Principles of Fashion Retail
Chloe Wiggins
Retail Store Manager
Responsibilities
- Managing and motivating a team to increase sales and ensure professional behaviour.
- Keeping up with current trends
- Taking care of controlling stock levels and making important decisions about stock control
- Dealing with deliveries
- Inspecting the areas in the store so they are kept in the best visual way possible and putting the right staff in the right place
- Resolve any problems that may occur with customers or staff
- Plan promotional events or displays with the visual merchandiser
- Making sure the store considered all legal health and safety rules.
- Conducting interviews for new staff and then training them
- Serving customers when needed.
- Dealing with queries, complaints and feedback from customers
- Controlling budgets and costs providing reports to head office
- Making incentives for staff that will then motivate them to work harder.
http://www.dishaguru.com/career-as-retail-manager.html
Skills and Attributes
To become a retail manager you will need to have a range of hard and soft skills.
Hard Skills:
- You should have experience working as a store manger in the fashion industry.
- You should have a basic understanding how to use Microsoft Office applications for example; Excel and Word
- Being able to make key decisions and understand how to analyse sales figures, retail laws, security and health and safety
- You should have good customer service values
- Good analytical skills
- Knowledge of bulk purchasing
- Strong knowledge of product categories
Soft Skills:
- You will need the ability to manage and motivate a team.
- Having excellent communication and people skills as you will be engaging with a variety of people and have to be professional at all times.
- The ability to work under pressure and having confidence, drive and enthusiasm is key as that shows a professional face for the company which will encourage your employees to behave in the same manner.
- Self control
- Patience
- Pleasing and outgoing personality
Salary
Working Hours
Employment Opportunities
- You can work for high street shops
- Department stores
- Niche retailers
- Online sellers
- Television shopping channels
As you grow in your career, you are typically promoted by moving to larger stores in larger markets, or to area or regional management. Here are some career paths that you can progress to as shown in the diagram below.
payscale.com(2016)
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Some people like to work in retail because every day is different, as shops are often faced with all unique problems from issues with customers to wrong deliveries.
Cons:
- Working as a retail manager is hard work, you are non stop all day and have to work long hours.
- You have a varied customer base some are very polite and easy to deal with and some are difficult. It is a skill to be able to adapt to both
Marketer
Responsibilities
- They need to consider the way customers think and act when making purchasing decisions.
- They monitor and analyse market trends.
- Research competitors products and services then they can explore ways of improving their own existing products and services.
- Presenting findings and suggestions to company directors or other senior managers
- Create marketing strategies to promote the brand/product/service
- Increase the brand awareness
- Show a positive image to the consumer
- Prominent positioning over their competitors for example designer brands will pay to be situated at key points in a department store.
- Encourage new customers
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140916110858-44004583-when-is-a-marketing-manager-not-a-marketing-manager
Skills and Attributes
You will need to show a range of hard and soft skills for this job
Hard Skills:
- Good organisational and planning skills
- Managing skills
- Writing skills
- Ability to lead and motivate a team
- Ability to work under pressure and to complete deadlines on time
- Attention to detail
- Good business sense and budget awareness
Soft Skills
- Having excellent spoken and written communication
- Being able to remain professional under pressure
- Initiative
- Creativity- Innovative and unique approaches to advertising and selling products which is something that will make you stand out.
- Confidence to 'sell' your ideas
- Patience
- You must be able to think on your feet and come up with unique solutions on the spot
- Drive
- Reliable
Salary
Working Hours
Most marketing managers work 37 hours a week, between the hours of 9am and 6pm. You may be required to work Some evenings and weekend work when organising or attending events, or when working on a big marketing campaign. Some positions may require you to travel, particularly when working for an international company.
Employment Opportunities
payscale.com (2016)
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Marketing plays a vital role and can be used in most job , from government and health to commercial and retail. So your options are open, if you fancy a career change.
- You are helping develop the companies future.
Cons:
- You have to meet deadlines which can be stressful.
- You have to work within a strict budget.
PR
http://www.eliteevents.ca/site/about-pr-event-management
Responsibilities
- Creating a strong brand image for your client
- Working alongside fashion editors, models,journalists and celebrities
- Understanding the media trends
- Promoting the Product- communicating with editors and celeb stylists to know about their fashion expectations.
- Establishing Links- maintaining strong relationships with bloggers, journalists, opinion leaders and the public.
