Ethical Dilemmas of Retailing

The fashion industry is a huge ethical dilemma inside of itself. “Skinny” models that create unrealistic body expectations, along with the fashion industry putting their mark on what they think the true “plus size” is. They set the bars extremely high. It creates a whole new shopping experience for some women. “If only I lost a few pounds, I could fit into the smaller version of this dress.” Whether you realize it or not, fashion-conscious women are sometimes stuck in a moral dilemma: Do I need to be skinny to be fashionable? The answer, of course, is no. However, to a lot of women, the answer may be a little more complicated.

As a retailer, the fashion industry sets the rules. We look to them for the current trends and latest fashions. Most retailers take couture designs and create clothing for more practical and affordable wear. This is a long process that demands time and a lot of research. Fashion is ever so changing, so a retailer has to be on top of their game. In such cases, the fashion industry sets the sizing that goes along with clothing. This can be challenging because of the gap between fashion world and real world.

In real world, an average woman is a size 10 - 12 and is about 5 foot 4 inches tall. In fashion world, the average woman is a size 0 – 4 and is about 5 foot 9 inches tall. This is a tremendous gap. The fashion world also considers size 8 a plus size, while in real world, retailers consider 14 and larger a plus size. An ongoing trend in fashion world is the introduction of smaller sizes, as low as 00. First of all, how is 00 even a size? That’s smaller than most children’s clothing.

Another issue pertaining to plus size clothing is that stores are completely removing their plus size section, but still offering it online. Old Navy is ridding their floors of plus sizes, according the article I read. What is this telling women about their bodies? That certain sized clothing isn’t worthy enough to be sold in stores? It’s an outrage that certain retailers will agree to such a thing.

To the other side of this ethical dilemma, there are retailers that focus on selling to smaller sized women. For example, the store named 5 – 7 – 9 caters to women who are either size 5, 7, or 9. They don’t sell sizes that are bigger nor smaller and they definitely won’t agree to do alterations. There are other specialty retailers that cater to specifically petite women, which is understandable being that a lot of basic retailers can’t afford to carry the “specialty” sizes. These basic stores stick to selling standard sized clothing, such as “small, medium, and large”. Those sizes are never universal. A size small at the Gap is not the same as a size small at Abercrombie and Fitch.

But to bring it all together, I believe the fashion world has an almost negative impact on retailing today. Whether it be what models we choose to use in our advertisements all the way to the size of the mannequins we choose to use in our stores. It can be a dirty, gritty industry. I personally believe that if the fashion industry focused more on the clothing itself, rather than what kind of person has to wear it, they’d be more successful than ever.

Retailing Today: The Dark Side of Retailing

It’s approaching that time of the year again! Snowball fights, holiday music, hot chocolate, winter jackets, and best of all, immense amounts of holiday decorations. Holiday season can be a stressful time of the year for a lot of people. There is so much planning involved being that this is the time of year for holiday parties, gift exchanges, and family visits. A person has to get a lot of shopping done to get everything they need.

In retailing world, we start developing how we’re going to drive holiday sale nine months before the holidays even begin. It is a long and time consuming process. As a retailer, you definitely see the dark side of the holidays. It is a very competitive time of year for all retailers, especially with having more merchandise and more consumer traffic in and out of the stores. I discuss an article that highlights underlying issues involved with security of stores.

It discusses that store inventory is threatened by sneaky burglars, dishonest employees, and organized crime groups(?!?). Who knew? It has been a huge factor for most retailers and it has been draining their profits. Industry leaders are focused on heightening their security lengths like never before. Many retailers gathered at an event called Genetec, which is a group that focuses on video surveillance, access control systems, and analytics.

At Genetec, ORC was discussed, which is an acronym used over and over by asset protection/loss prevention executives. ORC groups are basically the thieves attacking retailers. “ORC groups know what they want and the typical retail establishment is quite vulnerable when targeted by determined pros.” (as said on www.retailingtoday.com). It has truly become a pest to all retailers and their business.

Another huge issue within the retail industry is burglary. Retailers that have several thousands (or any large amount) of stores have many burglaries a week. This is more common in big retailers, such as Wal-Mart or Target. “An ounce of prevention can be worth a pound of cure” (www.retailingtoday.com). Burglars can come in through the front door, back door, and even the roof. They are sneaky people with sneaky plans.

Sometimes the burglars can even be one’s own employees. This brings up another issue in retailing: dishonest employees. Employees know the inner-workings of the store and they are a even bigger challenge if they are part of an ORC group. A lot of retailers do not have the resources to combat this problem, so it can be very draining on profits. It’s especially frustrating around the holidays, when retailers are under great expense pressure.

