Fashion Buying Lecture 1 PDF

Fashion Buying Lecture 1 The role of a buyer and merchandiser  Intended Learning Outcomes The context of product within a fashion business – Exploring its role and impact on the supply of product – B&M as the guardian of product within a fashion business The buyer & me...

Fashion Buying Lecture 1 The role of a buyer and merchandiser  Intended Learning Outcomes The context of product within a fashion business – Exploring its role and impact on the supply of product – B&M as the guardian of product within a fashion business The buyer & merchandiser roles – The role, its contacts and success criteria within the supply of product The concept to carrier bag – The activities of the buyer and merchandiser The Retail Buying Cycle – another way to look at the activities of the buyer and merchandiser The Context of Product Within a Fashion Business Exploring its role and impact on the supply of product  Exercise Identify reasons why students may be initially be attracted to a job as a buyer  The Context of Product Product is a physical good, service, idea, person or place that is capable of offering tangible or intangible attributes that individuals or organisations regard as so necessary, worthwhile or satisfying that they are prepared to exchange money, patronage or some other unit of value in order to acquire it. (Brassington and Pettitt 2003:268)  Exercise Distinguish how buying basic merchandise differs from buying fashion merchandise  The Context of Product B&M is charged with the delivery of product ranges that reflect the creative direction & wealth creation needs of fashion business – This places the role of product in delivering these dual requirements as being central to the individual roles of buyer and merchandiser The qualitative role of product is therefore: – “to be a problem solver” (de Chernotony & McDonald: 2003 p4) – “retailers capture their customers interest by the nature of their product range” (Varley: 2001, p9) To be balanced and relevant to the customer/business relationship – Fashionability, price architecture, fabrication, sizing  The Context of Product No matter how relevant a product range is, it has to support a second role of creating wealth for the business – All businesses operate within financial budgets that shape and direct the buyer towards ensuring that balanced ranges are profitable ones The implication of this is that the financial capabilities of product directly influences business success and so is of equal importance as fashion credibility and range balance – There is a quantitative financial dimension within product management influencing the shape of budgets ensuring they are appropriate and achievable within the context of prevailing trends and market conditions To be balanced and relevant to the business/customer relationship – Appropriate product budgets, flexibility in its contribution to business objectives  The Buyer & Merchandiser Roles The role, its contacts and success criteria within the supply of product © James Clark, Fashion Merchandising, Palgrave Macmillan 2014  Exercise What if any are the differences of buying fashion compared to buying other goods  Buying & Merchandising With two clear roles for product within business the complexity of successful product management begins to take a strategic as well as operational shape Modern B&M has the potential to confuse and jeopardise business fortunes. – One can speculate if the early 21st century troubles of the likes of Burberry and its excessive use of its house check or the over exposed FCUK logo t shirts of French Connection were caused by over ambitious designers and buyers pushing to expand ideas beyond balance or if in fact it was the merchandisers and financiers pushing to develop more of the safe easy winners within the product ranges © James Clark, Fashion Merchandising, Palgrave Macmillan 2014  Buying & Merchandising What did you think of that as a definition of buying? A good starting point when reviewing the supply chain process then is to understand the definitions of the Buying & Merchandising roles © James Clark, Fashion Merchandising, Palgrave Macmillan 2014  Buying & Merchandising The buyers role is defined as: – Responsible for overseeing the development of a range of products aimed at a specific type of customer and price bracket (Goworek 2007) – Concerned with the qualitative aspects of buying – product features that bear on its ability to give customer satisfaction (Varley 2006) The merchandisers role is defined as: – Responsible for setting the financial parameters of a garment range. (Goworek 2007) – Concerned with the quantitative aspects of buying – estimating sales, planning deliveries and distribution of goods to stores (Varley 2006) © James Clark, Fashion Merchandising, Palgrave Macmillan 2014  Buying & Merchandising Pulling these differing definitions together key themes emerge to summarise B&M – Strategic - the roles have an influence on achieving a business strategy – Creative – they plan and create a physical product – Financial – they plan & create financial budgets for a physical product – Operational – they engage in activities to deliver, sell & trade a product Its joint role within a fashion value chain is defined by Clark (2014) as being: – ‘A role that connects the creative and financial product requirements of a fashion brand through strategic range planning and operational trading that optimises a fashion business opportunity’ © James Clark, Fashion Merchandising, Palgrave Macmillan 2014  Exercise Summarise how buying may be different in large and small retail stores  Connects The role is central to a fashion business and