- Handling Complaints-must listen to the complaints arising from all directions and either redirect or deal with the issues themselves.
- Bring in new business opportunities
- Sending out press samples which you are then responsible for making sure you get them back
- Brand building and partnership: for example when high street stores do collaborations with designers( balmain for H&M) that will introduce a new audience to the brand
- You will take responsibility for developing global press releases for product launches, store openings, events and special projects and will support retail stores in creating local PR campaigns
- Taking care of every single detail- For an event they are in charge of greeting guests to putting together the team of hair, nail, and make-up artists, stylists, production managers, casting directors, models, lighting and sound crews.
https://printhespotlightblog.wordpress.com
Skills and Attributes
Here is some hard and soft skills you should have:
Understanding social media
- Excellent organisational and time management skills with the ability to multitask
- Writing and producing presentations and press releases
- Excellent communication skills both orally and in writing
- Excellent interpersonal skills
- Good IT skills
- Presentation skills
- Initiative
- Ability to prioritise and plan effectively
- Awareness of different media agendas
- Common sense
- Creativity
Working Hours
Working hours are generally 9am to 5pm but can often increase depending on how much work you have, you may have some unsocial hours. They may have to attend events in the evening or be on call at weekends in order to deal quickly with any crisis that might occur
Employment Opportunities
Different roles within a PR company
- Brand Management
- Digital Media
- Media Relations
- Crisis Management
- Social Responsibility
payscale.com (2016)
IN-HOUSE AND AGENCY PRS
PR’s can either work IN-HOUSE for a brand or as part of an external AGENCY
o In-house PR’s work on one brand
o Agency PR’s work on several brands
There is no one better than the other
If you work IN-HOUSE :
- You get to know for brand inside out.
- If you need to as a question you all work in the same building so you get answers straight away
- You are able to control more what clients you are reaching out to for example older clients.
- Cost is fundamental in choosing one of these establishments over the other.
If you work with an AGENCY:
- You work for numerous brands
- design,shoot, create the whole ad campaign
- You will work at a distance from your client base
- More media opportunities from sitting amongst other like minded brands
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- They offer a huge amount of career options, You can work anywhere from top fashion houses through to small charities trying to raise awareness.
- You also get to attend several parties and events
Cons:
- Your work day can extent to late into the evening due to events which you have to attend or promote
Social Media Marketing Manager
Your main responsibilities are:
- Developing the brands awareness by creating original content to gain online reputation.
- Increasing the amount of visitors to a website by obtaining a high-ranking placement in the search results page of a search engine which is called search engine optimisation and generating inbound traffic.
- Build campaigns and promote content
The skills required for this role:
- Strong understanding of the social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest etc.) and how each platform can be used effectively in different scenarios.
- Monitoring tweets, responding to Facebook posts and engaging with brand support. It even requires knowing how to respond to trolls and negative feedback.
- You will need to outline goals, define your target audience and know what platforms will help you expand your efforts.
- Having great writing skills is vital as a lot of people will just be skim reading so you need to create an easy to read structure incorporating subtitles, bullet points and numbering which will be eye-catching allowing people to want to read.
https://www.meltwater.com/blog/infographic-a-day-in-the-life-of-a-social-media-manager/
Visual Merchandiser
The Kooples- Carnaby Street took by me on 10/9/16
The Kooples adding the flower bridge to their window is subtle but for me looks effective. It makes the clothes draw attention as the flowers are creating a main focus point when you look at it.
Havaianas- Carnaby Street took by me on 10/9/16
I like how the havaianas window have used there own product to make a display as the flip flops are from brazil using a tropical theme goes well with the whole flavour of the company.
Karl Lagerfeld- Regent Street took by me on 10/9/16
This is the Karl Lagerfeld at Regent Street window display and this was my favourite out of the displays i saw on the 9th of September. I loved the glamours feel of the display. The minimalistic styling goes well with the pop of colour from the bags.
Responsibilities
- Liaising with teams such as buying, design and marketing, to create design themes and plans.
