A Buyer is flying in a hot air balloon and realises she is lost. She reduces height and spots a woman down below. She lowers the balloon further and shouts: "Excuse me, can you tell me where I am? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am?"
The woman below says: "You're in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You're between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude."
"You must be a Merchandiser.." says the Buyer.
"I am" replies the woman. "How did you know?" "Well" says the Buyer, "Everything you told me is, technically correct, but I've no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help at all. If anything, you've delayed my trip."
The Merchandiser below says ". Hmm. You must be a Buyer.."
"I am" replies the Buyer, "But how did you know?" "Well", says the woman, "You don't know where you are or where you're going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise which you've no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problems. The fact is, you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it's my fault!"
I do have a point here somewhere... About the traditional model of Buyer and Merchandiser; and how these may need to evolve as the industry changes.
Whilst every B & M department that I have worked in or had exposure to has had a slightly different balance of responsibility/accountability between the buyer and merchandiser for planning, product selection, stock control and supply chain management, in simplistic terms the two roles are fairly clearly defined.
The Buyer primarily has responsibility for sourcing and building a comprehensive, well-balanced range based on their knowledge of the market, trends, competitors, customers- one that is both popular and profitable.
The Merchandiser is accountable for stock management of that range- placing the right stock in the right place at the right time, based on forward planning, and ongoing supply chain management, and stock control, to drive sales and minimise mark-down. Clearly- both of these roles are equally crucial for success.
But things are changing. Retailers are starting to see the merit of a more local approach to ranging- in which they recognise that not all their customers are Identikit up and down the country, and that a buyer in a Head Office in London may no longer be best placed to identify all the product needs of a local customer base. This is something that forward-thinking Zara was quick to pick up on. Their store managers have much greater accountability for their range, and not only feed back as to the successful lines/ranges, but also have the autonomy to order stock for themselves based on what they have observed is working, what they need.
And as for the merchies.. Well as Merchandising systems become ever more sophisticated, with increasing intelligence applied to buying, allocation and replenishment decisions, with price and stock optimisation tools making recommendations for optimum prices and stock positioning.. and with more focus on local management of range and stock... Where does all this leave our humble Merchandiser?
This evolution is probably inevitable and unavoidable to some degree. Across industries there has been a necessary swing away from the homogeneous 'one size fits all' approach that assumed that all customers could, and indeed would be happy to, be treated the same, with the associated cost benefits for the business.
This has been replaced by a more local, global approach ('glocalisation') which I guess is what I think will be required for UK Retailers. We will always need a central B&M team, to make central, strategic decisions about the proposition, the range, and how it is managed through its lifecycle. But if there is more of a nod to the local variations in customer base and consumer requirement, and this is managed by those who understand the difference best (the store), then this helps the buyer to stay in tune with their customer base, and to continue to meet their needs. And if systems continue to make merchandising decisions easier by provide more information, more recommendations, this is probably fine too, as it frees up the merchandiser to focus more of their time on the most important bits of their job- meaningful analysis, strategy and planning.
And thus perhaps the Buyer will know more, the Merchandiser will be more useful, and the joke will be rendered redundant....
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