Indian merchandisers sharp in product development but lack in detailing

Previously designers and buyers used to visit very regularly. Carrying their order requirements on a platter requiring no homework by the merchandiser. Today the scenario has changed and more people from the production, compliance, management and technical side of the business travel to the destinations for follow-up and the actual buyers and designers do not travel so often. Correspondingly they are also unsure of what to buy, as consumers have become very finicky. Further their needs have multiplied and so also have the number of collections per year at the retailer.

With shrinking budgets and demanding consumers, based on rapidly chancing fashion trends, buyers are now looking more towards their suppliers to give ideas and directions in fashion. This chancing attitude of the buyer has placed increasing responsibilities on the buying agencies to provide sourcing support for not only pre set ideas and concepts but to create new looks and fabrics appealing to the consumer base of the retailer. With this widening scope of buying operations, merchandisers, who are responsible to interact and interpret buyer needs, are entrusted with the job of product development and sourcing.

Senior merchandisers are expected to be equipped with knowledge and insight to suggest different yarns, weaves, fabrics, blends. For this they require to be innovative and proactive to suggest as per buyers’ needs and profile. This is indeed challenging as prices have dropped 15-20 per cent in the last six years but the demands of quality have to be intelligent enough to source from not only the country but from all over the world to quote prices acceptable to the buyer. Merchandisers have to be trained to not only work out the best possible price but also advise design limitations to buyers and suggest alternative options. Sometimes orders have to be placed with vendors outside the country to ensure that business is retained by the agency.

With their understanding of the buyer, merchandisers are expected to know how much he is willing to pay and offer only those developments, which suit his budget. This added responsibility of combining development and price has made the role of a merchandiser more than just that of ‘production trackers’. The job is more hands on. In fact even the basic role of tracking has become more difficult and demanding. The pressure is constantly on the merchandiser to bring in business from the buyer and not let him take away business to other destinations o buying offices. Marketing for new buyers is not part of a merchandiser’s operation. Separate people are trained to make presentations to new perspective clients.

To optimize the potential of the merchandisers we at Textile Network are departmentalizing merchants according to products and not accounts. A different set of merchandisers is looking after woven shirts and knit shirts even if they belong to the some buyer. I feel that product-specific merchandisers are better equipped for the challenges that the job throws up in today’s context. A merchandiser with basic knowledge of a product is a better team member for that category. An ideal team for any product would be one senior merchandiser with two assistants (one more experienced) and a quality controller.

Though Indian merchandisers are very sharp in sourcing, pricing, innovations and crisis management. They are lacking as compared to merchandiser in Hong Kong in the eye for details in color matching. Pattern making and giving correct response to comments and queries made by the buyer in the approval, process. A lot of stuff is sent for approval, which should never have been sent in the first place.

Many times because of the lack of knowledge of fits and patterning, comments from the buyer like ‘I don’t like the collar, it is not covering the back, or ‘the armpit is too tight’ is simply passed on to the vendor without providing solutions. In many cases the factory may also not have the right type of people to provide solutions and a sample is resubmitted with miner adjustment, which in all probability will be rejected again. This to and fro of samples wastes a lot of valuable time. If the merchandiser has an idea of how to solve the objection, the process would be faster and less irritating for the buyer.

Where Indian merchandisers definitely score is in the sourcing of raw materials. They are constantly surprising in their initiative to find out new sources at much lower cost sometimes even making a difference of $2 on one meter of fabric. New sourcing channels are investigated regularly for new options on price and product. Some times even suggestions in ways to cut cost are coming from the merchandiser which was not seen or expected from them even three years back.

Because of their growing proactive ness and willingness to apply their skills more and more. Company heads are willingly giving them independence of operations in matters purely related to approvals and sampling. Since market and product are the key to get business today. Merchandisers are gaining in the professional ladder and are considered important employees in a garment set –up.

I perceive a change in the role post-2004 as work is going to increase and price war is a foregone conclusion .The buyers will be in a position to select fabric from anywhere and do production somewhere else. In this scenario, the job a merchandiser will be broken down into two basic segments, one responsible for costing, pricing and development work and the other for monitoring and follow-up Even today I am seriously thinking of dividing my merchandising operations into two well-defined roles for optimization and greater productivity.