Description of Fashion Merchandising Jobs

Find out what fashion merchandising jobs are really like.

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What are Fashion Merchandising Jobs All About?

Every great boutique or department store needs a Wizard of Oz—someone behind the curtain making everything appear as impressive as possible—someone deciding to stock ruby slippers because they're the next big thing. This is what fashion merchandising is all about: knowing what your customers want, even before they know it, and using your skills to persuade them.

Fashion merchandising jobs require a blend of fashion sense and business expertise. Style alone won't lead to a successful career in this field. Staying ahead of the fashion curve is a feat involving both art and science. Strategy and marketing know-how are an integral part of fashion merchandising.

Fashion Merchandising Tasks

In a fashion merchandising job, your task is to make fashion relatable to your customers. In order to do this, you may perform a variety of tasks, including the following:

Going fashion shows
Buying fashions
Negotiating with suppliers and manufacturers
Managing retail outlets
Creating store displays
Advertising and marketing

Essential Skills for a Fashion Merchandising Job

Forecasting Ability – While more scientific than fortune telling, fashion merchandising jobs do have a forecasting element. In order to improve your accuracy, you'll need a thorough knowledge of past fashion trends and an awareness of current industry developments. These traits will be indispensable to your fashion merchandising career.

Analytical Ability – Problem solving and analytical ability are also key to your success in this field. A good sense of style obviously helps you; however, you must also determine how things fit into a budget and whether they meet the functional needs of consumers. Other criteria may also influence your fashion merchandising decisions, so you will need to be able to analyze a complex set of issues and stand behind your choices.

Communication Skills – Fashion merchandising jobs also need good communication skills. From negotiating with manufacturers to getting your marketing message out to customers, there is ample opportunity to exercise your powers of communication in the fashion merchandising field.

Is a Fashion Merchandising Job for You?

A job in this field will put you at the intersection of fashion and business. If you have a head for business and an eye for style, a fashion merchandising job may be just the right fit for you.