connects to other roles – it must be multi skilled © James Clark, Fashion Merchandising, Palgrave Macmillan 2014  Buying & Merchandising - Connects Merchandis er Design/ Retail/VM Trend Buyer Marketing Suppliers Quality © James Clark, Fashion Merchandising, Palgrave Macmillan 2014  Buying & Merchandising - Connects Buyer Retail Finance Ops Merchandis er Distributi Suppliers on Logistics © James Clark, Fashion Merchandising, Palgrave Macmillan 2014  Creative It has a qualitative approach to its activities © James Clark, Fashion Merchandising, Palgrave Macmillan 2014  Financial It has a quantitative approach to its activities © James Clark, Fashion Merchandising, Palgrave Macmillan 2014  Range planning It creates a physical product range © James Clark, Fashion Merchandising, Palgrave Macmillan 2014  Operational trading It manages the flow of product into and out of the business © James Clark, Fashion Merchandising, Palgrave Macmillan 2014  Exercise List and categorise positive and negative characteristics of the buyer’s job  The Concept to Carrier Bag The activities of the buyer and merchandiser © James Clark, Fashion Merchandising, Palgrave Macmillan 2014  Concept to Carrier Bag The concept to carrier bag model lays out a generic process of the buying cycle that breaks the supply of product into sequential steps – It is not definitive – Does not take account of different business models – Or identify a standard length of time the product management process takes © James Clark, Fashion Merchandising, Palgrave Macmillan 2014  Concept to Carrier Bag Concept to carrier bag Definition Approximate timing 1. Research Undertaking and collation of relevant fashion Month 1 to 2 research 2. Concept Creation of product range concept and design Month 1 to 2 direction 3. Product development Finalisation of concept as a product range Month 3 4. Sourcing The sourcing of suppliers and manufacturers for the Month 3 range 5. Manufacturing The manufacture of the product range Month 4 to 5 6. Shipping The shipping and delivery of the product range Month 4 to 5 7. Warehousing The receipt of the product range its allocation to store Month 6 and storage 8. Distribution The process of delivering initial store allocations Month 6 9. Retail Display, sale, promotion and stock replenishment Month 7 to 12 10. Carrier bag The purchase of the product by a consumer Month 7 to 12 © James Clark, Fashion Merchandising, Palgrave Macmillan 2014  Buyer and the Concept to Carrier Bag 1. Research Review of past ranges, competitors, future product and cultural trends 2. Concept Articulation of research into a product concept, mood boards and product range ideas 3. Product Creation of option range plans, product specifications & price strategies development 4. Sourcing Negotiation and agreement with suppliers to produce products within cost and quality requirements 5. Manufacturing The oversight of the creation of samples and bulk production 6. Shipping The liaison with suppliers to finalise product production and approve final production samples to allow shipment 7. Warehousing The final review of received product and authority to either release to allocation or return to supplier 8. Distribution The provision to retail stores of product information, training or look books for the season 9. Retail Review of current ranges, competitors and trends to make necessary changes to future production for the season 10. Carrier bag The end of the successful season with the sale of the last unit of the range © James Clark, Fashion Merchandising, PalgraveThe end of the successful season with the sale of the  Merchandiser & the Concept to Carrier Bag 1. Research Review of past ranges, competitors, future product and economic trends 2. Concept Articulation of research into a financial budgets and open to buy budgets 3. Product Creation of option range plans and unit buys within open to buy budgets development 4. Sourcing Negotiation and agreement with suppliers to produce products within delivery phasing budgets 5. Manufacturing The oversight of the status of orders compared to delivery phasing budgets 6. Shipping The liaison with the buyer to finalise product production and to allow shipment 7. Warehousing The creation of allocation plans for the product to be distributed to stores 8. Distribution The oversight of the authority to allocate product to stores and the creation of replenishment plans 9. Retail Review of current ranges, competitors and trends to make necessary changes to future production for the season 10. Carrier bag The end of the successful season with the sale of the last unit of the range © James Clark, Fashion Merchandising, Palgrave Macmillan 2014  Buying & Merchandising - 1. Researc h 10. Carrier 2. Bag Concept 9. Retail Buyer 3. Prod Dev & Mechd 8. Distribution sr 4. Sourcing 7. 5 Warehousin Manufacg. g 6. Shipping © James Clark, Fashion Merchandising, Palgrave Macmillan 2014  The Retail Buying Cycle 1. Range 8. Review 2. Evaluation Identifica of product tion of and potential supplier products performan and ce suppliers The 7. Trading, repeat retail 3 Evaluation of buying orders and potential markdown products s and suppliers cycle 6. Monitoring 4. Pre- the critical selection path 5. Final Selection of products and Suppliers  References Brassington, F. Pettitt, S. (2006) Principles of Marketing. Prentice Hall: London Clark, J. (2014) Fashion Merchandising: Principles & Practice. London: Palgrave De Chernatony, L and McDonald, M (2003) Creating Powerful Brands 3rd ed. Oxford:Elsevier Goworek, H. (2007) Fashion Buying. Oxford: Blackwell Varley, R (2006) Retail Product Management, Buying & Merchandising 2nd ed. London: Routledge