Role of Merchandiser in a Retail Business:

As part of the retailing business where the retailer is involved in selling to end consumers, the merchandiser’s role is quite different from that of the export merchandiser. First of all, the merchandiser does not get involved with the buying and selecting suppliers or coordinating with suppliers/manufacturers and vendor development. These roles, as we saw in the unit on buying process, are specifically assigned to the buying function or to the buyer in retail organization. In a single unit - departmental store – the role of buyer and the merchandiser could be merged as one.

As the business grows, these two roles are handled by two different persons, specializing in the given tasks. The personnel involved in these roles are located in the store itself. In bigger retail chains, the buyer and the merchandisers will be located at the central office, i.e. far from the actual store locations. The monitoring and control are done through the formal reporting systems or through exchange of information on the EDP system of the retail organization.

 

Some important roles played by a retail merchandiser can be summarized as below:

Researcher:

The merchandiser needs to study buying behavior of the targeted consumers. The buying behaviour helps to understand their peculiarities in buying, the frequency of purchase for a given product, the place from where they prefer to buy, the occasions for which they buy, the preferred price-ranges, the special or salient features of the product they look for, quantities bought in a single purchase, and so on. The in-depth understanding of the target consumers and their peculiarities does help the merchandiser in determining the range of merchandise for the concerned target segment.

 

Planner:

Once the type of merchandise or range of products is determined then the next task of the merchandiser is to plan the correct assortment. He/she may forecast the quantities necessary for the given selling season or period and finalize the budgets. This involves estimating demand of the consumer by each product type, while taking into account the economics, trend and changes expected in the competitive and retailing environment. These requirements are transmitted to buyers of each product type for working out their individual buying strategies.

Co-ordinator:

The merchandiser is responsible for a particular product category/line and hence, he/she will be supervising the buying activities of many of the buyers working on different products under the category. Merchandiser needs to co-ordinate for ensuring timely supplies in right quantities as budgeted and in right price and to right place.

 

Controller:

The merchandiser needs to control the performance of each of the selling locations, in order to maximize sales & profitability of the retail channel. For this purpose, he/she will have to monitor performance of each of the product type under the category controlled by him/her. He/she will also monitor sales to stock turnover ratios, markdowns, and gross profitability. The merchandiser will also need to assess the performance of the buyers responsible for the purchasing of these products. The assessment may be done on the aspects of quality of supplies, timeliness, supplies in the right quantity, price competitiveness, and service from suppliers to various stores.

 

Visual Displays:

 The merchandiser will have to ensure that the product display is most effective in terms of their pick-ups by consumers. For this, he may use services of a professional visual merchandiser (VM). In many organizations, merchandisers work out the week-wise/fortnightly/monthly display plans along with their VM personnel.

 

Sales Promotion:

This is another crucial function of the merchandiser. For this, he will have to work very closely with the marketing and buying departments for working out annual promotional calendar. He/she may carry out implementation of different promotion schemes like special festive promotions during major festivals of the particular region or back to school in case of kids products or end of season sales and so on. Sales promotions are the essential activities in the merchandiser roles as he/she has to be constantly aware about the sales trends and to ward off any expected and unexpected dips in sales. This may facilitate maximization of profitability and return on investment for the store as well as for the organization.

 

Trainer:

Another very important role the merchandiser needs to perform is that of a trainer. He/she needs to train their assisting staff and buyers on many aspects like imparting product knowledge, knowledge about consumer tastes and buying patterns, working of price, working of markdowns, maintained mark-ups, actual mark-ups, and so on. At the store level, the merchandiser needs to interact with counter sales representatives, department managers and store managers whenever any new product is to be launched or any special promotion schemes are to be run on the floor.

 

Motivator:

The merchandiser needs to manage a team of people who work under his supervision. Generally, the personnel that report to him/her are buyers, assistant merchandisers, and visual merchandisers. Merchandiser needs to constantly be in touch with his team and guide them in various functional matters besides facilitating their operational efficiency in various merchandising related matters. Besides his team mates, he/she needs to liaise with store managers, departmental managers and vendors. He/she makes an effort on integrating all the related activities of all the personnel for achieving optimum profitability for the store and the organization.