Just like with any area of expertise, there are many career options for those in the field of fashion merchandising. Fashion merchandising careers range from fashion buyers, fashion designers, fashion directors, display artists, retail store managers, to textile managers, just to name a few. There are a wide range of salaries as well. The median starting salary of a career in fashion merchandising is $43,000.00. However, salaries can start as low $30,000.00, or as high as $55,000.00. It is important to note that these salaries grow with experience in the industry. Regardless of what aspect of fashion merchandising, or salary, every career path within the industry revolves around teamwork. Buyers, textile managers, and retail store managers must all be on the same page in order for the business to be successful.
A Fashion Buyer is one of the most popular career paths for those in the fashion merchandising field, and is the phrase that comes to mind for most when they hear the term fashion merchandising. In this role, a fashion merchandiser advises a clothing retailer on which garments to purchase. It is vital that a fashion buyer is knowledgeable of upcoming trends, and which products sold well the previous year as well. In order to be knowledgeable of upcoming trends a fashion buyer is responsible for attending fashion shows, and other fashion presentations, so travel is commonplace for fashion buyers. A fashion buyer is also sometimes in charge of negotiating pricing with designers to ensure that the retailer they are buying for is able to have a healthy mark up on the products for putting the designers clothing in their stores.
Fashion designing is another very popular career path in the world of fashion merchandising. Fashion designers primary job is create clothing from scratch. Therefore, fashion designers, of course, must have a creative mind, but there are also many other skill sets they must possess. For instance, fashion designers must be able to use design software to digitally create the designs they envision. Additionally, they must have a good sense of the many fabrics and fabric blends that are available when physically creating their designs. Fashion designers have to present their clothing to buyers to persuade the buyers that their designs are superior to other designers and will sell, so good presentation skills are essential as well.
Retail Store Manager, although not the optimal career path for those in fashion merchandising, is a good starting point to gain experience and build a quality resume. Retail store managers have a wide range of day to day responsibilities. However, their most imperative responsibility is to ensure that the store, and especially the clothing, is organized. Consumers are often turned off by disorganization, and will not buy clothes that are haphazardly placed. Additionally, retail store managers should make sure that specific clothes are placed in specific places for optimal selling. For instance, it makes sense to put the most popular and/or eye catching garments at the front of the store to entice customers to come in and see what else the store has to offer.
