What’s Your Merchandising Vision

“A merchandising vision is simply an understanding of the customer and his or her lifestyle,” he explains. But, according to Howard, it is one of the most difficult topics for catalogers to grasp.

Most don’t truly understand the importance of merchandising, he laments. While numbers are the foundation of good merchandise planning, a lot of people can be led astray by them, he explains. “No great catalog merchant should be totally reliant upon the numbers. Just because you could be selling something doesn’t mean you should be,” he asserts. “The danger is that the book doesn’t stand for anything.”