Fashion Merchandising
& Promotion
What is Merchandising?
• Fashion Merchandising involves the activities
of planning, buying and selling apparel and
accessories.
• It is the central function of Apparel Retailing
• Includes the following areas:
– Retail Positioning
– Merchandise Buying
– Merchandise Promotion
– Visual Merchandising
The Retail Segment
• General Merchandisers
– Market all types of goods in multiple price ranges
and try to satisfy as many needs of broad range
customers.
• Examples: Sear, J.C. Penney, Macy’s
• Specialized Merchandisers
– Offer limited lines of related products targeted to
more defined customers
• Examples: Aéropostale, Forever 21, Victoria's Secret
Types of Retail Merchandisers
• Department Stores
– Large scale general merchandisers that offer many
varieties of merchandise grouped into separate
departments.
• Chain Stores
– A group of stores that is owned managed,
merchandised and controlled by a central office
and have similar goods and prices
• Can be general or specialized merchandisers
Types of Retail Merchandisers
• Discount Stores
– Retail establishments that sell merchandise at
lower than recognized market-level prices
• Specialty Stores
– Carry large selections of limited classifications of
merchandise. Usually have lower volume and
higher prices
• Non-Store Retailers
– Selling without a conventional facility
Types of Retail Merchandisers
Match the Following Store with its Retail Type
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Department Store
Chain Store
Discount Store
Specialty Store
Non-Store
A. Coach
B. Amazon
C. Macy’s
D. T.J. Max
E. Forever 21
Check your answers with Mrs. Wendt
Retail Positioning
• Retail Positioning refers to where a retailers
situates itself in the market.
• General Retail Positioning Price Categories
– Designer: (couture) original high priced-fashion
for the tiny “class” market; distinctive style and
emphasize top quality
– Bridge: “secondary” lines of high priced designers;
made with expensive fabrics, fine details &
produced in small quantities
Retail Positioning
• General Retail Positioning Price Categories
– Better: high quality, but more reasonable prices;
they are ready to wear garments that are more
available to consumers than high fashion designs
– Moderate: medium priced merchandise with well
known brand names; sold through department &
chain stores as well as specialty stores
– Budget: lowest price category of apparel; sold on
retail racks and shelves; no original designs
resulting in knock-offs
Retail Positioning
Match the Brand with its Price Category
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Designer
Bridge
Better
Moderate
Budget
A. Liz Claiborne
B. Valentino for Angelina Jolie
C. Gap
D. Michael Kors for Macy’s
E. No Boundaries
Check you answers with Mrs. Wendt
Target Markets
• Retail Positioning includes choosing a Target
Market
– Target Market: specific segment of a total market
that a company wants as customers and toward
whom it directs its marketing efforts.
– Based on
• Demographics: Age, Gender, Race, Education, Religion,
Income, Occupation, and Geographic Location
• Psychographics: statistics that try to explain consumer
behavior such as: Lifestyle, Values, Attitudes & SelfConcept
Target Markets
Match the Store with its Target Market
1. Forever 21
A. Various age groups with
athletic lifestyles
2. Banana Republic
B. Teen to Twenties, with little to
medium income
3. Nike
C. 30 – 40 year old working
women; with middle to upper
middle income
Check you answers with Mrs. Wendt
Retail Positioning Strategies
• Product Strategy: the assortment breadth &
depth a retailer offers
– Breadth: the number of different item categories
– Depth: the quantity of each item available
– Three main approaches
• Broad & Shallow: many categories, small quantity
• Narrow & Deep: few categories, large quantity
• Moderate breadth & depth: balance between
categories & quantity
Retail Positioning Strategies
• Price Strategy: pricing strategy should
correlate with a retailer’s image, target market
and competition.
– Quality & price usually, but not always correlate
• High price = high quality
• Low price = low quality
Retail Positioning Strategies
• Price Strategy Continued
– Pricing Approaches
• Prestige Pricing: setting high prices on items to attract
customers who want quality goods or the status of
owning expensive & exclusive merchandise
• Price Promoting: advertising special price reductions of
goods to bring in customers
• Value Pricing: selling items below the suggested retail
price
• Everyday low pricing: promotes the idea that shoppers
can shop anytime in the store and receive a fair price
Retail Positioning Strategies
• Place Strategy: relates to the site location and
physical design of the site.
– Locations
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Central business district: stores in cities or towns
Neighborhood shopping centers: 5 -15 stores
Community shopping centers: 15 – 30 stores
Regional shopping centers: Enclosed malls
Super regional centers: Mega-malls
Retail Positioning Strategies
• Place Strategy Continued:
– Facilities Design
• Store exterior
– Visible to traffic
– Compatible with surroundings
– Convenient for consumers
• Store Interior
– Selling areas: merchandise is displayed
– Support areas: dressing rooms, bathrooms, checkout, etc.
