In today’s age of competition, the youth is in a scurry to pursue a career that brings the best possible results. While some follow the crowd, few go off-beat. Amidst the innumerable career options present, Visual Merchandising is becoming the most sought after professions in recent times. A retail store has to not only woo customers with proper availability of product and services, but has to also increase sales. The main role and function of a visual merchandiser lies in designing a store, its indoor-outdoors and window display, styling the placement of the products in the store, and on the mannequins. After all, it’s the first look which matters always! This field is not just about store decoration, but an important technique to augment brand identity, with a view to increase sales and profitability. There are different areas in various businesses which need professional visual merchandising solutions. Rajib Dey, Chief Experience Design associated with Future Group, throws more light on this saying, “Modern Retail is all about customer experience and needs, this insight will come when you will observe, understand, analyze them and create the right store ambience, from aesthetics to product display.”
Though there isn’t any specific or different course in Visual Merchandising in the colleges of India today, but the fashion technology and design institutes include Visual Merchandising as a topic or a separate paper.
Ms. Yashodha Kumari V., assistant professor of NIFT, Bengaluru opines, “There isn’t a major difference in a fashion designing career with that of Visual Merchandising. Today, the scope and prospect of Visual Merchandising as a career option is quite high in India. The existence and fast growth of luxury retail due to increasing number of Indian and international brands has also geared up the obligation towards higher standards of retail store design and visual merchandising. The knowledge of this field reflects in Vinita Mohan, a young fashion designing student, “Retailers have realised the importance of making their products visually appealing, thus Visual Merchandisers are crucial today.” This has led to higher requirements of trained manpower in not just the big cities but also small cities like Pune, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Baroda, Cochin etc. It is observed that students from fashion designing background are keen to make a career in Visual Merchandising. On this, Niveditha Vijayanand, a Fashion and Apparel Designing student from Bangalore University , aspiring to be a Visual Merchandiser, says, “In a world where everything depends on the way one sees it, this is the perfect career, challenging both your creativity and ability to work hard.” Also, Visual Merchandising is not only limited in visual communication, but also expands in fixture designing, product display with detailed command on fashion, recent style, trends, forecast etc. So, fashion designing students find this field relatable and promising. Poorvi Khare, a student of NIFT shares, “I would like to make a career in visual merchandising after my course because it is a huge industry and forms a critical element of retailing. Also being a design student, it will help as you need a visual eye and you have to be creative and spontaneous.” Thus with the umpteen opportunities that this field provides, youngsters are getting inclined to plan their future as Visual Merchandisers.
When it comes to the skills required to shine and prosper in this profession, Titli Ray, Visual Merchandiser in Marks and Spencer shares, “In this profession, one needs to be aware of fashion trends and colour coordination to be able to interpret how to style products on mannequins. A fashion degree with internship on visual merchandising will be helpful.”Apart from being creative, and understanding the demands of the job, this field also requires technical cognition. “To become an efficient VM professional one also needs to possess skills like space management, material knowledge, vendor management too,” says Visual Merchandising strategist, Sandiip Mazzumdar. Visual Merchandising demands a flair for creativity, and a fondness towards the retail industry. To be into this versatile profession, being passionate is necessary and remuneration will be at the end of the day. So, if you have the drive to transform your innovative ideas into logical and appealing visual solutions, go for it.
