Thrive in Fashion Buying: Online Fashion Buying & Merchandising Course

This module focuses on the big picture view explaining the buying calendar, the critical path and how to manage it; the stages of the buying cycle and ways of working and best practise industry methods followed by retail brands. There are workbooks, checklists and templates included to download and modify according to your key dates.

Fashion Buying is challenging, competitive and tough at all levels. It is important to understand all the moving parts. What are the skills you need to develop and what is required to get to the next level of your career as a fashion buyer

In this module we learn how to spot trends, do market research & how it applies to your target customer. We cover how to attend a trade show, have an introduction to fabric compositions  and testing and review the  elements of the marketing mix. 

This module explains the product development process. What you need to consider when building the range, how different styles and colours work together and how to manage the whole process effectively avoiding common pitfalls going from concept to confirmed order.

We outline the various stages a buyer need to goes though before finalising the range  to understand variety, depth, price and availability. We look at planning stock intakes and how to understand the relationship between sales, stock levels and ordering quantities in order to build a commercial range plan.

You don’t need to have accountancy skills, but there are  basic retail math calculations that all buyers should know when costing products for profit. In these videos we break down the formulas used and how to plan budget, manage OTB calculate cost prices, mark-ups and margins. 

A Buyer cannot plan or buy products without understanding the budgets or OTB  available to make it happen. Preparing a commercial budget requires different strategies and approaches to the business. This modules covers building budgets and aligning your pricing strategy in each category.

The preparation of a range plan is vital to planning a   commercial collection. Learn how to build a plan that includes both trend-led and ‘core’ products, avoids duplication, understand the price point hierarchy and how to manage the lead times of each garment to ensure that the whole collection will be delivered on time.

Having a strong supplier network is key to delivering successful prodcuts. Here we look at the questions to ask in meetings, how to work with minimum order quantities, prepare cross-costings and understand the lead times for the deliveries. Developing a  strong working relationship with your suppliers is essentials when communicating with them to give feedback on the development samples and manage the seasonal orders. 

Learn to read the sales and data reports of your products. What makes a best seller? Why is sell-though important? What happens if a product is not selling as planned or sells too quickly? These questions are answered and we explain how to optimise the information available and to get a step ahead.