Questions

I had a few questions I asked the buyers before I left such as wanting to know the relationship between them and the designers. The buyers seemed to have a huge say on what colours, material and fit of the garment. In fittings if they decided they didn’t like it they could go from having it as a tunic to making it a crop top so I thought surely a designer would be annoyed with that if the did design it?! They told me however they have a lot of creativity. The designer draws a rough sketch and then it goes to them.. or sometimes they can contact suppliers and say based on another top they created or similar they want it in a different colour or print etc.. so the designer seems they are not always needed. This really interested me as I had wandered that before even starting placement. However they said that not all companies are like this, they have a lot of creativity but different brands buyers may not, every where would be different.
I got the opportunity to go on a store trip with the merchandisers and they met with the store manager on the store floor. They talked about what had sold well and what hadn’t and the merchandisers had to make sure everything was being marketed and displayed to the best of their ability. All motif tops needed to face outwards, as on a side rail the main detail wouldn’t be seen.
They talked about some of the casual wear and how for a couple of weeks they hadn’t sold well but when they changed the display and put the in a clever colour co-ordinated pattern the sales soared. They also were trying different ways of selling clothes that hadn’t sold well, by displaying it differently and it had increased sales and profits majorly. This was really interesting as I had never grasped how important these merchandising and displays just on the shop floor are. It’s all a creative art and its very well thought about and clever!