The Art of Retail Buying By Marie-Lousie Jacobsen

The Art of Retail Buying
An Insider's Guide to the Best Practices from the Industry
By Marie-Louise Jacobsen

What makes a store? The merchandise makes a store. What makes a great store? Great merchandise makes a great store. It's all about finding merchandise that has the "X-factor."

The retail industry is arguably one of the toughest in the world. Brands come and go, fickle consumers switch their allegiance overnight while the global economy directly affects every level of the market. So how do the top professionals manage to get it right year after year and keep both clients and employers happy?

In the Art of Retail Buying, author Marie-Louise Jacobsen draws on her years of experience to offer insights into the world of the professional merchandiser. This book if for anyone and everyone who wants to expand their knowledge in retail buying, product development, building and creating brands and buy-sell negotiations.

At the core of the book is advice on strategic buying, covering topics as:

- how to buy
- what to buy
- comparative stock analysis
- buying plans vs. selected buying components
- sensible budgeting.

Skilled retail buying entails merchandising ability and know-how in finding and buying merchandise that is market-relevant, customer-relevant, season-relevant, quality-relevant and product relevant. All these skills are ready to be learnt and are now available in The Art of Retail Buying.

Had a Hard Time to Decide what to Buy that is Different and Unique?

Hi, people,

Check out this retail shop in Parkway Parade. The shop name is InQbox. It is located at basement, at the same stretch where the restaurants are located. What differentiates this retail shop as compared to others is that the whole shop is divided into many pigeon holes and different merchandise are displayed in each pigeon hole.

This is a good place where budding entrepreneurs want to sell their products but do not want to incur such a high cost of renting the whole shop. These budding entrepreneurs just need to pay the rental of each pigeon hole space will do.

Because of this concept, this also attracts customers to walk in as those merchandise that are on sale are very different and unique from what you see in other retail shops. Furthermore, there is a wide range of merchandise featured in the shop, so it also helps to save the customers' time.

Because of all these advantages, I decided to sell my merchandise in one of the pigeon holes as well. The merchandise that I bought are from Japan as I went to Japan recently. My pigeon hole is located at the corner bottom right of the window display. The name is "Dazzled". The advantages of choosing the pigeon hole at the window display is that people can still take a look of your merchandise even though the shop is closed for business.

If you are shopping in Parkway Parade, do remember to check out this shop "InQbox" located at the basement, and look for the pigeon hole with "Dazzled" in it and of cos, I hope that you would like my merchandise and buy it.

Below are some photos that I took for my pigeon hole. Please pardon me as the photos are not well taken. But one thing to note is that what you see in the photos today do not mean that you will see it when you go down to Parkway Parade as the quantity I brought in very small. Thus it is very exclusive.

If you have any suggestions for me, be it merchandise or display, please drop me an email as I am always open for suggestions for improvement. Thanks.