Who is a visiting merchandiser and what does it do?

Nowadays, there are quite a few professions that make it possible to earn good money and realize oneself. And for this it is not necessary to receive a special education. It is enough to discover certain abilities and to develop them purposefully. For those young people who cannot find a suitable vacancy for themselves, it will be useful to take a closer look at such a profession as a visiting merchandiser, as well as find out what he is doing.

Merchandisers are specialists who are responsible for placing goods on shelves. This applies to absolutely any field of trade. Now there are fewer and fewer outlets where these workers do not take part. Both huge hypermarkets and small boutiques equally need the work of such specialists. After all, it is extremely important to attract a buyer and persuade him to buy. And for this, the product must be placed according to the special laws of marketing: both correctly and aesthetically attractive.

Merchandisers are divided into two groups (depending on the features of the work).

• Inpatient Specialist works at a specific outlet. He may be responsible for the entire assortment if the store is small. A certain department or several departments can be assigned to it, as happens in large supermarkets. And also he may be responsible for some similar groups of goods.
• Visiting Merchandiser - this is the person who visits the shops assigned to him, and performs all the necessary functions there. This means that such a specialist does not have to sit still, and if he has a lot of outlets, it will be more convenient to travel by car.

Some mistakenly believe that the merchandiser is the same loader. But in reality, this is not so. The responsibilities of this employee are quite wide. It includes the following functions:

• display of goods according to the scheme developed by marketers;
• control the filling of shop windows with the necessary products and updating if necessary;
• placing advertisements about promotions, bonuses, discounts throughout the store;
• participation in the organization and conduct of actions, if required by management;
• assist sellers in promoting certain products;
• control over the expiration of products and the release of shelves from it, as well as monitoring to ensure that all packaging is intact and impeccable in appearance;
• transportation of goods using special carts or mechanisms from the warehouse to the windows;
• in some cases, it is necessary to compile reports on goods sold.

Responsibilities may vary depending on where the employee works. For example, in some stores, this specialist additionally monitors the dynamics of prices, updating the assortment, and holding campaigns with competitors in their field.

A set of qualities that a candidate for this position should possess also follows from the features of the activities of a product specialist. First of all, he must be physically healthy, since he will have to spend all day on his feet, and sometimes physically work.

As for personal qualities, the following can be attributed to them:

• activity;
• purposefulness;
• sociability;
• goodwill;
• stress resistance;
• competent and intelligible speech.

In the process of work it is necessary not only to lay out and take into account the goods, but also to communicate with customers. Therefore, you need to be polite, to be able to clearly explain any points. At the same time, goodwill is important. Appearance plays an important role: neat, fresh, tidy.

A visiting merchandiser does not have to have a college degree. However, graduation from higher or secondary educational institutions in the specialties Advertising, Management, Marketing, Commodity Science will not hurt. The same can be said about the acquisition of the profession of a seller or a specialist in warehouse accounting. To become a merchandiser, it is enough to be active, sociable, attentive and trained. Students and school graduates who wish to earn extra money in their free time can apply for this position.

To learn this type of activity, it’s enough to come to the store and intern for the first time, watching how more experienced employees do it. You can also find out in advance all the moments of such work and ask questions of interest.

We can say that a business merchandiser cannot have a specific workplace (in the usual sense). His workplace is trading floors, shops, sometimes scattered at a distance of several tens of kilometers from each other. He is always on the road, and he keeps all the necessary notes and documents with him, as he moves from object to object.