How do you train merchandisers?

Set clear goals and expectations. What do you want your merchandisers to achieve? Once you know your goals, you can develop a training program that will help them reach them. Teach the basics of merchandising. This includes topics such as product knowledge, inventory management, and visual merchandising. Provide hands-on training. The best way to learn merchandising is by doing it. Give your merchandisers the opportunity to practice what they've learned in a real-world setting. Provide regular feedback. Let your merchandisers know how they're doing and give them suggestions for improvement. Encourage creativity. Merchandising is a creative field, so encourage your merchandisers to come up with new ideas and solutions.

First, they need to have experience in the manufacturing to understand the process. They should know how any products are produced. To train them properly, one manager should throw some problems to solve. By this, one manager will understand one’s strengths and weaknesses. In merchandising, the main thing is communication, and the ball has to roll always. In my experience, lots of the time, I got extensions just because of my good communication skills. To train people, practical knowledge is the best option. The more problems one will be in, the more they will learn.

There are 3 secrets to be a good merchandiser: 1. Provide data for merchandiser. 2. Teach how to analyze the data, 3. Give the merchandiser time to see the result of their action based on the previous data, let them correct their actions with new data.

Training merchandisers effectively involves a structured approach encompassing theoretical knowledge and practical experience. Teach retail basics, consumer behavior, and market insights. Enhance product knowledge for better marketing and sales. Train in visual merchandising, including layout and display techniques. Develop analytical skills for sales and inventory management. Introduce retail technology for efficient merchandising processes. Build soft skills like communication and teamwork for better collaboration. Provide practical experience through internships or on-site training. Promote continuous learning with industry-related workshops and seminars.

We actually observe very closely and find out the weaknesses where we can improve. Then we organize the training sessions and see the outcomes. We set KPI to follow up their performance. We generally arrange one session every week for feedback and next improvement areas to discuss. It’s important to keep discussing and continuous learning.

The training program should cover fundamental merchandising topics outlined in your merchandising guide, which include visual merchandising, product selection, pricing strategies, promotional techniques, and analytics. Offering a comprehensive curriculum that delves into these critical areas will equip your merchandisers with the essential knowledge and skills needed to thrive in their roles.

Deliver a good service to the customers and clients. Exceed customer expectations. Ensure you have stock and maintain stock pressure. Shelf health is crucial. Stock rotation applying fifo (first in first out)and fefo first expires first out)principles. Look out for opportunities to increase forward share.

Sadly, evaluating the effectiveness of these trainings is often forgotten or neglected. Having experienced both great and lacking trainings myself, what I have found to make the difference is if evaluation is part of the training strategy from the beginning. I've seen that merchandising trainings were particularly successful when implemented first with a small group of subject matter experts (SMEs), who were asked to perform and evaluate the training. After this stage was completed and adjustments were made, the SMEs were made a part of the wider training roll-out, which helped to gain much more support and credibility among the merchandising community.

Feedback and explanations behind our actions always help. But I find exposing the trainees to the activity to resolve and giving them time to test and try before feedback or teachings. As merchandising is a very practical skill, and there are multiple solutions as well as "outside the box thinking" needed. The best way to learn and remember something is when we actually solve an exercise ourselves, so I ask questions and give them time to find their own way. I would then provide feedback if needed or provide alternatives ans the theoretical explanation behind it, so the knowledge is crystallised.

Invite and encourage partnerships, collaborations, and peer to peer feedback! Also, a lil’ side note- as a trainer, that does not automatically mean you are a mentor. Those things are not the same. If you want to invite someone under your wing, AWESOME! But if you don’t, set clear boundaries around personal time and work time. Sometimes the learning process can be really overwhelming and it’s really easy to get caught up doing it right instead of working through it. Flop, my friend, flop!

There are an overwhelming number of resources to grow your knowledge base. Keep it simple, silly. Work within the category and keep it concise, meaningful, and relevant. Don’t add stuff to add stuff. Revisit, revise, and replace!

Two things I have learned as a garment merchandiser is that you need to know about the product and the customers. If you know about the mentality of the customers, then you will be able to display the product as per their liking, thus increasing the chance of sales.

Patience and Participation. You can not get upset if the new hire does not know certain things. You need to have patience to show and teach them what they need to know and understand. This goes for instructing them on both the product and the process. Hands on participation is also good. Work side by side with them getting projects completed during their first days. Shows them confidence in yourself and in expectations.

To be a better merchandiser, two skills are mandatory. 1) Communication & 2) Leadership Skills In perspective of Bangladesh, fresh graduates have lack of communication skills. For Merchandising job, communication skill is the top requirements. If you communicate properly half of your job will be done. Leadership skills can be gained from the varsity life by involving club activities. From your job experience working in a good team can help you to understand the value of this skills.

One thing I have found helpful is exposure to different situation and let the person give opportunity to come up with his own way to handle the same. Some may excel and some fail but learning from practical situation is the best way .

Everyone has different learning styles and what works for one person may not work for another. Do they learn by reading a merchandising directive, by observing someone do a floorset, by pitching in and helping, by trial and error, or a combination of styles? Once you understand their learning style and you know how to coach that kind of learner you're on the way to developing a strong merchandiser.