Merchandising activities in Cyan Fashions Limited

Abstract

Buying houses act as intermediary between the foreign buyer and local apparel manufacturer. Buying houses hunt buyers, approach them, send sample of apparel, negotiate price, receives confirmed order after buyer is satisfied with price and quality. Then the buying house contacts local suppliers for production of apparel strictly as per buyer’s specification in exchange of buying house commission. At the centre of all activities of a buying house is the merchandiser. He is in charge of marketing, sample developing, costing, production planning. Ensuring quality of the finished product is entirely his responsibility. For this reason he has to closely monitor production process. To do all these in strict timeline he needs to be the ultimate master of multi-tasking and must possess advanced communication and negotiation skill. In the early days when the concept of buying house was still at infancy merchandisers used to look for prospective buyers in business directories. But with the advancement of technology the online marketplace is in cyberspace. Merchandisers go through large specialised Business-to-Business (B2B) web portals to find buyers. Samples and catalogues are sent to them via email. Interested buyers contact back and a big chain of activities is initiated. Buyers then send specifications of the order. The merchandiser develops the sample and sends it back to buyer for approval. If everything is correct then the buyer start price negotiation. To win order in the highly competitive market the merchandiser has to do costing of the product with pin-point accuracy. If the two parties can reach at an agreement then the Buyer opens export LC favouring the buying house in its country. Once the export LC is opened the buying house contacts interested capable local RMG factories willing to execute the order – at the fixed rate and at the scheduled delivery date. Then the buying house transfers the LC to the manufacturing unit. But the merchandiser needs to look a close eye on the supplier’s factory to ensure quality. Once the production is completed the finished goods are packed and sent to Chittagong port for shipping. The merchandiser keeps track of the shipped goods and send shipping document to the bank for payment collection. The RMG factory receives payment from the buyer and buying house gets commission at a predetermined rate. To become a successful merchandiser a person needs to be a highly skilled marketing person. He needs to concentrate on multiple issues at hand, with the ultimate goal of keeping the buyer satisfied so that possibility of repeat business is increased manifold. He needs to be punctual and must keep commitment. Advanced communication skill is his tool of business. He needs to be in touch with the stakeholders all the time. Readymade Garments Sector is biggest contributor of export from Bangladesh. To achieve this achievement buying houses have great influence. Buying houses have removed the burden of dealing with foreign buyers from RMG factories, thus enabling them to concentrate on their core activity, i.e, producing quality apparel product. Buying houses have created employment opportunity for educated youth and shown the path to prosperity to numerous educated entrepreneurs. Buying houses has embraced latest trends in technology and communication media to reach buyers in remote countries. But still there is opportunity for better use of Information Technology for data mining to find out useful business insight. If scientific market research can be added to already existing capabilities of the buying house then value addition in this sector can be increased many times.