Buying & Merchandising E-Learning Course

Description

Buying and Merchandising

This course is predominantly aimed at people new to the Buying and Merchandising function, who need rather more than an overview.  It drills into depth of a variety of key buying and merchandising subjects.

Who Is It Suitable For?

Martec's Buying and Merchandising e-learning course is designed for:

• Junior staff who need a greater understanding of the functions of an integrated buying and merchandising team
• People from other retail functions either moving into or working with the Buying Office
• IT Departments and vendors will benefit from an increased understanding of Buying & Merchandising processes.

Course Objectives

By the end of this class, learners will be able to:

• Explain the theory, principles and practice of retail buying and merchandising.
• Describe best practice buying and merchandising processes. 

Detailed Content

The detailed content includes:

Overview of Retail Buying & Merchandising 

• Corporate Organization 
• Challenges & Trends
• Consumer Types & Impact on Strategy
• Retail Buying
• Retail Merchandising
• Private Label & Product Development
• Overview of Merchandise Management
• The Merchandise Hierarchy
• Space Management

Retail Financials

• Understanding Margin & Profitability
• Cash Flow & Profits
• OTB and its Use
• OTB: Exercise 1
• OTB: Exercise 2
• OTB: Exercise 3
• Retail and Cost Accounting
• Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s)
• Regular & Promotional Pricing
• Price Optimization
• Markdown Optimization
• Shortage

Pre-Season Activities

• Buyer’s Pre-season Activities
• Seasons
• Merchandise Plan Overview
• Plan Approaches
• The Merchandise Planning Proces
• Assortment Planning Overview 

Buying Activities

• Merchandise & Supplier (Vendor) Selection
• Vendor Negotiations
• Vendor Partnerships
• Purchase Order Management
• Vendor Management & Monitoring
• Promotion Planning & Evaluation

Merchandising Activities

• Merchandiser’s Responsibilities
• The Location Assortment Planning Process
• Sales Forecasting
• Allocation
• Replenishment
• Buyer’s Week / Merchandiser’s Week
• Buyer’s Week
• Merchandiser’s Week
• Team Work / Working Collectively
• Post Season Activities

Mastery Test

• Each module has its own mastery test and learners that achieve a 70% pass mark and complete the end of class survey will receive a certificate on completion.  They will also be awarded a Martec digital badge showcasing their achievement.  See this page for more details.

Benefits of Studying this Program

Learners studying this program will gain familiarity with buyjng and merchandising processes faster, shortening their path to full productivity. Suppliers to consumer goods companies will be able to identify opportunities where they can help their clients improve.
 
Hours of Study

About 10 hours.  However, we recommend individual sessions of about 30 minutes in order to retain as much knowledge as possible.
 
Pre-Requisites Necessary

None, but if learners have no previous retail knowledge, it would be good to have studied Overview of the Retail Industry and Overview of Key Retail Processes first.
 
After This Program

The next logical program in developing learners’ knowledge will depend on your learning goals, but will most likely include some of Sales and Inventory Management, Merchandise and Assortment Planning, Forecasting, Allocation and Replenishment.  You can get more guidance from the Career Paths section of this web site.