Key Difference Between Buying and Merchandising- What You Must Know

Posted March 29, 2021

Fashion Buying Vs Merchandising- What’s the difference? In the article below will explain how the job roles differ.

Fashion Buying and Merchandising Roles Explained:

Buyer: Conducts trend forecasting and decides on the styles to be bought and negotiates production and delivery times with suppliers.

Merchandiser: Works closely with the buyer and helps plan stock, manages the budget, and controls deliveries and allocation to stores.

Essentially to sum it up, the buyer will be making the product selections, and working out what styles, price points, and products will be available in the store in particular months. The role revolves around the selection of the correct stock for the target market.

A Merchandisers job is more of a business management or admin role that manages the budget that is given to the buyer, helps to plan the stock qty required for what months based on past sales, and will help manage the stock from a head office managerial role once the company has received the product in store.

Both the merchandiser and buyer must be good with numbers and business planning to achieve the common goal of a profit for the company.

Some smaller companies may combine the buyer and merchandising roles together into one position.

Larger fashion companies with multiple stores may have separate positions for buying and merchandising.

Retail Merchandising and Buying

Buying and merchandising go hand in hand together. A buyer must have a strong knowledge of merchandising to be successful.

The buyer or merchandiser’s role may vary depending on the size of the business, but the fundamentals remain the same. Essentially, the main aim is to buy merchandise that their customers want or need to buy. Understanding what your customer wants is fundamental to all fashion buying.

Buyers Responsibilities:

Develop and buy a range of merchandise that achieves profit margin and is in-line with the store’s buying strategy
Source products from suppliers
Negotiate product prices, delivery times and payment terms of suppliers
Research market trends and fashion trends
Communicate effectively with suppliers, retail staff and senior management within the company
Work with merchandising plans: including sales plans and stock levels
Effectively manage stock

What is Retail Merchandising? Isnt it just making a store look nice? The answer is No.

You may have heard of retail merchandising, and may just think it applies to ‘visual merchandising’ which is making a store look nice through presentation of store windows, mannequin displays, and how the stock is displayed on racks and shelves. But merchandising applies to a much broader term. Here are some insights below:

Retail merchandising is the activity of buying and selling merchandise for a retail organization to generate a profit.
Merchandising includes buying stock at the wholesale level and selling it at a Retail level, to the end consumer.
Successful retailing is the ability to successfully incorporate main retailing elements into a profitable outcome. The main elements include the right product, the right price, the right place, the right time, and the right quantities.
Buyers are judged by the management of these key elements, resulting in correct sales, inventory, and margin results.
The achievement in profit includes the sound knowledge of retail arithmetic, and mathematic techniques.
Retail merchandising also is very closely linked with Retail Operations. Retail Operations include everything from staff/ personnel, financial control, sales promotion, visual retailing, and store operations, marketing.
Retail Merchandising is the management of predicting and knowing what the end customer wants, and selecting stock that meets their needs.
Merchandising essentially refers to a plan of selling merchandise in the fastest, most profitable way. Merchandise is a product on offer for sale in a retail store.

Merchandising in Buying refers to the plan of what stock you will buy, and how much. A merchandiser for a buyer will quite often authorize stock markdowns, and allocate stock to stores, and transfer stock from store to store according to sales demand. The role is highly administration-based, and good computer skills are essential.

Product Merchandising is the plan of what type of items you will design or sell, and what characteristics the products will have.

Visual Merchandising refers to how the stock is displayed in a retail store.

Fashion Buying and Merchandising Courses

Here at La Mode College, we offer a Fast Track short course in Professional Fashion Buying, which includes training in both buying and merchandising for fashion retail in both physical stores and the eCommerce market. Our buying and merchandising course is designed to give you the key skills you need to land the job and be able to perform the tasks expected of you on the job. We cover retail arithmetic, fashion buying and merchandising plans, trend forecasting, stock allocation, budgets, and sales reporting, management of stock and marketing, sales, and promotions. This month we are giving our readers 30% off the course sale, and flexible payment plan options. Click here to get a free course brochure of our Fashion Buying and Merchandising Course.

Buying and Merchandising Jobs

For the latest Fashion Buying + merchandising jobs, including buyers assistant jobs and examples of companies hiring, visit our article here.

How to Prepare for a job interview as a Fashion Buyer + Merchandiser

If you are lucky enough to score a job interview as a junior buyer or admin assistant within a fashion buying or merchandising department, you might want some practice interview questions to prepare you for the interview. See our article here on how to prepare for a job interview.