Merchandise Planning & Buying
• Merchandise Planning: involves estimating, as
correctly as possible, consumer demand and
how it can be best satisfied
• Merchandise Buying: is done through vendors,
such as apparel producers, to obtain the
merchandise decided upon during the
planning phase
Merchandise Planning & Buying
The Merchandise Cycle
Planning
Selling
Buying
Merchandise Planning & Buying
1. Gather Information from
– past sales records
– Sales people
– Consumer opinions and behavior
– Merchandising bureaus
– Vendors
– Trade information
– Comparison shoppers
Merchandise Planning & Buying
2. Prepare Buying Plans
– Buying plan
• Describe the types and quantities of merchandise to
purchase
– Create a dollar merchandise plan
• Estimated budget for stock, sales and profit
– Assortment Plan
• Variety and quantity of stock keeping units (SKU) to be
carries
Merchandise Planning & Buying
3. Select Merchandise resources
– Manufacturers
– Wholesalers
– Web sites & catalogs
– Importers
– Vendors
Merchandise Planning & Buying
• Market Week: scheduled periods of time during
which producers introduce their new collections
or lines (fashion shows all week)
– Collection: total number of garments in a designer’s
or producers seasonal presentation, especially for
high priced garments
– Line: group of styles within a collection that are
produced and sold as a set of new selections
• Typically has one design element in common throughout all
garments
– Color, line, balance, silhouette, etc.
Merchandise Planning & Buying
Example of a Line
Merchandise Planning & Buying
• Major Domestic Fashion Markets
– New York
– California: L.A. & San Francisco
– Dallas
– Chicago
– Miami
– Atlanta
Merchandise Planning & Buying
• Major Foreign Markets
– London, England
– Paris, France
– Milan, Italy
Merchandise Promotion
• Purpose of Fashion Promotion
– Inform
• Create awareness and understanding of products
– Persuade
• Convince consumers of the benefits of using/buying
products
– Remind
• Product availability, encourage purchases and stimulate
additional purchases
Merchandise Promotion
• Promotion Levels
– Consumer: directly to consumers, usually done on
a national scale by companies that do not sell
directly to consumers
– Trade: aimed within the industry
• Fiber and fabric companies promote to manufacturers
– Retail: promotion by a store to its customers
• Promote merchandise chosen for their target market in
hopes to create demand
Merchandise Promotion
• Promotion Program: details of efforts for a period
of time. It includes
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Goals & objectives
Message or theme
Specific Promotion activities
Timing of activities
Media to be used
Assignments of responsibility
Budget
Evaluation Methods
Merchandise Promotion
• Advertising: any paid form of non personal
sales message made by a sponsor through a
communication medium
– Purpose:
• Build a companies image
• Promote a brand or product
• Announce a sale
– Retail Advertising Purpose
• Bring customers to a sight
• Promote an image
Merchandise Promotion
• Types of Advertising
– Product advertising: designed to sell specific,
identifiable merchandise items, lines or services
– Institutional advertising: designed to sell a
reputation of an organization rather than a
specific product
– Cooperative advertising: sharing the cost with two
or more organizations
Merchandise Promotion
• Forms of Advertising
– Merchandise Packaging:
• Company names, logos, slogans on shopping bags, boxes,
paper, etc.
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Newspaper
Magazines
Outdoor: billboards, public transit ads, etc.
Direct Mail
Radio
Television
Websites
Visual Merchandising
• VM: physical display of goods in the most
attractive and appealing ways
• VM Purpose:
– Sell goods and promote store image
– Educate about new items trends
– Show how items can be worn
– Grab customer attention
– Provide information on price or special features
Visual Merchandising
• Store Décor & atmospherics
– Décor: style and appearance of interior furnishings
• Theme should be carried throughout the store to fit
company’s image
• Should coordinate with merchandise
– Atmospherics: features intended to create a
particular emotional mood or attitude through
sound, smell and the décor
• Uses psychology to induce buying
• Examples: type of music or pleasant aromas
Visual Merchandising
• Merchandise Presentation: includes the ways
that goods are hung, placed on shelves, or
made available for sale in retail stores
– Shoulder-out presentation
• Garments are hung with only one side showing from
shoulder to bottom (like hung in your closet)
– Face-forward presentation
• Clothing is hung with the front fully facing the viewer
– Always done at the entrances and aisles of a store
Visual Merchandising
Merchandise Fixtures
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A-frames
Base cabinets
Build-ups
Card holders
C-rack
Drapers
Dump or table bin
Four-way rack
Gondola
Grid units
Hangbars
Pedestal units
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Pegboard
Quad rack
Rounders
Showcases
Slatwall units
Spiral costumer
Straight arm
Superquad
Tables
T-stand
Tier tables or racks
Two-way racks
Waterfalls
Visual Merchandising
• Interior Store Display: individual and notable
physical presentations of merchandise
– Use unique equipment or fixtures to feature
distinctive merchandise
– Should be color-coordinated, accessorized, and
self-explanatory
• Window Display: seen from outside the store
– Enclosed; semi-enclosed; open; island
Visual Merchandising
• Displays are intended to:
– Stimulate product interest
– Provide information
– Suggest merchandise coordination
– Generate traffic flow
– Remind customers of planned purchases
– Create additional sales of impulse items
– Enhance the store’s visual image
Visual Merchandising
• Displays should include the following:
– Merchandise
• One-category groupings; related groupings; Themed
groupings; variety
– Lighting
• Floodlighting; spotlighting; pinpointing
– Props
• Mannequins, bust forms; decorative props; structural
props
– Signage