
1. Merchandising
1.1. Activities involved in acquiring particular goods/ services and making them available at the places, times, prices, and quantities that enable a retailer to reach its goals.
2. Merchandising Philosophy
2.1. Sets the guiding principles for all the merchandise decisions that a retailer makes
2.2. t should reflect • Target market desires • Retailer’s institutional type • Market-place positioning • Defined value chain • Supplier capabilities • Costs • Competitors • Product trends
3. Scope of Merchandising Responsibility
3.1. Full array of merchandising functions • Buying and selling • Selection, pricing, display, customer transactions OR • Focus on buying function only
4. Micromerchandising
4.1. Retailers adjust shelf-space allocations to respond to customer differences and other differences among local markets
5. Cross-Merchandising
5.1. Retailers carry complementary goods and services to encourage shoppers to buy more.
6. Merchandising and Store Functions Performed
6.1. o Merchandising view
6.1.1. All buying and selling functions • Assortments • Advertising pricing • Point-of-sale displays • Employee utilization • Personal selling approaches
6.2. o Buying view
6.2.1. Buyers manage buying functions: • Buying • Advertising • Pricing • In-store personnel manage other tasks: • Assortments • Point-of-sale displays • Employee utilization
7. Figure 14-5: Devising Merchandise Plans
8. Forecasts
8.1. These are projections of expected retail sales for given periods • Components: • Overall company projections • Product category projections • Item-by-item projections • Store-by-store projections (if a chain)
9. Types of Merchandise
9.1. Staple merchandise
9.1.1. Regular products carried by a retailer • Grocery store examples: milk, bread, canned soup • Basic stock lists specify inventory level, color, brand, style, category, size, package, etc.
9.2. Assortment merchandise
9.2.1. Apparel, furniture, automotive, and other categories for which the retailer must carry a variety of products in order to give customers a proper selection • Decisions on assortment • Product lines, styles, designs, and colors are projected • Model stock plan
9.3. Fashion merchandise
9.3.1. Products that may have cyclical sales due to changing tastes and life-styles
9.4. Seasonal merchandise
9.4.1. Products that sell well over nonconsecutive time periods