The buying and merchandising process shows the pathway a product takes from the first idea to the end product in store. “Buying is one of the most important roles in the retail and consumer sector. It is the buyers who decide what products the company is going to sell, and from where it is going to be sourced.”(Bright Network 2022) Every section of this process needs to done correctly inorder for it to work all together, if not the supply chain will fail.
(Author’s 2022)
The team made sure that any new items that came into the range after the range review meeting still coin sighted with WGSN report that the range was based around but also related to all feedback given from the meeting. The team’s aim was to create a range plan where every item in the end would sell. The team wanted every item to be appealing to the consumer coming into the store not matter the age.
Items the team decided to change or get rid of:
- Glass reusable cup with stickers
- Pearl necklace
Items the team added:
- leather PU sandals
- pearlescent clover bracelet.
The team made sure to take in any feedback and help given from lecturers. When the first range review meeting took place with the first initial products shown. Feedback regarding the products the team had originally chosen was taken into consideration as the team continued. Some original ideas were taken out of the range as some members of the Re:so team felt they did not fit Re:so or would not work in the store. Any colours that lecturers or Re:so staff also felt would not sell were taken out by the team. The team also upped the order quantity as feedback given suggested they went to low with the quantity and with taking out some items there was now more money to spend of the most favourable items in the range.
(Author’s 2022)
The range plan was a clear outline of all products that have been chosen. The range plan shows the colours, designs and sizes we were getting for each product showing the different variations of each item. The range plan clearly shows the items chosen. Highlighting the financial side. “Your range plan also helps you manage your costs and grow your profits, so you can keep a close eye on what you’re spending, your margins and quantitites.”(Johnson 2022) By making sure you are keeping track of these figures you can see how much you are sending on products and what are succeeding, and which ones aren’t. you can also see where you may best be to spend extra on certain products. Range plans show where your cost maybe be going to to and why you may be losing profit. Overall, a range plan is important to show a basic overview of all the products in your range the different options within that and all the cost that will affect you when purchasing them including shipping. The range plan helps the range development process to be more simple is clearly shows your products and the cost that come with each item. It allows for the range to be seen clearly. This gives the buyer a clearer understanding of where the money is going and helps them to decide how to spend it. Key information included in the range plan
- Image of product
- Units purchased
- Fabrics, materials
- Basic cost
- Shipping cost
- Exchange rate
- Retail price
- Gross margin
- Net margin
- Actual margin
- Total order cost
- Total order at retail
- Lead time
- Moq
(Ross 2015
(Author’s 2022)
The critical path created helps the team to follow set deadlines and aim to have completed specific task for these days. By breaking up the processes it gives time for each part to be develop to its full potential before moving on to the next part. For the team tasks were split over days and weeks to complete the tasks. Making sure that the team follows the path allows the process to succeed with less issues, by following it makes sure the end deadline is completed on time and any issues can be sorted with more than enough time until the next process.
“The critical path helps project managers and team members identify the tasks that do not allow for any flexibility in timing.” (TeamAdaptiveWork 2021) This helps industries to create deadlines it makes sure all processes are completed when needed and therefore making sure each process can continue smoothly from one to another. If one deadline isn’t met it will influence every other process, so having deadlines adds the pressure to make it all work. When considering the critical path ou do need to also consider external factors which could alter your path. Issues with supplies, delays on shipping and complexity of the product may all alter your path so the team would need to alter dates according to this.
(Author’s 2022)
(Author’s 2022)
“By the numbers, Alibaba is the largest ecommerce company in the world, earning around $109 billion in 2021. It’s also the most comprehensive directory that connects suppliers (mostly from Asia) with buyers from all over the globe.” (Ferreria 2022)The team chose Alibaba as its a trusted website with alot of products availble under the same website. It offers very affordable prices for products allowing for more of a profit on the products sold in store. “Alibaba’s profits mainly come from advertisements and keyword bidding, which represents 57% of total profits.”(Media buzz 2016) They are very wellknown because they offer good quality products for affordable prices, for business owners this platform is a good for them to use.
Other factors that show how Alibaba is a good website to use, they take scamming and issues very seriously, several times throughtout the website help regarding these issues where availible. As well as this there was a trade assurance which garantees products are protected once you have purchased. Alibaba also clearly shows there information and how to purhase from the store. they have several FAQ section on their main home page as well as each supplier has an opportunity to have their own FAQ’s. From this it helped the team to choose which companies were best to work with regarding how interactive they were with their web page.
Conversation between the seller who was selling the pearlescent clover bracelet. The sellers in which I spoke to all had quick responses and provided more information when I asked. Often telling me where on the website i would be able to find extra information or showing me how I can place an order once they had answered my querie.
Personally when messaging sellers I did not come across any issues, howevers members in my team did struggle with some suppliers. Some were due to different language barriers which meant needing to explain messages in more simple terms but these were just small misunderstandings.
Why we chose the suppliers?
- When looking at reviews for this supplier they had 4.9/5 stars. (Pearlescent clover bracelet)
-They had prioritised a whole section of there page explainging how to place an order, making it easier if you are new to Alibaba.
-It stated their response time was 4 hour, which allows for quick responses with any issues and shows they are an active seller on Alibaba.
-They offered to try products out before purchasing for free.
- Compensation for delayed delivery, shows they are willing to give money back it order dont arrive when expected, they relaise that the consumer is relying on the products arriving on the correct date.
