Merchandiser in Garment Industry:
A person who is associated with merchandising activity is called a merchandiser. Merchandiser in garment industry is the person who is involved in managing the buyers and their orders by taking care of the garment business in his concern. A merchandiser acts as a bridge between the customer and the manufacturer. Garment merchandiser has a predominantly significant role owing to the exhaustive nature of product range in garment industry. Excellent communication, ability to negotiate and analytical competences are essential qualities required for a merchandiser. Further, he or she also desires to be a creative and innovative thinker. He or she creates colors and specifications and carries out the market research to decide the most effectual ways to sell and promote the product.
A merchandiser should be partially a designer able to think creatively, partly an engineer able to develop the product, partly a computer expert able to communicate online, partly a marketer able to market and sell the product, and partly an entrepreneur.
Qualities of Merchandiser:
1. Planning capability: Merchandiser must be competent enough to plan the activities based on the order that is to be followed. Otherwise, it will directly affect the delivery time of the order.
2. Decision making: It is a very important quality required for the merchandiser to deliver the product on time to buyers.
3. Communication skills: Oral as well as written communication are important to endorse the business activity as well as to have a good relationship with the buyers.
4. Loyalty: It is a crucial character of human beings, particularly for business persons.
5. Technical knowledge about the field: The merchandiser must have ample knowledge about the garment production activities, and technical knowledge to communicate with different levels of persons in the garment industry.
6. Coordinate and cooperate: The merchandiser is the person who coordinates with the various departments in an garment industry to get the job done.
7. Monitoring ability: He or she must supervise the various activities in different departments to speed up the orders to dispatch it on time to the buyers.
Function of Merchandisers:
- Development of new garment styles and samples and execution of the same
- Garment costing based on the order
- Arrangement of raw materials, accessories and trims for execution of an order
- Production scheduling
- Approval of patterns and various samples
- Follow up of pre-production activities
- Coordinating with inspection agencies
- Production controlling
- Identification of bottlenecks in the process and materials and resolve the same
- Monitoring of in-house production activities as well as follow-up of subcontract work given outside
- Reporting the progress of orders to the buyer as well as top management
- Maintenance of proper records for individual garment styles
- Ensuring constant production rate by taking preventive as well as corrective actions
- Attending meetings with superiors and furnishing the required details about merchandising
Conclusion:
Merchandiser in garment industry play a vital role by managing customer relationships, coordinating production activities, ensuring quality standards, and facilitating the smooth execution of orders. Their ability to effectively communicate, negotiate, and manage multiple tasks contributes to the success of the garment manufacturing and export process.
References:
- Apparel Manufacturing Technology By T. Karthik, P. Ganesan and D. Gopalakrishnan
- Apparel Merchandising by R. Rathinamoorthy and R. Surjit
- Fashion Marketing Management by A. Arunraj and V. Ramesh Babu
- Garments Merchandising by M. A. Kashem.
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