Thursday, May 17, 2012

Careers in Fashion Merchandising

Positive increase in the income level, coupled with better standards of living, has brought new demands for fashion makeovers in terms of clothes, styles, and accessories. In addition to this, the internationalization of markets, styles, colors, and choices of customers are continuously changing. Looking at India’s gripping hand in the global market; fashion merchandising is emerging as a stipulating career option these days. This mainly includes the sales and distribution of the finished product.

Fashion merchandisers are coordinators, who are involved in each and every stage of the garment's development, right from concept development to sales. Their work involves studying the buying trends and the buyer's needs, and coordinate between the market and production process. They are also required for business planning and analysis, customer management, order fulfillment, concept and product development, production cost control, sales and preparing income projections, and many more functions in fashion houses, designing organizations, and retail stores.

Course Details
Many courses of fashion designing and merchandising are offered by numerous fashion institutes all over India. The candidates has to be creative and evaluative skills, along with an eye for fashion. The duration of various courses of fashion merchandising can be two-year degree course, four-year degree program, certificate courses, diplomas, and advanced study programs are currently offered in fashion or apparel merchandising. These courses can be in the area of fashion designing and clothing technology, apparel marketing and merchandising, apparel production engineering, apparel designing and textile designing to fashion designing, garment construction, and fashion retail management. Undergraduate courses are offered to the students who have passed their 10+2 exam in any stream. However, only graduates are eligible for post-graduate courses in fashion merchandising. These courses include a basic understanding of fabric, fibres, weaves, cutting, sewing, and finishing, along with know-how of international marketing and trade.

Career Prospects
A qualified fashion merchandisers can work with any national or international lifestyle or fashion company. Good jobs are also available in ready-to-wear production companies and large retailers/chain stores. Export houses and Export fabrication companies also recruit merchandisers to coordinate between the foreign retail stores and production houses. Fashion merchandisers can work with fashion designers and can come up with a new product, taking the latest trends into consideration.  Visual merchandising, where products are promoted by visual display, also offers great opportunities in this area. Merchandisers can look for positions in boutiques, clothing wholesalers, retail management in departmental stores, importers, designers, and manufacturers as fashion advertising agents, store managers, fashion product developers, fashion retailers, event planners, window dressers, and fashion promotion specialists. With adequate experience, fashion merchandisers can even set up their own small-scale industries as well as big export houses.

Institutes Offering
Fashion merchandising courses are offered by several institutes in India like:
  • Society of Fashion and Technology (SOFT), Mohan Lal Sukhadia University, Udaipur; 
  • Mumbai; International Institute of Retail Management (IIRM), Delhi; 
  • National Institute of Fashion & Textile Technology, New Delhi; 
  • Footwear Design & Development Institute, Noida; 
  • National Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi; 
  • National Institute of Fashion Design, Chandigarh; 
  • Pearl Academy, New Delhi; Wigan & Leigh College, New Delhi; 
  • Vogue Institute of Fashion Technology, Bangalore; 
  • Foreign Trade Development Centre, New Delhi; 
  • School of Art and Fashion Technology (SAFT), Dehradun; and Academy of Fashion and Textile Technology (AFTT), Chennai.

Remuneration
Remuneration in fashion industry is decided by the personal skills and fashion competence of an individual. Normal pay packages of fresh graduates in this industry are Rs. 12,000 - 15,000 per month. With gradual experience and talent, one can easily move up to Rs. 30,000 - 40,000 per month. Fashion merchandisers having their own export houses have varied revenues as per the size and nature of their business.

3 comments:

  1. In the broadest sense, merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of products to a retail consumer. At a retail in-store level, merchandising refers to the variety of products available for sale and the display of those products in such a way that it stimulates interest and entices customers to make a purchase. For this, there are various Merchandising Institutes in India. All provides them the best experts. It also includes various merchandising courses in india. Thanks for sharing this information.

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  2. Very Informative,Great Blog.Keep up the good work.
    Fashion Institute In Bangalore

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