Skills Needed For Fashion Merchandiser

Forecasting Ability

While more methodical than fortune telling, fashion merchandising does require forecasting ability. A thorough knowledge of past fashion trends and an awareness of current industry developments will serve you well in a fashion merchandising career.

Analytical Ability

Problem solving and analytical ability also come in handy in this field. A good sense of style obviously helps you; however, you must also determine how things fit into a budget and whether they meet the functional needs of consumers. Other criteria may also influence your fashion merchandising decisions, so you will need to be able to analyze a complex set of issues and stand behind your choices

Communication Skills

Fashion merchandising also requires good communication skills. From negotiating with manufacturers to getting your marketing message out to customers, there is ample opportunity to exercise your powers of communication in the fashion merchandising field.


Additional Skills

The world of fashion is a tough world to penetrate, and unless you are armed with the right tools, you may never get in at all. It's a hard fact, but a thriving, dog-eat-dog industry has no room for shy, timid and unlearned fashion wannabes

Now, if you love fashion and everything about it, you already have an edge, but this is not enough. There are a lot facets in the fashion industry that you need to master or at least learn more about to be able to equip you better before entering the scene.

Additionally, fashion merchandisers seek out the target market for a designer's clothing, such as children's clothing stores, department stores or discount retailers

The final component of fashion merchandising is selling. A fashion merchandiser that works with a designer is responsible for selling fashion items to stores, who then sells to consumers. Again the merchandiser must have an idea about forecasting and market trends so they may give their recommendation regarding production of the item. Creativity is important, because a merchandiser must offer suggestions on how to display the items within the store. When a fashion merchandiser works for a retail store, responsibilities include buying and presenting fashion items within the store.