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.
In retail commerce,
visual display merchandising means merchandise sales using product
design, selection, packaging, pricing, and display that stimulates consumers to spend more.
This includes disciplines and discounting, physical presentation of products and
displays, and the decisions about which products should be presented to which
customers at what time.
Promotional merchandising
The annual cycle of merchandising
differs between countries and even within them, particularly relating to
cultural customs like holidays, and seasonal issues like climate and local
sporting and recreation. Events such as Chinese
festivals and Japanese festivals are incorporated in an annual
cycle of shop decorations and merchandise promotion.
In the United States, the basic
retail cycle begins in early January with merchandise for Valentine's
Day, which is not until mid-February. Presidents' Day sales are held shortly
thereafter. Following this, Easter is the major holiday, while springtime clothing and
garden-related merchandise is already arriving at stores, often as early as
mid-winter (toward the beginning of this section, St. Patrick's Day merchandise, including green
items and products pertaining to Irish culture, is also promoted). Mothers Day
and Fathers
Day are next, with graduation gifts (typically small consumer electronics like digital
cameras) often being marketed as "dads and grads" in June (though
most college semesters end in May; the grads portion usually refers to high
school graduation, which ends one to two weeks after Father's Day in many U.S. states).
Summer merchandise is next, including patriotic-themed products with the
American flag, out by Memorial Day in preparation for Independence Day (with Flag Day in
between). By July, back-to-school is on the shelves and
autumn merchandise is already arriving, and at some arts and crafts
stores, Christmas decorations. (Often, a Christmas
in July celebration is held around this time.) The back-to-school market is
promoted heavily in August, when there are no holidays to promote. By
September, particularly after Labor Day, summer merchandise is on final closeout and overstock of
school supplies is marked-down some as well, and Halloween
(and often even more of the Christmas) merchandise is appearing. As the
Halloween decorations and costumes dwindle in October, Christmas is already
being pushed on consumers, and by the day after Halloween retailers are going
full-force with advertising, even though the "official" season
doesn't start until the day after Thanksgiving. Christmas clearance
Sales begin even before Christmas at many retailers, though others begin on
the day
after Christmas and continue on at least until New
Year's Day but sometimes as far out as February.
Merchandising also varies within retail
chains, where stores in places like Buffalo
might carry snow blowers, while stores in Florida and southern California might instead carry beach
clothing and barbecue grills all year. Coastal-area stores might carry water
skiing equipment, while ones near mountain
ranges would likely have snow skiing and snowboarding
gear if there are ski areas nearby.so you can solve the merchandising problem
through the proper supply chain management system
Trading industry
In Eastern Europe, particularly in Russia,
the term “merchandising” is commonly used within the trading industry and
denotes all marketing
and sales stimulation activities around PoS (point of sale): design, creation,
promotion, care and training of the sales staff. A merchandiser is someone who
is continuously involved in business promotion by buying and selling of goods.
In Asian countries, such as India, this term is more synonymous with activities
right from sampling and idea conception to dispatching of the shipment. It is a
job description that involves leading and working with different departments
within the organization, suppliers and buyers to deal with timely deadlines and
accepted quality levels.
Retail supply chain
In the supply
chain, merchandising is the practice of making products in retail outlets
available to consumers, primarily by stocking shelves and displays. While this
used to be done exclusively by the stores' employees, many retailers have found
substantial savings in requiring it to be done by the manufacturer, vendor, or
wholesaler that provides the products to the retail store. In the United
Kingdom there are a number of organizations that supply merchandising services
to support retail outlets with general stock replenishment and merchandising
support in new stores. By doing this, retail stores have been able to
substantially reduce the number of employees needed to run the store.
While stocking shelves and building
displays is often done when the product is delivered, it is increasingly a
separate activity from delivering the product. In grocery stores, for example,
almost all products delivered directly to the store from a manufacturer or
wholesaler will be stocked by the manufacturer's/wholesaler's employee who is a
full-time merchandiser. Product categories where this is common are Beverage
(all types, alcoholic and non-alcoholic), packaged baked goods (bread and
pastries), magazines and books, and health and beauty products. For major food
manufacturers in the beverage and baked goods industries, their merchandisers
are often the single largest employee group within the company. For nationwide
branded goods manufacturers such as The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo, their
respective merchandiser work forces number in the thousands.
Licensing
In marketing,
one of the definitions of merchandising is the practice in which the brand or
image from one product or service is used to sell another. Trademarked
brand names, logos, or character images are licensed to manufacturers of
products such as toys or clothing, which then make items in or emblazoned with
the image of the license, hoping they'll sell better than the same item with no
such image. For the owners of the IP (intellectual property) in question,
merchandising is a very popular source of revenue, due to the low cost of
letting a third party manufacture the merchandise, while the IP owners collect
the merchandising fees.
Children
Merchandising for children is most
prominently seen in connection with films and games, usually those in current release and with television
shows oriented towards children.
Merchandising, especially in
connection with child-oriented films and TV shows, often consists of toys made
in the likeness of the show's characters (action figures) or items which they
use. However, sometimes it can be the other way around, with the show written
to include the toys, as advertising for the merchandise. The first major
example of this was the TV show "G.I. JOE A Real American Hero.,"
produced by Hasbro in the early 1980s, but this practice has been common in
children's broadcasting ever since.
Sometimes merchandising from a
television show can grow far beyond the original show, even lasting decades
after the show has largely disappeared from popularity. In other cases, large
amounts of merchandise can be generated from a pitifully small amount of source
material (Mashimaro).
Adult
The most common adult-oriented
merchandising is that related to professional sports teams (and their players).
A smaller niche in merchandising is
the marketing of more adult-oriented products in connection with similarly
adult-oriented films and TV shows. This is common especially with the science
fiction and horror genres. (Examples: Star Trek,
McFarlane
Toys) Occasionally shows which were intended more for children find a
following among adults, and you can see a bit of a crossover, with products
from that show oriented towards both adults and children. (Gundam model kits)
An early example of this phenomenon was the cartoon character Little Lulu, who
became licensed to products for adults, such as Kleenex facial tissue.
Sometimes a brand of non-media
products can achieve enough recognition and respect that simply putting its
name or images on a completely unrelated item can sell that item. (An example
would be Harley-Davidson branded clothing.)
Prop replicas
Yet another path official
merchandising follows sometimes is the one so-called prop
replica market. Mainly focused on fan-made articles, prop replicas are
becoming more and more famous as users tend to collect those pieces of movie
memorabilia that med/big companies do not mass-produce, reaching even higher
levels of quality than certain 'licensed' replicas.
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