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Multifaceted job involving: fashion forecasting range planning order sourcing budgeting and marketing. Refers to key events and processes involved in developing a garment range for a retail or mail ordering company. Driven by a fixed calendar of trade fairs, fashion shows and events etc.
Traditionally splits into two main seasons: Spring/ Summer(Feb to Jul) and Autumn Winter (Aug to Jan). Length of the cycle varies between the companies but usually takes a year.
Season
Order Confirmation
March April
Order Delivery
May June July August September October November December January February
HOLIDAY
SPRING SUMMER
Task Review of current seasons sales Budget planning Comparative shopping Directional shopping (Fabric sourcing) Range planning Garment sourcing Price negotiation with suppliers Final range selection Placing orders for ranging (Product development- samples, testing etc.) Bulk garment manufacture Delivery of products to retailer IN STORES
Approximate date early August09 mid- August09 August September09 August October09 October09 October November09 November09 November December09 mid December09 December January January April10 April July10 August10 August October10
Buyer is always working on two seasons ranges simultaneously. i.e. while planning a range for the autumn winter season, the buyer simultaneously works on the garment fittings, fabric sample and quality approval of the range for spring summer season.
CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR Refers to the buying behavior of final consumers -individuals & households who buy goods and services for personal consumption. Factors Influencing Consumer Behavior:
Cultural Social Personal Psychological Buyer
Review of current seasons sale: The available sales figures reviewed by the buyer to know garment's performance.
The merchandising department compiles a review of previous seasons performance of the range to identify the best sellers and the poor sellers.
The review is known as sales review or range direction meeting. Budget Planning: Planned by merchandiser.
A business strategy aimed to reduce processes in buying cycle and lead time for getting new fashion products into stores in order to satisfy consumer demand at its peak. Aims at the more fashion conscious younger end of the market. Buying cycle is usually much shorter than a year. The response time has to be very quick.
The concept has become mainstay of the UK fashion industry. The fashion retailers usually introduce new ranges to stores at least once a month. The bestsellers are retained while the phases are introduced frequently to the stores.
Such ranges, also known as transitional help in filling the gap between one season and next.
This makes the fashion buying environment extremely challenging as the workload for two or three seasons overlaps, leaving no time to pause in between new ranges.
Directional Shopping - trips to gain inspiration for design concepts for a new season. Depending on the product type & the companys travel budget, designers & buying teams visit major fashion cities. Stores of most influential designers & retailers, usually in a higher price bracket than the market they design for are visited.
They return with bought samples (notes, sketches & garments) for inspiration.
London, Paris & New York are destinations popular with designers for most product types & market levels. Milan is often visited by lingerie designers. Childrenswear designers may find more inspiration in Tokyo. In London, designers usually aim for the major fashion departmental stores like Harrods, Harvey Nichols & Selfridges.
In Paris, the main department stores which stock fashion designer wear are Galeries Lafayette & Au Printemps.
A directional shopping trip to New York usually includes visits to Macys, Bloomingdales & Henri Bendel in Manhattan. In Milan, La Rinascente is the key department store which is visited.
Buying team visits stores stocking merchandise following different trends. Most stores visited stock designer ready-to-wear ranges. They may also visit mass market stores which are aimed at a younger market & or are more expensive than their own range. Basically the buying team makes notes on shapes, details, colours & fabrics for reference After this entire exercise a picture can be formed of the key trends which are coming through.
Buying teams are usually given a budget to buy garments during directional shopping trips. These are generally referred to as bought samples, which typify the trends.
Comparative Shopping is often referred to as Comp. Shop. Usually undertaken several times each season by the buying/design teams. Involves observing the current merchandise in the stores of competitors which sell comparable ranges (similar product types & prices). The aim of Comparative Shopping is not to copy competing retailers products.
It is conducted to be aware of the choice of merchandise on offer to target customer to ensure that the company offers consumer value for money & is aware of developments. Report - sketches & a grid with descriptions of products compared with prices, fabrics & colours of similar merchandise from competing stores. This report concludes by analysing how competitors ranges compare with each other & noting any important trends or styles which are missing from the companys range.
Range Planning is the stage when buyers define the detail of the range that is to be offered to the customer in terms of styling, fabric, design details, suppliers and prices. Final Range Selection involves contacting suppliers, amendments to be made, renegotiating prices and writing range plan Initial orders are sent and New Line sheets are generated by buyers
To increase sales To offer existing customers new products To attract new customers To offer choice and variety of product To replace products which are not selling well To build on the success of good selling products To differentiate the range from the competition To be in line with seasonal trends To utilize new raw materials, new techniques, or new technology
Group the new product samples into the new colour themes/concepts.
Retained Products
Raw materials
Innovations
Products to be Adapted
Homogeneous
Heterogeneous
Seasonal
Non seasonal
Open to Buy [OTB] Controls the Volume of Inventory Hand to Mouth Buying Too much price Fluctuations Increase risk for Vendors Increase risk of loss in sales Speculative buying Quantity discounts
Supply Conditions
Storage Facilities
Economic conditions
Unemployment
Fashion trends
Price fluctuations
Availability of Supply and Materials
Fashion goods
Seasonal goods
Convenience goods
Shopping goods
Specialty goods
Basis for all merchandising planning. It is designed to control the key events needed to get the right apparel products, in the right mix, at the right price to the right customer at the right time. Also called as Merchandising calendar, Key events calendar or Critical path calendar.
It is the central mechanism from which all marketing schedules and all merchandising and manufacturing plans evolve. It is the clock that drives merchandising product development schedules, manufacturing planning and shipping schedules. It sets forth the starting and completion dates for all critical events necessary to achieve a successful season.
