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What elements should be present in a visual merchandising resume?
Visual merchandising resumes should emphasize your designing and creative skills through your work and practical experiences. These professionals either need to have a background in design or work experience in the retail industry.
A visual merchandising resume objective is to showcase how strategically you can display designs in accordance with consumer behavior and preferences.
Going ahead, you will explore the following sections:
- How to Become a Visual Merchandiser with Zero Experience?
- What are Visual Merchandising Skills?
- Online Visual Merchandising Courses.
- Industries for Visual Merchandisers.
- What Other Jobs can Visual Merchandisers Do?
- Visual Merchandising Resume Examples for Freshers.
- How Do You Put Visual Merchandising on a Resume?
- How to Create a Visual Merchandising Portfolio?
Steps to Becoming a Visual Merchandiser
Let us give you a brief visual merchandising description. If you’re working at a fashion store, you must know how to promote the brand using visual strategies.
Now be it catalogs, online, or in-store, you must be on top of your visual merchandising and display tactics by working on pricing and tag concepts, utilizing store space wisely, etc.
We will discuss the elementary skills and qualifications required to step into visual merchandising careers:
Skills Required as a Visual Merchandiser
Visual merchandisers commonly begin their careers with internships or an entry-level job under a retailer or visual design company, as it provides hands-on skills.
The certain set of skills you need in order to advance in this career are:
- Design Principles
- Color Theory
- Commercial Awareness
- Manual Sketching and CAD
- Basic Retail Mathematics
Combined with these should be the basic understanding of how visual clues convey a tone or message to a certain clientele and the needs of your clients/customers and employer.
Source: Channelplay
Qualification Required to Become a Visual Merchandiser
A visual merchandising careers require expertise in design as well as retail business. Ideally, a bachelor’s or diploma in design or any related field is required, but many visual merchandising guidelines only require an associate degree to begin.
Practical experiences hold more value in this field as compared to academic qualifications. However, possessing a degree will always help you more in the competitive job environment among fellow job seekers. Therefore, here are some fields of study to consider:
- Fashion designing
- Interior designing
- Surface pattern designing
- 3D designing
- Textiles
- Fine arts
What is a Visual Merchandising Degree?
Candidates who wish to make their career in visual merchandising can pursue a bachelor degree/post-graduation in this field.
Top two colleges in the United States for specialized courses in visual merchandising are:
| Course | College |
|---|---|
| Fashion Visual Merchandising and Branding | London College of Fashion |
| Fashion Styling and Visual Merchandising | Istituto Marangoni |
Online Visual Merchandising Courses
Stated below are 4 websites providing online visual merchandising courses uplift your resume:
Industries that Require Visual Merchandisers
Visual merchandisers can be self-employed, work as consultants or full-time employees at various industry types. Usually, they work in one or more of the following capacities:
- Merchandise manager
- Merchandise display coordinator
- Freelance or consulting visual merchandiser
- Event design associate
The type of career path you choose will depend on your end goal and the opportunities you get to meet your end goal.
For example, some visual merchandisers begin working under organizations in order to gain experience before stepping into their dream job while others may choose to begin their careers as freelancers to develop their portfolio before they start something of their own.
Visual merchandisers hold significance in the following types of organizations:
- Retail stores & companies
- Airports
- Museums
- Event planning
- Design companies
Retail companies sell any type of product to the general public, such as fashion, sports, recreation, housewares, etc., and all of these may hire visual merchandisers.
Similar Job Positions to Visual Merchandiser
Certain profiles require similar expertise as visual merchandising. The element of styling, designing, and merchandising holds significance in the following jobs:
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Fashion Specialist: These experts help individuals develop their personal or professional image by improving their fashion and clothing styles. They work with a variety of clients in business, entertainment, and other industries.
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Interior Designer: These professionals work on the interiors/indoors of a property to aesthetically upgrade it, keeping in mind the space requirements. They either work in specialized design services or architectural, engineering, and related services.
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Merchandising Analyst: They cover a wider scope of work as compared to visual merchandisers. They analyze the bigger picture of trends for a particular retail chain to manage the flow of merchandise both in and out of the retail supply chain.
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Store Planner: These professionals help design the layout of a retail store. They analyze the existing store layout, foot traffic pattern, sales figures, and type of inventory to develop the most suitable layout which helps in achieving corporate objectives.
Visual Merchandiser Resume Example with Objective and Summaries
A visual merchandising resume objective is to provide a detailed insight into your designing and creative experience combined with commercial skills.
We will provide visual merchandising resume examples in this section for both freshers and experts.
Entry Level Visual Merchandising Resume Examples
Discussing below some typical aspects covered in a resume with not much work experience:
Projects and Internships
Projects and internships are beneficial as they help develop your professional aptitude, strengthen your skills, and provide a greater door to opportunity.
