Visual Merchandiser Career Guide

The visual merchandiser begins by identifying items that are difficult to sell and analyzing the reasons why: lack of visibility on the shelf, overly high price, strong competition between brands. They then propose a solution in the form of a tailored strategy to capture attention and encourage purchases (offers, specific shelf placement, location, etc.).

The main tasks of a visual merchandiser are as follows:

• Working with the marketing team to conduct market studies on consumer purchasing behaviour and trends
• Conducting constant competitive intelligence
• Defining a sales strategy aligned with commercial objectives
• Identifying strategic locations and the best points of sale
• Ensuring that the brand’s visual identity is respected and highlighted in each strategy adopted
• Optimizing the presentation of each product, especially those that sell less well
• Designing and implementing promotional events and advertising campaigns in the shop
• Fitting out sales areas: shop windows, shelving, decoration, etc.

Merchandisers work as employees within companies that have one or more physical points of sale. Their skills are particularly sought after by large and medium-sized retailers (food, fashion, luxury goods, etc.) as well as department stores and boutiques in various sectors.

On a daily basis, they divide their time between the field, where they analyze sales areas, and their office, where they closely monitor sales results and work on visualising new merchandising projects.

When working for a brand with several branches or franchises, they often have to travel to different stores to optimize the layout and facilitate purchases.

They maintain a close relationship with marketing and sales managers, as well as with all those involved in distribution: department managers, technicians, suppliers, etc.

In a retail store, they are responsible for coordinating all day-to-day commercial aspects: product presentation, stock and order management, sales performance, etc.

The sales area manager is responsible for sales at a large retailer. Their mission? To ensure that their distribution network implements products in the most effective way possible. To do this, they work in the field and closely monitor the performance of each point of sale.

Merchandisers can also progress to the position of sales director. Working closely with senior management, they ensure cross-functional coordination with the teams concerned to implement operational actions designed to achieve the company’s commercial objectives.