(Alibaba 2022)
(Alibaba 2022)
(Alibaba 2022)
Using key performer indicators brands can use percentages to get a clearer idea of what items are selling and making the most money. It will tell them which items are causing them to lose money. “KPIs are important because it gives you a value to compare against your current performance. KPIs clearly illustrate whether you are reaching your goals. “(Poleski 2022) it gives a brand a wider understanding of how their range is performing it will therefore help them to make infirmed decisions.
Percentage sell through sold units divided by buy units x 100 (to get as %)
This percentage shows the number of products sold in comparison to those bought in a percentage. It helps to show how successfully items have sold the higher the percentage the greater the amount sold.
Week’s cover (spot cover)
stock quantity (buy qty – cum sales)
weekly unit sales
This percentage allows you to see how long it would take for an item to sell out if it continued selling at the same rate per week that its currently selling at.
Sales value
This value allows you to see which items are making the most money, it will tell you it in relation to the number of items bought and whether this item was worth purchasing.
(Matney 2019)
Once a range plan has been created the buyer then needs to choose where they decide to source the materials they are going to use from. “Most companies in the sector design the clothing and sell the clothing, but outsource production to manufacturers in countries with cheap labour (cheaper than in Western Europe and/or American countries).” (Blaazer 2022)
When sourcing they also need to take into consideration how these products will then be shipped or transported back to the business. Factors like this all need to be taken into consideration when looking at pricing to make sure profit is still being made through every process of the supply chain. “over 50% of total volume today comes from just two countries: China and Vietnam.”(Seara et al 2022) Sourcing from these countries has been the most popular as its cheap labour which some companies have been called out for treating workers unfairly and not paying the correct wages. Making sure you are sourcing from factories which treat everyone fairly is key to make sure the supply chain does not fail and ensures all workers are treated the correct way.
Factors such as the pandemic has also influenced the supply chain as cost for shipping and materials increases, they need to change or make cuts regarding the supply chain. Copying with the pandemic would have allowed business to grow a lot stronger and be able to find suitable sourcing which was able to work around the hard times surrounding covid 19.
“Using AI and machine learning, Nike is leveraging technology to forward-position the products that consumers love most and deliver faster, more precisely, and without compromising sustainability.” (Abdulla 2022) Brand such as Nike are creating news ways to prioritise product and make sure sourcing these products is at the top of the list. Nike has also experimented with 3d printing for a new way to create exciting new products which are produce quicker and with less mistakes.
Manufacturing:
Making sure the process of creating the products is as sustainable as possible is one of the biggest factors that can affect the supply chain. As more and more awareness has been created regarding the waste when producing clothes brands are trying to create news ways to save fabrics, water and energy. Making sure to highlight these issues in a supply chains forces brands to act and actively change what they are doing.
(Pavarini 2019)
2022)
Levi for example have create a campaign aiming to use less water when creating jeans. “According to researchers, a pair of jeans requires 7,600 litres of water to make it through production line.” (Mukherji 2020) Therefore Levi’s focused in on making sure their manufacturing processes are saving water and helping the environment in the long run. “Water Less® techniques and the Recycle and Reuse Standard remain key pillars of our new Water Action Strategy. What will change is that we will move to qualify Water Less® at the facility-level.” (Chong 2019) As more and more brands understand the need to makes changes to become more sustainable news ideas and technology is being created to support this with Levi’s being just one of many brands making a change.
From this assignment it has allowed be to explore possible career paths in further detail. I have been able to understand the buying and merchandising processes in a lot more detail allowing me to gage what it will be like in the real world. Before this assignment I was interested in going into a job regarding buying as I felt it was one of the more creative aspects to fashion management and marketing. Whilst researching for our mood boards and our original product range I enjoyed looking into the trends for the year and the predictions for future seasons. Exploring the new trends and picking out the key pieces which I felt where the staple items, to me was the most interesting part. Whether it was choosing the colours that were predicted to be big or the new fabric and textures I felt this area was exciting to look at and see what the fashion market will be looking like for next summer. I felt this part of the project was creative because you were able to then go and find products which fit with all these news ideas that game from the WGSN report. I felt the most challenging parts of the assignment were the financial report towards the end of the assignment. This area for me was harder to understand and get my head around and therefore I struggled to enjoy analysing gross profit margins and other figures.
One of the biggest factors I was nervous about was successful showing the PowerPoint and getting all my points across that I wanted to state. However, when I performed my final presentation with the team, I enjoyed speaking about our product range and expanding on information. Therefor I could see myself in a professional sense proposing product lines in a future career. I felt that communicating with sellers at first was a challenge but as you were able to finalise the orders it felt like you had completed a job once you knew an order had been placed. This assignment has helped to give a deeper insight into the fashion industry and the buying and merchandising role. I had already been interested in this career path and this assignment has allowed for me to have a clearer idea of where I would like to go after uni. Ideally this would be as a buyer position as I felt overall the process of choosing products offered a creative side and they are going further to finalise order helps your visions from the buying process come to life. I did not have a very clear idea of what I wanted to go into after university but this assignment has definitely been able to see myself if this sector of the fashion industry in the future.
ED I T ED i s proud t o pres ent
w i t h a cert i cat e of achi evem ent for t he ER CP Program
T he ED I T ED cert i ed R et ai l As s oci at e l evel gi ves you t he foundat i on t o m oni t or t he m arket and com pet i t or perform ance.
I s s ued on: 2022-12-11
Cert i cat e I D : s 6rs henphl
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Author’s, (2022) Buying & merchandising process, (Screenshot) (Taken December 10, 2022)
Author’s, (2022) Range proposal screenshots, (Screenshot) (Taken December 10, 2022)
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