Make sure your team knows why merchandising matters.
Merchandising is a critical marketing strategy that focuses on displaying products in a way that stimulates interest and increases sales. Effective merchandising encourages shoppers to buy more, return more often and share their experiences, bringing new customers into your store.
Effective merchandising involves responsibilities that your employees may not have thought of as important, but which are actually critical to the customer experience — and to their jobs. This chapter explains the how’s and why’s of operational merchandising, including seven fundamentals related to having the right product in the right place, at the right time.
After completing this chapter, associates should be able to:
- Define operational, impulse and visual merchandising.
- Explain the seven fundamentals of merchandising.
- Complete necessary housekeeping and maintenance tasks.
- Stock product to a planogram.
- Recognize and suggest opportunities for cross merchandising in your store.
- Describe types of display fixtures and how to use them for best results.
- Outline best practices to prepare your store for a sale.
The Merchandising Fundamentals chapter covers the importance of operational merchandising to stimulate increased sales and repeat visits. Topics include why merchandising matters to customers and employees, recovery activities, planograms and stocking fundamentals.
This chapter also includes a downloadable checklist to help employees follow best practices for housekeeping, recovery, lighting, signage, stocking, cross merchandising and fixtures.
Estimated time to complete:
- Online chapter 2.25 hours
- Chapter test 35 minutes