2.1    What We Mean by the Term Merchandising

Now, if you have never
worked in a retail environment, then you may never have heard of the term merchandising.

However, for a retail manager,
this is something that is going to be extremely important; as the way in which you
merchandise the store is going to relate to the ability to generate additional
sales from your customers.In general terms, 'merchandising' relates to the
visual display of products within the store and making sure that the shelves
are appropriately stocked.

Furthermore, merchandising also relates to more than just the visual display of the products. It also means that you learn how to use the design of the product,  the 
packaging  of  the 
product,  the display,
the selection, and even the thought process
that goes into where the products are placed and the order in which they are laid out.

Merchandising also refers to the correct display of products
that are reduced in some way or on special offer. That is why retail outlets
will often have a set part of the store dedicated to these reduced products, as this allows their customers
to know that those products
are not at full price;
providing them with useful information that they can then act upon.

Merchandising deals with the different
products within the retail outlet, where they are located and how they are then observed
by the customers.

As you can understand, this is something
that is key for the store to succeed and that is why we will look at other aspects of merchandising to provide you with all the knowledge
that you require to make the most of your retail outlet.

Without merchandising a store in the correct
manner it will have a negative impact on the way in which you are viewed. This is about more than just making sure that products
are there on the shelves
for the public to buy. It is all about making them as attractive as possible through careful placement
and using retail psychology that has already been worked out, by not only those that deal with the layout of retail outlets, but also the designers of the products that you are selling.

Failing to fully grasp how to correctly
merchandise a store will lead to a failure of the store itself and will clearly reflect badly on your ability to run a retail outlet.

2.2    How to Merchandise Correctly to Increase
Sales

The next part for us to consider
is how to merchandise correctly
in order to increase sales.

Being able to increase your bottom line, which means your turnover for your store, is going to give you a confidence boost and also make those individuals above you in head office sit up and take notice of what you are doing. Basically, the way in which you merchandise is going to have a direct impact on the way in which customers
view your products and whether they are tempted into spending more money. In your role as the manager, it is essential
that you are fully aware of the high standards
that have been set by those in charge to merchandise the products in the store. In turn, you must then pass these instructions on to the other members
of staff so that the retail outlet is set up accordingly.

When tackling the issue of merchandising there are a number of key things to take into consideration to make sure that you meet all of the requirements that your customers
expect from your store. There are basic steps to take and ultimately any retail manager
has to understand the way in which to set up their store every day.

The steps that you should take are as follows:

 1.Make sure that the shelves are
full of products so that your customers have the maximum amount of choice
available. It looks bad if there are spaces on the shelves due to not having
sufficient stock, it implies that there are issues with getting stock to the
store and gives the impression of the business being disorganised. If you have
a number of empty spaces in your store then it is hardly going to encourage
people to come back to you as they may rather go elsewhere.

2. The products must be displayed
correctly and by this we mean the labels should be facing out so they can be
read easily by the customers or if there are no labels, then the key
information that they need to help them to decide if they wish to purchase must
be clearly visible. For example, if we are dealing with clothing, then it is
important that the clothes are in order according to size. Generally speaking,
the clothes at the top of a pile will be 
the  smallest working their way up
in sizes to the bottom of the pile. The idea of this is that it makes it easier
for customers to find what they are looking for without having to search
through every item.

3.The products also need to be
organised correctly and by this we mean that they have to be in the correct
place at all times to reduce the level of confusion surrounding the items. Now,
the actual placement will often be decided by people other than yourself which
is why you must then be able to relay instructions as clearly as possible. The
amount of thought that goes into placement of products and designs of stores is
way beyond what anybody tends to imagine and in order for it all to work there
is a real need for the merchandising to be carried out correctly.

Overall, the aim is that the products
that you have available for sale need to look as attractive as possible in order to really entice people into parting with their money. The art of merchandising is all about making the retail outlet look tidy and respectable. However, as we intimated earlier on there is a real need for products to be organised and that is something that we will look at next.

 FACT

 Retail's gender profile is 58:42 women and men

 Source: retailappointment.co.uk

2.3    The Importance of Pricing and How to Display Products

It may seem rather pointless
for us to talk about the importance of pricing when it comes to retail management, but if you actually spend some time walking around stores it is amazing how often prices are either in the wrong place or are just simply not being displayed correctly.

The problem here is that this is extremely frustrating for people because they want to know how much something is going to cost them without having to hunt down a member of staff and then wait while they walk off in order to find out. At this point, the only thing that this is going to do is to encourage
the member of the public to just walk out and forget about buying the product,
and that does not reflect well on your company.

People want to know the price of something before they purchase it as they will often work to a budget and need to understand if they are close to the budget or over it.People do not want to go searching
for prices. They want to be able to see the price and to relate it directly to the product,
whether that be the label on the shelf or a price tag that is attached to the product in some way.

