Guide to Effective Retail Merchandise Management


Book Description

This guide covers retail merchandise management which involves: * What merchandise to carry in stock * How much to buy and stock of each item * How much selling space to give each item * What price to charge for each item * How to display, advertise and promote each item Merchandise management is sometimes mistaken with merchandising. Merchandising refers to good in-store display and promotion of merchandise. Merchandise management, as described above, is much more, as will be seen in the discussion to follow in this guide. Here are some of the topics discussed: Selection of merchandise Gross profit Profit per square foot Allocation of space based on profit per square foot Gross profit on investment Stockturn Implementing a merchandise improvement program Gradual replacement of undesirable merchandise Checklist for improving the merchandise mix in your store Retail pricing, sales and markdowns Retail advertising and promotion ...and much more. My name is Meir Liraz and I'm the author of this book. According to Dun & Bradstreet, 90% of all business failures analyzed can be traced to poor management. This is backed up by my own experience. In my 31 years as a business coach and consultant to businesses, I've seen practically dozens of business owners fail and go under - not because they weren't talented or smart enough - but because they were trying to re-invent the wheel rather than rely on proven, tested methods that work. And that is where this book can help, it will teach you how to avoid the common traps and mistakes and do everything right the first time.




Concepts and Cases in Retail and Merchandise Management


Book Description

- Merchandise Management, Roles, and Responsibilities - Retailing Formats and Structures - Merchandise/Store Positioning - Merchandise Characteristics - Merchandise Planning, Buying, Control, and Profitability - Sourcing - Buyer/Vendor Relationships - Sales Promotion, Advertising, and Visual Merchandising - Personal Selling and Customer Relations - Entrepreneurship and Small Business Ownership - Ethics and Legal Behavior in Merchandise Management - Expanded coverage of technology, sourcing, branding, private labels, and ethical and legal behavior in retail management - Additional student activities related to each case study - Instructor's Guide provides suggestions for planning the course and using the text in the classroom




The Retail Management Formula


Book Description

The world of retail management presents numerous challenges. Maximizing effectiveness is the goal of every retail manager, but solutions are often difficult to find. In The Retail Management Formula: A Navigational Guide to Consistently Effective Retail Management, author Jon Dario pulls from his extensive experience in retail management and leadership to offer clear, concise, and practical tools designed specifically for retail managers. This book provides tangible and practical methods for turning ideas into action. With step-by-step instructions for establishing effective retail management routines, Dario delivers a complete program for laying the foundations of strong managerial behavior. The principles presented here can be used by both individual retail managers to achieve success and by senior leaders of an organization to serve as the core of their management training and development program. Filled with real-life illustrations of the book’s central ideas as well as detailed instructions for their implementation, The Retail Management Formula is a must-have book for any retail manager or organization interested in driving consistent execution on the part of their retail teams.




Museum Store: The Manager's Guide


Book Description

This practical guide is a “must own” resource for every museum store office. The eight-chapter volume includes a wealth of advice on best practices compiled by the MSA to help members become more successful in every aspect of their business. Get guidance from experienced store manager pros to help you correctly evaluate your store’s performance and get on track to boost every aspect of performance. If you add just one educational resource to your library this year, this book should be it! The information it contains is that valuable. The revised and updated Fifth Edition of Museum Store: The Manager’s Guide includes invaluable new tools. Features include: Updated information on social media, online and mobile shopping to help you maximize the value of these important channels How-to’s for analyzing and measuring financial performance, visual merchandising, marketing, managing personnel and more BONUS: Forms found in the book that you can download from the MSA website New insights into unrelated business income tax (UBIT) and copyright issues







