Course Description

Students are given a broad overview of retail merchandising operations

based upon the 3 pillars of retail (sales, inventory and margin) and learn to successfully analyze the business applicable to real life scenarios. Upon completion, they are equipped to analyze business situations, why the analysis is necessary and how to apply the analysis to current and future needs. Students completing the course, gain a broad overview of total retail merchandising operations and how to best improve store execution by, considering the impact that decisions may have at the store level. Parallels are drawn between understanding how the total retail merchandising operations works and applying their knowledge to proactively drive improvement in sales, inventory and margin resulting in a GMROI (Gross Margin Return on Investment) improvement.

Learning Outcomes

• Develop “best in class” merchandising analytical practices

• Understanding of the 3 pillars (sales, inventory & margin) and how to proactively drive improvement in those 3 pillars

• Apply analytical practices to real life scenarios

• Root cause analysis impacting sales, inventory and margin

• Operational understanding of how decisions impact the store

• Establishing “Day in the Life of” criteria