Work as interns or team members on designing projects that will be relevant to your field of interest. It will help upgrade your resume as a fresher.
Resume Objective
A resume objective briefly communicates your career goals, the type of industry you want to work in, and how suitable you are for the same.
For a fresher, stating an objective in their resume is more appropriate than a summary as they lack sufficient experience.
Choosing a proper template is also important. As in, for a fresher, the template should have fewer sectional divisions with a clear and professional font.
Hiration’s Online Resume Builder has 250+ templates combined with in-built profile-specific content to make the task of resume writing far easier.
Experienced Visual Merchandising Resume Examples for Summary Section
Stating 2 experienced visual merchandising profile summaries below for your reference:
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Consultant level: Industrious merchandising consultant with 5+ years of experience in creating detailed & authentic visual fashion designs. Armed with a prolific record of delivering delectable designs for premium members focusing on client requirements. Adept at reading consumer behavior through articulate communication skills and friendly demeanor to increase sales and clientele.
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Senior-level: 9+ years experienced visual merchandising professional armed with a demonstrated history of conducting presentation analysis to recommend upgrades and capitalize opportunities. Highly skilled in evaluating profits while suggesting adjustments as needed. Adept at executing high-end merchandising plans by creating and organizing promotions & advertising campaigns.
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Director-level: Seasoned merchandising director with 17+ years of experience in design and display development across multinational retain chains. Highly skilled at supervising teams of merchandising experts to meet corporate objectives. Adept at analyzing consumer behavior and market trends for designing store display to increase sales and clientele.
With Hiration’s Online Resume Review, you can get your resume reviewed by our in-house industry experts where they assess your resume writing based on current industry standards and provide alterations for the same.
Visual Merchandising Resume Sample
- Redesigned 60% of floor plan and merchandising display in order to enhance accessibility and the outlook of the store
- Contributed to store's winning Regional Sales Award for highest sales for 3 consecutive months of display overhaul
- Facilitated sell-off of obsolete & overstock inventory through markdown strategies reducing maintenance costs by 36%
- Oversaw store renovations & fixtures while executing floor layouts increasing 29% of Google reviews for ambience.
- Tracked and maintained inventory levels within corporate guidelines while assisting cycle counts and tagging of merchandise
- Trained a staff of 60 merchandising professionals on analyzing selling reports to advise suitable course of action to clients
- Conducted weekly store visits to ensure adherence to store specific merchandising plan and goals in all the 3 shifts
- Developed in-store design strategies for branch anniversary while cataloging special offers for 100+ premium members
- Implemented effective floor plan for the entire store allowing wider walkway to improve traffic and boost sales by 19%
- Supervised the creation of exterior & interior displays during holiday season as part of increasing customer interaction by 20%
- Oversaw maintenance and stock-keeping activities in storage units to facilitate smooth work flow & efficiency on floor
- Completed operational objectives including day-to-day sales plan combined with security units to minimize losses by 25%
- Composed original window displays on a monthly basis to attract customers in order to target high-end sales
- Installed and maintained holiday decorations including two 22-foot Christmas trees resulting in increased customer traffic
- GPA : 3.5/4.0
- Advanced Visual Merchandising & Store Design from Udemy
- Led a 3 months project for Henry William Art Collection designing in store display strategies and visual merchandising
- Supported the Wardrobe Revamp project of Washington Clothing targeting urban women and men with annual sales of $9M
- Languages : English (Professional) and French (Native)
How to Create a Visual Merchandising Portfolio?
A portfolio is the marketing tool visual merchandisers use to sell themselves to potential clients whose products they will help sell.
A visual merchandiser must carefully document their work or demo models and provide a platform for prospective employers & clients to view them.
Conventionally, bringing a portfolio binder to your interview has been the norm. However, visual merchandisers these days prefer to develop a digital portfolio.
Let us break down the process for you in the following steps:
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Construct demo displays: Demo displays showcase a merchandising concept for the genre of the product being sold.
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Photograph them: Take pictures of the demo displays from various angles to define their complete look.
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Compile video & upload: Create a slideshow of the demo photos and upload it to a publicly accessible video sharing platform.
These are the theoretical steps to publishing a portfolio digitally, but there is a lot of practical implementation required. With Hiration’s Digital Portfolio Builder, you can develop top-notch portfolios with its AI-powered tools and user-friendly interface.
Key Takeaways
- A visual merchandising resume objective is to emphasize your visual strategy skills, the projects you’ve worked upon, and your overall eligibility for the role.
- A visual merchandiser requires expertise in design as well as retail business.
- Most retail companies hire visual merchandisers to seek help in optimizing their product’s appearance.
- A portfolio is a very important tool for visual merchandisers to showcase their work to potential clients & employers.
We have compiled all the important information for you to go ahead now and start creating some high-octane visual merchandising resumes. Good luck!
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