How to Spot Great Merchants

The best merchants love to shop and love “stuff.” They’ll list shopping as a favorite activity and be fascinated with products of all kinds, not just the categories they’re currently purchasing or interviewing to buy.

I don’t think a great merchant must have specific category experience to be successful in a given job. For any product category, the buying process is similar, and the general skill sets are the same. Specific category experience can be taught and learned. Sure, specific category experience may help the newly hired merchant to hit the ground running, But if the curiosity is there, learning how to buy, say, domestics versus apparel will come by reading the right materials, shopping the markets and talking to people.