Advice from a Phase Eight Fashion Merchandiser.

Breaking into Fashion Merchandising

Jennie Barton is the merchandiser for Phase Eight. Fashion merchandising is a broad industry which involves everything from promoting sales, meeting customer and designer needs, developing campaigns and creating sales strategies. It’s a mix of being able to keep up with the latest fashion trends and being business-minded.

Jennie graduated from Nottingham Trent University with a degree in Business Studies. After finishing her degree she wasn’t sure where her career would take her next. A friend who was working as a Buyer at a tea retailer recommended she went for a temporary role in the Buying and Merchandise office. By doing this temporary role, Jennie realised that merchandising was the career path for her and looked for a permanent position.

After that, Jennie progressed to a Senior Allocator role at a fashion retailer working her way up to the position of Senior Assistant Merchandiser. After a brief time at a maternity-wear retailer she then moved onto another fashion retailer as Junior Merchandiser.

In her Junior Merchandiser role, she was responsible for shoes and accessories departments. This gave her the opportunity to experience launching a large range of accessories and gave her the drive to advance to the merchandiser level.

Progressing from junior to merchandiser, Jennie started working at Phase Eight. Working at Phase Eight, Jennie has had the opportunity to do many exciting things. So far, her career highlight has been working on the launch of the Collection 8 range at Phase Eight. Working on this collection, Jennie saw how much work goes into creating each dress, making it more exciting seeing positive reactions in stores and in the press.

Jennie’s advice for anyone looking to get into merchandising is to hang in there.

Junior merchandising roles can have times which are more boring as a lot of administrative tasks are involved. Though as Jennie found, as soon as you move up you begin to be more involved and have the chance to be more creative.

The best advice Jennie has received in her career, which is useful to all is; “Don’t think of problems, think of solutions.”

To find out more about career opportunities at Phase Eight, visit the site here.