Library of Textile, Apparel and Fashion

Apparel Merchandising process

Apparel Merchandising process

Merchandising

Merchandising is a specialized management function within the fashion industry. It is the business that moves the world of fashion from designing showrooms to the retail sales floor and into the hand of consumers. Merchandising is planning, developing, and presenting product lines for identified target markets with regard to pricing, assortment, styling, and timing. Merchandising is about following up every process from raw materials to finished goods, giving all logistics support.

Apparel Merchandising

Nowadays a dream job is to be an apparel merchandiser. Apparel merchandising refers to the techniques used to sell products to consumers. It directly relates to Negotiating with existing orders, Buying & Selling goods through maintaining liaison among Buyers, Suppliers as well as factory Management. To be an apparel merchandiser to work in garments manufacturing factory or a buying house, it's all about getting a job in merchandising with all the necessary skills.
A merchandiser is involved from costing, order getting to shipment, payment process. A merchandiser should have knowledge of costing, pricing, negotiation, booking, sampling development, and good knowledge of textile, especially on fabrics.


You may like to read Working Flow Chart of Garments Merchandising Process

Apparel Merchandising process

Without merchandising, department/section one cannot think about garments industry or a buying house, a team to communicate with supplier and customer. In the garment and textile industry, the merchandising team has been playing a vital role in making, executing, and closing export orders. This project aims to know the sequence of Merchandising as more as practice and to know the duties of Merchandiser such as price negotiation from a buyer, swatch making, follow up on production, quality report, arrange a final inspection, shipment, commercial activities. The function of merchandising as a working procedure, shipping terms, commercial invoice, letter of credit, qualification of merchandising and so other things like consumption, costing, accessories care instructions, etc. Simply we can say that the person who is doing apparel merchandising is called a merchandiser. We can define an apparel merchandiser as, Apparel Merchandiser is the person who engages himself in sourcing, costing, organizing, arranging, and promoting the sales volume of any commodities in the apparel sector. Also can be said that the person who sells products or merchandise abroad he/she may be called a merchandiser. A merchandiser is a responsible person to fulfill the requirements of the buyer and also responsible to supply the required product in due time and adequate quantities. The merchandiser is the bridge between the buyer and the manufacturer, providing the right products with on-time delivery, on-time materials sourcing enabling a company to match with the latest market trends of a product and meet the market and customer demand. As per the merchandising concept, time management is a gig to succeed one's time properly, so one can focus on value-adding actions. Merchandising is an important work in the RMG sector. Without merchandisers, no garments industry can run smoothly and without Buyers, no garments industry can exist. For this reason, buyer satisfaction is very important. The buyer who comes tour country and buy products from our garments industry. At this time of giving an order if the buyer is satisfied with the help of the merchandiser, management then the buyer will come again to place an order. Buyers' other condition is to deliver the product in due time. Merchandiser takes care of this condition seriously because if buyers don’t get the product in due time then they will not come again that garments industry. So merchandiser are handling and caring all kinds of work taking an order to ship the product and always wants to satisfy the buyer because the garments industry depends on the buyer’s satisfaction
Recording all the data and documents is essential for every merchandiser. After shipment of the garments “Merchandiser” should keep all the documents on the safe side because all the related papers given by the buyer are valuable and necessary. If the buyer wants to repeat the order then the merchandiser has to follow the previous instruction. So a good, efficient, smart, merchandiser has to keep all the data and documents for future business development and order. If a merchandiser doesn’t keep the previous records or documents then he/she have to suffer and be required to want the documents again and that may be a bad impression on the buyer. This will not be good for a good merchandiser. Recording all the data and documents is essential for every merchandiser.

Apparel merchandising department organogram of Factory


Merchandising Director
Merchandising Manager
Assistant Manager
Senior Merchandiser
Merchandiser
Assistant Merchandiser
Trainee Merchandiser

Product Package Terms:
Name of Buyer.
Order Quantity.
Delivery Date.
Size and Color Break Down.
Fabric GSM (Specifying percentages)
Knitting pattern
Fabric GSM
Measurement sheet with pictorial description
Stitching detail
Details of Folding and Finishing Accessories
Details of printing
Details of washing

Order execution:
Buyer Searching
Tech-pack Received
Photograph of style.
Style name and number
Fabric details
Trims and accessories details.
Graded spec/ PAF
Construction details.
Washing method

Consumption:
The familiar formula for consumption is used to have the consumption of different parts of garments. The formula is:
(Length + Allowance) * (Width + Allowance) *Number of Parts /Fabric Cut able Width /36 *Number of Garments+ Wastage in Percent (%) = Results in Yards.
There is a system of fabric consumption in SGL with the regular marker which is mentioned below:

Costing & Pricing
Fabric is the biggest component of any garment costing. Merchandiser takes formal commitments from fabrics suppliers while taking price quotes regarding finished width of fabric, shrinkage, elongation, etc.
Group provides all trims and accessories price giving by buyer. Buyer communicates directly with suppliers to give the price. By adding washing cost, test cost, CM of garments, buying house commission merchandiser prepares the price of the garment. Standard Group performs the CM costing by doing the costing system of SMS (Standard Minute Value).

Costing & Pricing
Price Offering: A buyer always gives a target price of the garment and the factory should cope with the price as per as possible.
Negotiation: Buyers do not have much time to haggle back and forth and bring down the prices to acceptable levels. Standard Group tries to quote the right price in one shot and to make it accurate.
Buy Chart Received: Buyer ensures the factory by giving a buy chart for confirmation of the order. In buy, chat buyer depicts how many styles he is going to give in one season the number of garments, the color of garments, LIC for which countries garment will go.