How to Buy Merchandise for a Retail Store - A Step by Step Guide to Purchasing Management in a Retail Business

This guide will walk you step by step through all the essential phases of Buying Merchandise for a Retail Store.

Beginning with the turn of the last century and continuing for many years, retailers and buyers for retail stores concentrated all of their buying efforts on the selection of merchandise items they thought their customers would like and would purchase. These buyers were product-orientated. It was called subjective retailing because the buyer based the buying decision on a personal view of the likes and dislikes of customers.

Within recent years the consumer movement (consumerism) has forced a change in the retailer's buying efforts from a subjective attitude to that of an objective one. The retailer now has to measure the likes and dislikes of the customers before a buying decision can be made. The buyer has to be consumer-orientated. Retailing has entered into the new era of the marketing of merchandise.

My name is Meir Liraz and I'm the author of this book. According to Dun & Bradstreet, 90% of all business failures analyzed can be traced to poor management. This is backed up by my own experience. In my 31 years as a business coach and consultant to businesses, I've seen practically dozens of business owners fail and go under -- not because they weren't talented or smart enough -- but because they were trying to re-invent the wheel rather than rely on proven, tested methods that work. And that is where this book can help, it will teach you how to avoid the common traps and mistakes and do everything right the first time.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction
2. The Marketing Approach
3. The Merchandise Plan
4. The Stock Plan
5. The Buying Plan
6. The Selling Plan
7. The Unit Control Plan
8. Selection Of Merchandise
9. Conclusion