’s buyers with some insight
into the following business components:
 Demographics of current and potential customers

 Store’s image
 Merchandise quality levels
 Price point policy

 Marketing approach
 Customer service levels

 Desired profit margins
This will allow you to develop a clear merchandise policy that outlines buying goals and
objectives.

Task Visit different retail organisations and analyse different business components
therein, prepare a comparative analysis report.
Communicating this policy effectively will not only provide direction, but should also drive all
decision making throughout the merchandise planning process.

9.2.2 Gather Historical Information

In building your six month plan, the objective is to prepare a month-by-month total dollar-
purchasing schedule for the company. Then, repeat this process for the next level of detail (i.e.
the departmental level). Depending on the sophistication of company information systems,
each department can then be broken down into smaller segment “classes”, for which a similar
sales plan is prepared.
The first step in preparing these plans is to pull the sales information for the same period last
year. Not only should we gather actual sales numbers, but also statistics on returns, markdowns
and any inventory carry-over. Unless your store is computerised, detail of this nature will not
always be available. However, even a manual analysis of total merchandise purchases will
provide you with an acceptable level of data, which is far better than having no information at
all.

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Caution Every retail organisation must have a vision in order to provide it’s buyers with
some insight.

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