Furniture Retailer Positioned for Success with New Merchandising Training Program

The client is a $3+ billion furniture manufacturer and retailer with multi-banner, multi-channel and multi-format operations worldwide. The client had recently restructured its merchandising team to support the company’s strategic move from an item-driven business to a collection/lifestyle-driven focus. The restructuring included entirely new roles and responsibilities.​

Traditionally, the client had only offered initial employee orientation training and recognized that they lacked a structured and comprehensive learning program focused on retail planning, buying, replenishment, and allocation.

Parker Avery worked closely with the client to design, develop, and deliver a comprehensive merchandising training program, which successfully incorporated retail industry best practices and insights.​

The retailer’s training program was position-specific focusing on the responsibilities of buyers, planners, replenishment, and allocation roles, as well as emphasizing the importance of team collaboration. ​

Content areas included buying, planning, product selection, and visual merchandising. Key topics included “Big Idea” methodology and “The Art of Vendor Negotiations.”​

The program also included extensive content around retail math and its importance in daily merchandising tasks.​

Key project activities included the following:​

• Defined the training curriculum​
• Developed detailed training content​
• Conducted instructor-led training for the retailer’s entire merchandising department​
• Conducted and assessed a post-training survey to capture participant feedback​