The calendar includes information about the name of the buyer, season, style, wash and quantity. The calendar includes the target dates for each event such as pre production garment approval, lab dip approval, pattern approvals and when graded sates of pattern should be sent out.
The person who is responsible for an event must sign it off in the system when the system has been completed so that everyone can monitor the status of the line development.
Line preview dates by season. Line release dates by season. Start ship date
It is the merchandisers deadline for having all sales samples ready for the sales team to begin presenting the new line to the customers.
This deadline is crucial to the success of the sales effort, since most sales representative schedule their earliest appointments with their most important customers.
It measures the effectiveness of a product line for the merchandising department. A graphic analysis of this plan can project increase or decrease in overall sales for a season.
It shows season to date as well as shipping statistics for a specific week or monthly time period. It helps to determine whether or not the product mixes being delivered to distribution meet the shippability.
CPM is used.
ACTION COLOR color satndards received from buyer 1st lab dip submit to buyer comments from buyer 2nd lab dip submit to buyer comments from buyer TRIMS care labels approved by Buttons approved by threads approved by others ALL TRIMS APPROVED BY ALL TRIMS EX SUPPLIERS ALL TRIMS IN FTY SAMPLES fit sample submit fit sample approval 2nd fit sample submit 2nd fit sample approval size set submit size set approval green seal sample submit green seal sample approval gold seal sample submit gold seal sample approval TESTING PROCESSES prod fabric submitted for testing test report available by prod garment submitted for testing test report available by PLANNED CUT DATE PRODUCTION fabric delivery local fabric in fty imported begin cutting begin sewing begin washing begin packing Final audit EX FACTORY DATE EX COUNTRY DATE
65 60 55 50 45
60 60 60 35
65 days 58 days 51 days 44 days 33 days 31 days 30 days 25 days 10 days 5 days
35 days
An activity is any discrete part or task of a project which takes resources and time to complete. Activities exhibit precedence relations. Activities with their precedence relations form a project network. The longest chain of activities considering task dependencies is called critical path.
The activities involved in development, execution and delivery need to be analyzed. Determine the time required to accomplish them. Determine the critical path. Critical functions are represented through PERT Charts Gantt Charts
PERT Charts
PERT is a method to analyze the involved tasks in completing given project, and identifying time needed to complete the total project. PERT chart tell a manager list of operations necessary to finish a project time needed for each operation critical activities activities that consume the largest part of projectcompletion-time
Gantt Charts
A series of parallel horizontal graphs which show schedules for functions plotted against time.
1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Order Confirmation
Ordering Bulk Fabric Receipt of Size Breakdown Order Sewing/Finishing Trims Fit submission Fit Approval Wash submission Wash Approval Receipt Sewing Trims YTS submission YTS Approval GTS submission
25-3-2008
25-3-2008 27-3-2008 27-3-2008 27-3-2008 24-4-2008 27-3-2008 30-4-2008 29-4-2008 24-4-2008 1-5-2008 1-5-2008 12-8-2008 8-4-2008 23-4-2008 17-4-2008
S. NO 13 14
Finish Date
15
16 17
05-5-2008
05-5-2008 09-5-2008 08-5-2008
18
19 20 21
Patterns Ready
Receipt of Bulk Fabric Size Set making Size Set Review
10-5-2008
12-5-2008 13-5-2008 15-5-2008 15-5-2008 17-5-2008
22
23
19-5-2008
19-5-2008
Jun 28,2008
0+ EVENT
order confirmation
Jun 28,2008 0 Jun 28,2008
Jun 28,2008
3+ Jul 01,2008
Jun 28,2008
7+ Jul 05,2008
fit submission
Jul 03,2008 5 Jul 10,2008
wash submission
Jul 01,2008 3 Jul 11,2008
Jun 28,2008
0+ EVENT
Jul 01,2008
0+ EVENT
Jul 05,2008
7+ Jul 12,2008
order trims
Jul 09,2008 8 Jul 09,2008
fit approval
Jul 10,2008 5 Jul 17,2008
wash approval
Jul 11,2008 3 Jul 21,2008
YTS submission
Jul 17,2008 5 Jul 27,2008
GTS submission
Jul 21,2008 3 Jul 31,2008
Taper ready
Aug 04,2008 2 Aug 06,2008
YTS approval
Jul 27,2008 5 Aug 06,2008
Pattern ready
Aug 06,2008 2 Aug 06,2008
GTS approval
Jul 31,2008 3 Aug 10,2008 Aug 04,2008 6+ Aug 10,2008 Aug 06,2008 2+ Aug 08,2008
PPM
Aug 10,2008 0 Aug 11,2008
S. No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Process Bulk Cutting Sewing Inspection Washing Finishing Pressing Final Checking Packaging Internal Quality Audit External Quality Audit Quantity delivered to internal Warehouse Goods Dispatched from warehouse to Buyer
Start Date 21-5-2008 23-5-2008 23-5-2008 25-5-2008 27-5-2008 27-5-2008 27-5-2008 27-5-2008 05-6-2008 08-6-2008 08-6-2008 08-6-2008
Finish Date
bulk cutting Sewing Inspection Washing Finishing Pressing Final Checking Packaging Internal QA External QA Warehouse Dispatch
Careers in Fashion & Textiles-By Helen Goworek Fashion Buying-By Helen Goworek Fashion Marketing-By Tony Hines Fast Fashion-By Liz Barnes Apparel Merchandising-By J.A. Rosenau Merchandise Buying-By M.S. Bohlinger