Furthermore, if products
are available at a special
price, then they need to be aware of what that price is and if there are any restrictions on how many they can purchase at any given time.

Prices must be clearly displayed
at all times and this is even more important
when dealing with items that are reduced or on some kind of special offer. Failure to label things correctly
will lead to confusion, and as a manager it is your responsibility to make sure that those items that are on offer have been put in the correct place to avoid any confusion
when people arrive at the checkout and wonder why they have been charged more than they thought.

When it comes to actually
organising products, then at this point we are going to forget about the psychology that goes behind the initial
layout as that is something
that we will mention later on in the course.
However, at this point it is important
that  we  discuss 
the  organising  of  the merchandising since it directly
correlates to the way in which the store is viewed by those that come through
the doors.

They want to be able to sort through the products and find what they are looking for. If it is clothes,
then they want to know how to cope with the different
sizes or whether they are looking for a top, trousers, underwear
or whatever. Organising your retail outlet to provide the customers
with the best possible shopping experience will only reflect well on your store and boost sales in the process.

In order to really keep things organised
when it comes to merchandising, it is important
that each and every member of staff is fully aware of what is expected of them. They must know that if you are dealing with products that have a label, the label must be facing out so 
the  customer  can 
easily identify what the product is before they even pick it up off the shelf. In addition,
the product must also be directly related to what is on the shelf label so they can see what the price is without seeking somebody
for help.

If we are dealing with products that do not have a label, then the items should be organised in an order. If clothes are on a rail, then they must follow a logical pattern as to the sizes so that people do not have to stand there and work through each and every item to check the size for themselves. This is one thing that will frustrate
customers and could prompt them into moving away from your store and going elsewhere.

Finally, and we will mention a bit more about this later, if products
are on special offer, then make sure that they are organised
in their own area or prices are clearly displayed
so that customers know what is on offer and what the deal is. You will often find that this kind of thing can be extremely
confusing if you do not do your job as the manager correctly, leading to customers
being forced into asking your staff for help when this should not be the case.

Correctly organising products
gives the store structure, removes
all doubt or confusion and makes the entire shopping
experience so much easier for everybody involved.
However, your role as the manager is to make sure that standards are kept as high as possible and that everybody
knows how to merchandise the different products
so that the store meets the requirements of the company
involved.

2.4    Using Displays to Maximise Sales

As we are dealing with the importance
of merchandising, it is also essential to look at ways in which you can use displays to potentially maximise sales.

This is something
that can often be passed down to you from senior management
as they have invested time and effort in thinking
about the design and layout of the retail outlet. We will also look at this in more detail later in the course.

Displays can be in the window, they can be at the store entrance,
at the end of aisles or at new sections
where different products
are for sale. The key is to use displays to let customers know where they are in the store and also what to expect in that area. They are powerful, they are effective
at what they do and best of all they are known to generate results, and that is what you need to be capable of doing as a retail manager.

The way in which items or products
are displayed has been studied
for some time and you will tend to be given instructions as to what is expected of your store from head office. As the manager, it is your responsibility to make sure that everything is in the correct place at the correct time, and we are not just talking about when there are promotions happening.

To make life easier, you should think about the following key points when dealing with

displays:

1.    They must be organised and tidy.

2.    It must be obvious what is for sale.

3.    The price must be clearly
displayed as that is the key to good merchandising.

4.   
The stock must be replenished as much as possible in each display.

5.   
Any additional
point of sale materials used to attract attention must be used correctly.

As the manager, it is advisable to walk around the store on a daily basis, and often more than once depending
on the size and how busy it is, to make sure that the displays of products follow those basic rules. Anything
else will reflect badly on your running of the store and considering it can then have a negative impact on your sales figures,
do you really want to do anything
that could affect your reputation?

What is clear is that correctly merchandising the store is important, simply because of the way in which it has a direct impact on the sales that you are able to achieve.
Furthermore, there are certain ideals that are expected by the customers
of the store and clearly you have to meet those standards
to encourage people to spend their cash with you.

However, as you have now seen, there is more to merchandising than you may have initially
thought, but nothing here is too complicated.Basic merchandising is going to make a huge difference to your store and as you can see, the only things that we are dealing with is that labels are visible,
the store is ordered, and you make sure that the shelves are replenished rather than have them bare.

Keeping shelves fully stocked is going to depend on your ability to reorder and to do so in time. Making sure that this happens is an important
part of being the manager,
and we will deal with that in another module due to its importance of keeping the store flowing
nicely with the products.

MODULE SUMMARY

Getting merchandising correct is a basic part of being a retail manager even when other members of staff are responsible for doing this on a regular basis. As the manager, it is up to you to check that every single person under your control is doing their job and that the products are going to be displayed
correctly. Exactly how that is done will always depend on the type of store that you are working in and what is expected
from your customers. Understanding this will make life so much easier, so be aware of this from the outset and your merchandising will go smoothly.