Much as the general idea about fashion is that it is an area of work in which there is a lot of glamour, there are some essential jobs within the industry which are essentially behind the curtain of glamour and glitz. But for future graduates of design colleges in Mumbai these are excellent career options that are within the mainstream of the industry and provide spaces for creative expression and leadership skills. One of these career areas is that of fashion merchandising. This may seem like a bland title, but the job requires skill and provides excellent remuneration.
What is Merchandising?
So, the question a potential fashion graduate from one of the top fashion designing colleges in Mumbai may ask is, “what is merchandising?” The simple answer is that it is a job that has multiple facets. To begin with, a fashion merchandiser may work with a variety of companies—clothing retail companies, large format chain stores, and of course fashion houses, to name just a few types of job possibilities. The basic responsibility of a merchandiser is deciding things that impact sales and impact the customer perception of the brand.
For one, a merchandiser may be in charge of determining what the layout of a store should be in order to display apparel to the best advantage for customers—to attract customers into the store and ensure that they are easily able to see the apparel possibilities. At the backend of this whole process, merchandisers can also be responsible for predicting clothing trends and fashions and deciding the kind of apparel that needs to be made for mass-market consumption. In effect, they may be the in-house designers of an apparel brand or chain of stores.
Careers in Merchandising
Merchandising careers are one of the most easily available ones for talented graduates from the top design colleges in Mumbai who do not really want to strike out on their own as independent fashion designers. Those with an excellent eye for fashion as well as a keen sense of the market will do wonders in the field. Though it may appear that the Covid pandemic has reduced the requirement for store merchandisers, the online marketplaces also require their own merchandisers as much as the offline stores. Retail merchandisers have a valuable presence in the fashion industry at many levels.
Fashion merchandisers from the top fashion designing colleges in Mumbai may expect starting salaries in the range of 4 lakh per annum. But this figure is totally dependent on the company and the perceived talent of the fashion graduate. The salaries in this field will only get better with experience, as fashion is a high-value market, whether in the retail apparel market or in the custom fashion arena. The role of a fashion merchandiser is one of the recommended job profiles for graduates of fashion. This is a job that will satisfy both your creative potential as well as provide a reliable long-term career option.