Fashion merchandisers can be found doing design, retail and home decorating. They also manufacture and market apparel. Additionally, they design showroom and window displays. A good fashion merchandiser will be familiar with the various business functions in the fashion industry as well as up on the latest trends. Much of this knowledge is gained from attending a fashion merchandising college or university or completing a degree online. Merchandising is a promotional art, but moving the products from raw textiles to the retail market requires selling skills along with a firm understanding of the mathematics of business, visual merchandising and retail functions.
Fashion Merchandising is an art in that a major component of the profession is display and effective visual merchandising. However the display aspects of the job follow retail buying, retail management and merchandising as the order of tasks involved. A career in fashion merchandising requires business administration first and foremost; as such Retail Planning is perhaps the most important skill.