- Maintaining within the budget and negotiating with supplies for the materials
- Sourcing materials such as props and lighting
- Researching lifestyle and design trends and making sure designs will appeal to the target audience
- Working with other members of the design, marketing and buying team to develop themes and colour schemes for displays - for example Christmas, Valentine's day, sales and special promotions
- Sketching designs and developing floor plans so you are making the most of the space available
- Creating and taking down displays
- Preparing visual merchandising packs, including plans and photographs, for other stores in the chain, to make sure all displays present a consistent image
- Visiting other branches to train and brief staff on arranging displays.
- Research lifestyle, what is popular and current within the brands target audience.
Below is a presentation I created on the displays I took pictures of on the 9th of September around London
Skills and Attributes
To become a visual merchandiser there are no certain qualifications to begin this career, but most employers look for a qualification in art and design.
You will need to be able to show range of hard and soft skills such as:
- A talent for design, colour and style
- Being Creative and imaginative
- Being a team player
- Able to work with constructive criticism
- Understand a company's target markets and know how to appeal to them
- Be aware of current trends and activities in design, fashion and culture
- Have good communication skills to present ideas to others
- Be able to concentrate and work to tight deadlines
- Be able to use large and small spaces effectively
- Be self-motivated and practical
- Bilingual
Salaries
Beginner merchandisers can earn between £12,000 and £16,000 per year depending on your experience and how much you do in store.vExperienced staff can earn between £20,000 and £25,000 each year.vVisual merchandisers with designing responsibilities can earn from £25,000 to as much as £55,000 a year.The highest earning display and visual merchandisers can earn over £60,000 per year.
Working Hours
Your work could either be based in design studios, at company head offices, design departments or in retail stores.
Employment Opportunities
The types of employers most likely to recruit visual merchandisers include:
- Fashion retailers
- Department stores
- Multiple high-street chain stores
- Larger independent high-street retailers
- Mail order companies
- Internet shopping providers
Promotion opportunities depend on the size of the employer's business, but there may be opportunities to progress to supervisor, head designer or merchandiser, and sometimes to department manager.
A lot of vm workers are freelanced. To become freelanced they build up a good portfolio that then allows them to build up a good client base which allows them to create connections.
Types of Vm
Pros and Cons
PROS:
- You get to be creative
- The job changes frequently
- You get to deal with all the clothes and accessories.
CONS:
- Mannequins are heavy
- Long hours
- Overtime
Supply Chain Manager
Here is a diagram for the process of the Supply Chain
Responsibilities
A supply chain manager is involved at every stage of the product lifecycle. You will purchase the raw materials, organise the processing and arrange storing of the products, moving them from distribution centres to stores, and even offering customer service. You will oversee the distribution process every step of the way, to make sure the products are not only stored correctly but dispatched on time.
Heres some other examples of responsibilities you may have to endure:
An example for the day of a supply chain manager
Skills and Attributes
You would need to have a degree, preferably in some kind of business or management role.
To become a successful manager they're some hard and soft skills that you're entitled to have:
Hard Skills:
- They are excellent problem solvers This type of person needs to be outgoing and confident, their energy and ability to take risks is the reason many projects get started and stay successful.
- Ability to use spreadsheets, databases and other IT programmes for example having advanced edexcel skills
- Activities relating to ensuring a company makes a profit, such as operations, marketing, promotion, negotiation, and strategic planning.
- Excellent excel skills
- Typing skills
- Good with numbers
- Good negotiator
Soft Skills:
- Team leader
- Communication Skills- Successful supply chain professionals need to be able to speak to and persuade other business stakeholders.
- Have the relationships to contact the right people so if they ever have any problems they have contacts to sort them out straight away.
- Ability to remain calm under pressure
- Make decisions quickly
- Organised
- Decisive
- common sense
- reliable
Salary
payscale.com (2016)
Working Hours
You will be working in an office environment, so the manager can oversee and analyse the day-to-day activities of the company. They will need to be near the production or manufacturing areas that they oversee.
A working week will be working on average 30-40 hours per a week. You’ll most likely work between 8am and 6pm, Monday to Friday. Sometimes you may need to work evenings and weekends, or be on call so you can deal with emergencies. Some companies run for 24 hours, and in that case you’d be working in shifts.Here is a diagram of common career paths
payscale.com (2016)
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- The satisfaction of knowing a company relies on you
- You can work for any industry, anywhere, as all places need someone to control their supply
- If you like to start and carry out projects then you will enjoy this job.
Cons:
- Can be very high stress - if you make a mistake a whole company can feel the effects
- The work might be a little repetitive
- Long working hours