What is fashion merchandising? A guide for retailers

There’s something exciting about shopping for new clothes, reimagining your wardrobe, and walking out of a store feeling like a million bucks. Sometimes, when you see just the right cozy wool sweater or twirly dress in a shop window, you feel like it’s actually calling your name. What gets a shopper through the door and into the fitting room? Fashion marketing, fashion merchandising, or most likely both. Fashion marketing and fashion merchandising are two parts of the same overall strategy that makes people want to buy your apparel, shoes, and/or accessories. 

You may already know that fashion marketing is all about advertising your products to specific consumers. What, then, is fashion merchandising? It’s the art and science of buying, displaying, and visually promoting fashion merchandise, and it depends heavily on product placement, pricing, quantity, and timing. All of this adds up to that magical feeling for shoppers when they find just the right thing. 

Sound like a lot to take in? The following steps will help you home in on a strategy, and soon you’ll be marketing and merchandising in style. 

1. Collect inspiration

As we touched upon in this recent article on visual merchandising, it’s important to curate an aesthetic around your best products. Many retailers are influenced by other brands, so it’s a good idea to start by seeking inspiration from them.

For instance, if you specialize in athletic footwear, you might keep your eye on brands like Adidas, New Balance, and Nike. Successful competitors and established retailers can provide great inspiration when designing or rethinking your store layout, in-store and window displays, website design, and overall online presence. Use what you like, leave what you don’t like, and adjust according to what makes sense for your business.     

You can also draw inspiration from the brands you stock in your shop. Take a look at these example product photos from well-loved fashion brands on Faire: 

All these brands show their products in a variety of settings and on a variety of models—and sometimes even on a hanger as they would appear in your shop—so you can get a sense of the types of customers who might appreciate their merchandise and how you might display it. Even the style of photography can give you a taste of the brand’s sensibility and might inform how you present their products. 

Social media and image-sharing platforms like Pinterest and Instagram are also great sources for insights into fashion trends and visual inspiration so you can plan your buying and displaying more effectively. For instance, if you specialize in women’s apparel, you might follow fashionable Pinterest users who create seasonal clothing boards.  

2. Get strategic with your fashion marketing and merchandising 

Once you have some inspiration and ideas about where to go, it’s time to get serious about your fashion marketing and merchandising strategies. Luckily, there are more helpful resources for data and analytics than ever before. Keep these tips in mind while you plan: 

Do some target audience research

When you imagine your average shopper, think about who they are. Ask yourself questions such as, where else do they shop, how do they spend their time, what are their interests and aesthetics, who do they follow on social media, and what spaces do they try to avoid? Get specific about your target audience so your promotions and shop displays project a clear point of view. 

Stay on top of fashion trends

Always think beyond the current season and try to be agile when new trends appear on the horizon. If you’re not already, start following your favorite fashion industry influencers on Instagram to better understand what’s next in the fashion world. Once you know your target audience, you should also have a clearer idea of the new products your dream customers will love and how to promote them. 

Determine the best schedule to refresh displays and promotions

It’s important to refresh your visual merchandising and promotions according to seasons, holidays, and special events. This applies to your email campaigns, social media, and overall online presence—including any seasonal collections displayed on your website—as well as window displays, checkout displays, interactive displays, and more. With a data-informed strategy, you can keep customers coming back to see what’s new without having to change out your displays and promotions every other day.   

Forecast your inventory needs

Base your inventory strategy on digital and in-store sales figures, including sales data from your product tags. It’s smart to balance your more seasonal inventory with merchandise that will stay relevant for a few seasons. For example, some kids’ apparel is best for the back-to-school months, but other items will continue to sell throughout the fall season.

Try out price promotions

Price point matters more than ever, which makes promotional discounts a very appealing proposition for most customers. Just make sure to keep an eye on the costs of potential returns and remember that too-frequent discounts may affect your brand image. However, some discounts are well-suited for all brands, like Black Friday deals or discounts for Faire markets. Also, make sure to keep your customers in the loop via email, social media, and in-store signage. 

3. Tell a visual story with your merchandise

Before making any visual merchandising moves, ask yourself a few questions to ensure a consistent visual story. For starters, how can you best present the apparel in your store to appeal to your target audience? Also, what aesthetic or aspirational lifestyle can you evoke with your displays? Here are a few ideas to try:

Have mannequins and salespeople wear the clothing you sell

Mannequins are fairly standard tools for fashion merchandising, but have you considered the impact of real live humans walking around your store wearing your merchandise? When salespeople are wearing the clothes you sell, it adds credibility to their selling techniques and provides a close-up example of your clothing in action. There are also new approaches you can take with mannequins, including more realistic mannequins that mimic a human model and a wider variety of mannequins for men’s apparel than were once available.  

Pair accessories with clothing items to inspire outfit choices

Cross-merchandising is one of the most effective techniques for growing sales. For example, you might display baby apparel close to baby accessories like hats, headbands, mittens, socks, and booties. Or put together a seasonal woman’s look by pairing a dress with a purse, shoes, jewelry, and a coat or light jacket from your current collection. Refreshing these pieces is one of the easiest ways to refresh your visual merchandising scheme and inspire customers to make additional purchases.  

Create eye-catching window displays to pull in customers

Your window displays make a first impression on new customers and remind previous customers what they love about your brand. They can be an integral part of your marketing strategy as well since they can pull customers in from the street who might not have shopped at your store otherwise. They can also inform passersby about special sales, discounts, and events. 

Consider color choice, lighting, and the kind of visual identity you’re trying to portray. You’ll want to create a consistent story across online and in-store visual mediums when designing your window displays, but this is a place to experiment and have fun as well. 

With this inspiration in mind, it’s a great time to shop for new fashion merchandise on Faire that will help you create a more compelling visual story in your shop and online.