5 Things I Learned in Retail Merchandising | 2 Years Post-Grad

Video Description

Hi everyone!

Because style is my favorite subject, today I want to talk about everything I’ve learned in my second year in retail merchandising.

Likewise, in this video, we’ll discuss 5 things that I’ve learned in my second year and what I’m excited about for the coming year.

Make sure to let me know in the comments if you like these types of videos and if there are any questions on merchandising, work, or life post-grad you’d like for me to answer.

But until then, make sure to have a wonderful day, and thank you so much for watching!

: )))

Video Transcript

Hi everyone. I'm Joshua Miller, and welcome to my YouTube channel. I create videos on fashion, pop music, and Pokémon so that way you can live with style, confidence, and enthusiasm. And because style is my favorite subject, today I want to talk about a topic that is so, so important to me, and that is my college major, merchandising.

As some of you may already know, I recently hit the 2-year anniversary at my job in corporate retail, so I wanted to celebrate that by talking about five things that I've learned about merchandising in the last year. So, without further ado, let's get into it.

The first thing that I've learned is that there's something truly interesting in every single product category. When I was in college, we were taught to think about product categories through the lens of a consumer, but having worked in the retail industry for 2 years, I'm now starting to realize that there are so many complex nuances to every single category.

The second thing is that retail is systems engineering at scale. As you would expect, when I was in college, I really only ever focused on just the merchandising element of the retail industry. I didn't really think about all of the systems and all of the operations that are required in order to support getting a product to the store.

At the end of the day, the retailer is just the result of so many moving pieces and businesses and organizations that all have to work together toward one end goal. And if the system that all of them interact with in order to get things done is inefficient or just doesn't operate in the correct way toward the optimal goal, the organization isn't going to be able to reach its true potential.

And it definitely makes me more excited for the future of my career just because there are so many things to learn as things continue to change and evolve.

And the third thing that I've learned this year is that great merchants are always selling. When I was in college, I was taught that merchandising is a process of buying and selling on behalf of a retailer for profit. So, I imagined that the job of a merchant is always just buying product from the vendor and then selling it to the customer, but that's not always the case.

If you are a merchant buying from a vendor that has a lot of financial leverage over you because they have a high-demand product, you, as the merchant, have to pitch to them why your retailer is worth selling to.

Additionally, because merchants are positioned so early within the SKU life cycle, their job is also to sell to internal stakeholders within the organization who need to be convinced that their vision is worth actualizing.

As a merchant, you can't execute something unless everyone in the organization agrees and is willing to support it. And this requires you to not only constantly have to be convincing people that what you are doing is worth following, but you also have to be able to constantly think about the actions that you are taking and the downstream effects of them because you're going to have to get questions about them and be able to answer them.

Which I think is just another really cool thing about merchandising: that, yes, you are buying and selling, but at the end of the day, you are constantly selling yourself, your department, and your retailer to everyone around you.

Which has definitely increased the respect that I have for merchants and just how much I look up to the great ones.

And the fourth thing that I've learned is that a strong data analysis starts before you even open Microsoft Excel. When I was beginning my career and I'd be handed a data analysis project, I'd often get so excited that I'd just pull as much data as I possibly could and then summarize it in charts, in graphs, and in equations. Then, once I had all of that information, I would start actually picking through it to figure out what was relevant to the question that I was trying to answer.

But my second year has taught me that before you conduct any research project, you should think about what are the goals that you are trying to accomplish and what are the core questions that you are trying to answer. Because from there, you're going to be able to determine what is the information you need, but most importantly, what is the information that you don't need.

Retail organizations are full of so much information that if you aren't certain what it is you're looking for, you can very easily go down a rabbit hole with no clear way out.

And the fifth and final thing I've learned is that everyone learns differently. This year, I've been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to teach and mentor new hires and interns, and doing so has taught me that everyone learns differently, and because of that, most of the time you're going to have to use a different teaching method in order to get your point across.

So, whenever I'm training someone, I always like to start with how do they learn best and adapt the methodology that I'm using to teach and instruct them to that.

And this has not only helped me grow as a communicator, but it's also helped me further my understanding of the topics that I'm instructing on by having to approach them differently on the spot.

And sidebar, it's just really, really exciting getting to teach people. Like every time I get the opportunity to teach someone, I'm like, "Oh my god, this is like a future mind of retail." It's just... It's so amazing, and it definitely makes me excited for all of the years that are to come.

So, to conclude, I had a really, really great second year in the retail industry, and I'm just so excited for everything that's in front of me.

And make sure to let me know in the comments if you guys would like to see more videos about this. I'm really, really passionate about this topic, and I've just learned so much, and I definitely want to help all of you guys avoid the same mistakes that I made.

And if you liked this video, make sure to give it a like and hit the subscribe button down below so that way you can be notified every single week when I post a new video.

But until then, make sure to have a wonderful day, and thank you so much for watching.

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