Macy’s New York City
When I was a buyer for the Elder-Beerman Corporation, our first stop was Macy’s. We picked up new designers, checked new trends and off we went, meeting with the vendors. We always planned 6 months in advance, so July for us was Christmas and so on.
Fashion Merchandise Trends
In order to communicate better with the stores, in regard to fashion commitments and trends that are developing the markets, the following needs to be done:
1. Trend Analysis projections on forward merchandise will be consolidated and forwarded to all concerned. This merchandise is usually testing, to incoming and will become merchandise conviction 6-8 weeks out.
2. Every month there will be a trend meeting for store managers, which will take everyone through each division in relationship to trends and impact classifications of “merchandise conviction”. The presentation will be brief with each divisional projecting on the trend curve through the Post Peak Phase; as well as current Best Sellers which are to be presented after trend talk-out.
3. Testing is the beginning of change. The primary purpose would be to list a customer reaction to new items or ideas. In terms of merchandise, this will be a small percentage of the total stock-possibly 5% and would not be in all the stores.
Questions to ask yourself — Who is your customer? What is his/her age group? Why is he/she coming back to your store? What price point do you have your merchandise and mostly important give her/him service? One thing I learned from the President of Elder-Beerman “A customer is always right”.
Nikki Causer
