What is Apparel Merchandising and follow chart of merchandising;Job responsibilities of Apparel merchandising

• Merchandiser in apparel industry:

Merchandiser in an apparel industry is the person who is involved in man- aging the buyers and their orders by taking care of the garment business in his/her concern. He oversees the manufacturing activities of the company to ensure timely delivery of right quality and quantity. The term was derived from the word “Merchandise”. With specific reference to the Bangladeshi industry, a garment merchandiser is a person who buys raw materials, accessories for producing required garments and exports them to the buyers in different countries within the stipulated time period. Since this particular job deals with the two extremes of the apparel hierarchy, merchandiser always plays   a vital role in the performance of apparel industry. Merchandising forms an effective liaison with the buyers. Merchandiser identifies and develops potential new buyers and buying houses. The term merchandising means simply to buy and sell commodities for a profit. The role of merchandiser varies depending upon whether that particular company is performing in retail or manufacturing context. Merchandising involves the conceptualization, development, procurement of raw materials, sourcing of production and delivery of product to buyers. The merchandiser must combine logical and analytical thinking with initiative and expressive creativity.
A merchandiser must be a part designer, part engineer, part computer ex- pert, part marketer, and part business management guru and part entrepreneur. According to theory on merchandising, defines merchandising as “Careful planning, capable styling and production or selecting and buying,

and effective selling”. By this definition, the primary mission of today’s merchandisers seems unchanged. In other words, merchandiser must be able to involve in all company functions that result in creation, development, execution, and delivery of product line such as materials management, planning and control, market knowledge, product development, production authorization, interface with sales, sourcing and interface with manufacturing global textile industry. Overall a merchandiser must possess a rare blend of traits, skills and experience.

Process flow in apparel industry :

                 Responsibilities of a merchandiser:

Over the years of the growth of merchandising as a discipline in the apparel export industry, there have been many changes in the job profile of the apparel merchandiser to perform these functions. It has changed from a simple to a much more complex job transcending almost all departments and functions in an apparel export house. This has led to a change in the skills required for the job and evolution of the discipline of export merchandising. Merchandising has been to a large extent, a function which was neither clearly defined nor distinctly performed in the apparel export industry. On one hand, the merchandiser had the job of getting orders and executing them; doing the role of production coordinator in the same breadth. However, the general essential responsibilities of a merchandiser are as follows:

•            Identify and analyse the requirements of the customers and materialize the product as they expect by proper communication with each and individual department of the apparel industry.

•            It is the sole responsibility of the merchandiser to ensure the exact quality and timely delivery of the product to the customer.

•            Merchandiser should understand the existing infrastructure, quality norms and capabilities of the plant. This will help the merchandiser to cost the product compatible.

•            After accepting an order, it is essential for the customer to review the capacity of the company, hence they ask for samples and prototype. It is the job of merchandiser to convince the customer and get the order.

•            Creating a TNA (Time and Action) calendar for fixing schedules for various activities like cutting, sewing, dispatch, etc. and each and every small action need to be carried out as his/her special roles.

•            The delivery at the right time, at the right place and a right cost is the mantra of the merchandiser. So he or she needs to update the order status regularly to view at any point in time daily to have a better hold on the schedule.

•            Coordinates and tracks the sourcing activities and make sure that all the raw materials are delivered on time.

•            The communication and effective delivery of each and every order help the company and merchandiser to have a healthy relationship with the buyer/customer for a long-term business.

•            Identifying the problems and helping the production facility by aiding suitable information whenever they require.