This course will offer the participants the opportunity to discover the techniques of fashion visual merchandising, both for displays created in store windows and also within the point of sale. It will aim to help them understand the fundamental aspects of consumer behaviour and apply visual merchandising techniques in such a way as to improve the selling capacity and increment the productivity of the point of sale.
Week 1 / Weekend 1
Participants will be introduced to the consumer shopping experience, and witness the definition of the reference target groups and the various methods of communication used in visual merchandising for the commercial and luxury markets. Participants will also analyse the visual communication elements of the point of sale: location, competitors, shop front, entrance, windows and displays.
Week 1 / Weekend 2
At this point in the course participants will study in detail the concept of the shop window, the first point of contact between the store and the consumer. They will analyse the types of messages communicated and the different types of window. They will also learn techniques for purchasing the elements used to dress the window effectively, including choosing the theme, the importance of colour and light and the choice of the props and mannequins used.
Week 2 / Weekend 3
Participants will study the environment inside the point of sale, a fundamental element for defining how to assign the spaces based on the sales targets. Focus will be on merchandising techniques for understanding how the store interior looks and identifying how best to plan out the consumer’s route within the areas in which the products are displayed. By understanding how to classify and how best to position products, participants will learn to create visual principles for displaying them as effectively as possible.
Week 2 / Weekend 4
At this point participants are shown how to interpret data resulting from analyses performed on sales in order to design windows and displays. They also investigate the concepts of sell-in and sell-out, know how to identify best and slow sellers, and understand how to intervene effectively, in agreement with the store manager and the merchandiser, to improve the performances of the point of sale.
Week 3 / Weekend 5
Synergies with new media and social networks are important for improving the communication of offline and online stores, with a view to increasing the relative visitor flows, creating a positive point of sale experience, and building consumer loyalty. Lessons will be alternated with workshops and presentations by companies from the retail industry.
Week 3 / Weekend 6
In the last part of the course participants will analyse consumer loyalty-building policies and aftersales techniques. They will also complete an exercise designed to create a merchandising book for use in points of sale, which will also provide window-dressing guidelines.
Executive short courses are suited to those with skills already obtained through prior learning or through working in the disciplines or in a related context.