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Merchandise Planning and Management

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MERCHANDISE PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT

Any business enterprise is preoccupied in planning its merchandise offerings. Effective merchandise planning is an important aspect of retailing. Incorrect planning of merchandise can lead to a very disastrous situation for retail business. Before making any merchandise plan, it is important that a retailer must know the meaning of some of the merchandise terminology:

1. Item refers to a unique kind of good within a merchandise line.
2. Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) refers to one or more of a distinctive item.
3. Merchandise Classification is a grouping of goods that serve similar customer need and exhibit closely sale patterns.
4. Variety relates to the number of different merchandise lines that are stocked by the retailer
5. Scrambled Merchandising. Some retailers follow a scrambled merchandising which occurs when unrelated merchandise line are introduced into limited-line store.
6. Assortment refers to the number of choice that are available within a particular merchandise line.

THE PROBLEMS OF BUYING THE GOODS
Customers nowadays are the best judge of what they want, what they will buy and from what source they will buy.

With these attitude and behavior of the consumer, the retailer is then concerned with the task of securing the merchandise that will be saleable and bring the profits to the stores. This could only be accomplished if the retailer can identify clearly the basic problems in buying.

What to buy. The problem of what to buy is determined by knowing what the customer’s needs are and at what price they are willing to pay.

When and how much to buy. The problem of when to buy is a matter of timing purchases and determining the amount to buy at a certain point in time. The question of when to buy must depend upon the merchandise to be sold.

A selling calendar is a selling plan which includes an

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