So in conclusion, retailers have a lot of merchandise to sell and a lot more traffic coming in and out of their stores. Retailers with many stores can’t be on the watch for foul play at all times, so increased security measures are necessary if they want to keep their profits.

Happy holidays, everyone!

Article link: http://www.retailingtoday.com/article/under-assault-retailers-brace-holidays

Women's Wear Daily

For those of you that aren’t aware of what Women’s Wear Daily is, it is a fashion-industry trade journal, often times called “the bible of fashion”. They have a printed and an online version that you could subscribe to. Women’s Wear Daily brings you information and the intelligence on ever changing trends and breaking news in the beauty, fashion, and retail industries. People you’ll find reading this publication include designers, manufacturers, marketers, retailers, financiers, media executives, socialites, and trend makers. This publication has been around since 1910, which shows that it has been widely successful.

Through my studies, I have become very well informed through reading Women’s Wear Daily. Any person with a fashion major knows how important this publication is to the fashion world. They have so much more than pretty pictures. They’re a combination of what retailers are doing and how they’re doing it, along with your daily dose of what’s happening in the fashion world.

This summer, I had the advantage of visiting Women’s Wear Daily’s headquarters and office in Los Angeles. It was exhilarating to watch how many people it takes to create this publication. They are constantly running around, talking to each other and gathering important information. The work never seems to stop, either. Once one story or article is published, they immediately start on the next. They are a weekly publication, which gives them advantage over monthly magazines or publications because Women’s Wear Daily has more current information.

People assume that New York City is the headquarters for fashion, but Women’s Wear Daily proves that it is not. Fashion starts in California, and this publication can attest to that. This is why Women’s Wear Daily is a vital necessity to retail merchandisers everywhere. It helps with guiding in-store trends and current styles straight from the runway. Reading the publication helps you gain access to what’s going on in the fashion capital of the world and letting you bring it directly to your store. In order to be ahead of the game, retail merchandisers need to be reading this publication.

As for the overall read, it is very easy to read. Their website is also very easy to navigate, considering they have everything organized with tabs and columns. You have to be subscribed to read any of their articles, but it’s only around $130 a year for a weekly publication. That’s basically paying around 30 cents a day. That’s practically a steal considering how much information you’ll have access to.

If you like fashion magazines, you’ll like Women’s Wear Daily. Unlike magazines, though, this publication is more of a fashion journal. It gives you more information than pictures and helps you to really understand the fashion world. It also has a retail focused section that will definitely help retail merchandisers decide where to take their business next.   

Retail Merchandising

Hello, my name is Mary Freberg. I am in the field of retail merchandising. 

As merchandisers, we are responsible for making sure that products appear in the correct store, or on their website, at the perfect time and in the right quantities. We work very closely with buyers within the same field, which helps us to forecast trends accurately, assess how much of the product we’ll need, and then monitor the products’ performance.

When the buyer selects which products should be sold, the merchandiser (me) will be deciding how much money ($$$) should be spent and how many products should be purchased. Since this is such a large business, everything has to be done separately to get more accurate and beneficial results.

Having a merchandiser contributes many things to companies or organizations. Since making a profit is the main goal in most companies, merchandisers are needed to set the prices and maximize their profits. We do this by managing performance, organizing promotional sales and markdowns, as they deem necessary. We also work hand in hand with suppliers, which distribute the products.

My main interest within this field is, of course, fashion.

There is a lot more to the fashion business than people think. One of the main things about being in this field is having connections. Having a good circle of peers that share the same common goals with you is important to have. You’ll be able to learn and grow with them.

This being said, it is very important to be a people person, being that you’ll be working one on one with buyers and suppliers. It also takes a lot of customer service skills, since they contribute to making you a profit. You’ll constantly be working in a busy, energetic environment, so you must be on top of your game at all times.

Fashion is constantly changing. What’s “in” when you wake up, might not be “in” anymore when you fall asleep that same night. You always need to be doing your research. Fashion magazines are considered your daily newspaper. It really helps you understand what customers are looking for; depending on the type of style you sell within your store.

One assumption people have about working in the retail merchandising business is that it isn’t really a “business”. When really, retail merchandising can go above and beyond fashion. We’re qualified to sell just about anything.

We can help sporting goods store design their canoe layout, along with helping a furniture store create a layout for their “living rooms”. It all depends on either what our client wants or what our customer wants.

Retail merchandisers value customer satisfaction. Our main focus is fashion, but we can expand our expectations. This field requires a lot of research and analyzing fashion trends and the sales figures that go along with that. We want to organize everyday products into a wonderful, creative display. We’re an imaginative team of style experts who want to create a fun and exciting layout that will make you rethink your shopping experience.