Retail Management


Book Description

Retail Management is the process which helps the customers to procure the desired merchandise form the retail stores for their personal use. It includes all the steps required to bring the customers into the store and fulfill their buying needs. Retail management saves time and ensures the customers easily locate their desired merchandise and return home satisfied. Fashion Retail Management gives insight into the principles of fashion marketing, retail buying and merchandising and imparts basic fabric knowledge - from fiber to fabric and fabric to garment. It gives an overview of the concept of visual merchandising and lays emphasis on customer relationship management, brand management and sales management. The various processes which help the customers to procure the desired merchandise from the retail stores for their end use refer to retail management. Retail management includes all the steps required to bring the customers into the store and fulfill their buying needs. Retail management makes shopping a pleasurable experience and ensures the customers leave the store with a smile. In simpler words, retail management helps customers shop without any difficulty. Retailing in any field tends to be an incredibly competitive process and customer-facing stores are perhaps one of the tougher forms of business to manage. There is a lot that can potentially emerge to trip up even the most experienced and diligent of retail business operators but with the right approach, there’s also a huge amount that can be achieved. Here are 5 focus points that might be helpful if you’re looking to improve the way you run your retail business and exceed your customer's expectations. Understand and Respond to What Your Customers Want Like a lot of tips, our first one here is rather more easily said than done but that, in a sense, is precisely the point. Retailers need to do whatever it takes to get to know their customers and to react to what they find out quickly. You might be able to tick over by offering the same products in the same way as a matter of routine but lasting success can generally only be built on flexibility and a willingness to change along with habits among your customers. Get to Know Your Competition Like every other business around, retailers do not exist in a vacuum and it is vital for all manner of reasons that company bosses are aware of what their rivals are offering. These days, retail competitors can come in many different forms, be it online or otherwise, and bosses should frequently take the time to get a sense of the experiences being offered elsewhere. Whether or not you decide to integrate certain ideas into your own operation, competitor research is essential because it lets you know exactly what you’re up against and that information can prove to be invaluable. Invest in Your People The members of a retailer’s workforce are the face of the business on a day-to-day basis and the way that they interact with customers is very important. Hiring the right people to join your team is a key starting point but the story can’t stop there and providing quality training should always be high on the agenda. This goes for staff on the shop floor, as well as supervisors and managers. Always Look to the Future The past may well have a lot to teach us as business bosses but for retailers it’s vital to focus firmly on the future. It’s important not to dwell too much on prior successes or failures and to remain as objective as possible as you assess different situations and dynamics. Every experience is a lesson but a good retail manager will not be obsessed with what has gone before but will be quick to understand where opportunities may lie for the future. Be Ready for Anything One of the great things about being involved in retailing is the sheer variety of the challenges it presents from week to week and year to year. For those in charge of retail companies or operations, there is a lot to be said for expecting the unexpected and being ready to react at all times. Ultimately, the aim should be to focus on solving one problem at a time and not wasting energy on figuring out who to blame when things don’t go quite according to plan.




Store Design


Book Description

Retail design is different. It's a specialty. When done well, it works like magic. You want to build successful stores that are magnets for attracting customers, intriguing them, and selling products and services. The ideas in Store Design will help you design great retail experiences. Analyze your client's design needs according to type of store, location, the product, price-point, and budget. Systematically design and organize a store that reinforces a desired image, attracts shoppers and motivates them to buy. Create flexible, timeless and tasteful stores. Entice customers to enter the store, shop, buy and return again and again.The main components of store design are revealed chapter by chapter. Each axiomatic component leads to a selection process of "either-or" design subsets: open or closed front; strong or neutral design; accessible or inaccessible product display; and so on. This is the core of the retail design process. Use these design principles to build a store design that meets every concern of the retailer. Create a correct and memorable store image, a sensible floor plan, effective product presentation, an arresting storefront design, and vibrant, energy-efficient lighting.When done, you will know that your store design works: functionally, aesthetically, and psychologically. You will have created the right store for your product, your location, and your retailer, because you will have used sound design principles to make every decision along the way.Loaded with many photos and illustrations, Store Design explains everything in five chapters. Also, there is a useful glossary of retail architecture terms, and a step-by-step checklist to take you through the design process.Store Design is a guided, logical approach for designing a retail store. It will provide a simple, easy-to-follow design template. It will reinforce your existing skills and experience. And it will also serve as a knowledge base for the entire team so everyone can understand and follow the design process. Anyone can gain the equivalent of years of retail design experience simply by reading and adopting its ideas. Why wait? Get Store Design now and get going on your next retail store.Store Design is a Complete Guide to Designing Successful Retail Stores.Includes 42 photos & illustrations plus design checklist.




The Art of Retail Buying


Book Description

Buying for retail is a demanding and challenging job that requires a creative flair, a strong awareness of fashion trends, life trends as well as good interpersonal and team working skills. Buyers and merchandisers have to ensure that the right merchandise is being sent to the right stores, at the right time, in the right quantities. This takes a blend of forward planning and rapid response to consumer demands. In combination with the other areas of the business, success comes from maximizing profit, which is achieved through anticipating customer needs and responding rapidly to immediate issues. It involves complex data analysis, liaison with the stores operation teams and balancing store stock levels. To succeed as a professional buyer, you will need strong analytical and numerical skills, an interest and understanding of consumer demands and strong commercial awareness. You also need to have an ability to understand and prioritize issues quickly and efficiently. Progression into the Merchandising function also involves the ability to manage change. The better equipped you are in your buying function the better you will be able to adapt to these changes. The best change of all is to graduate from a good buyer to an outstanding one! To handle the complexity of data and to enable you to contribute effectively in the critical role of a buyer, you need the right skill-sets and a right mind-set. Both of which can be learned in The Art of Retail Buying. This easy to read guide is written in a concise & pictorial style with colorful images that enables you to follow step-by-step each function of a buyer. The Art of Retail Buying will inspire you, motivate you and encourage you towards merchandising excellence!




Merchandise Buying and Management


Book Description

This comprehensive text covers the principles of retail merchandising from the dual perspectives of retail buying and the management of inventories at store level. The author, an educator and merchant with over 20 years' experience in the department and specialty store industry, offers a contemporary approach to buying and merchandise management from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives, with a strong integration of the two. Instructor's Guide provides objectives, course outlines, tests, assignments, projects, and teaching suggestions.




The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting and Running a Retail Store


Book Description

A comprehensive guide to running a retail store, with advice on hiring and training, licenses and registrations, working with customers, and learning the retail market.