Retail Shift

When I started working in a retail buying office, I found it to be an exciting time in my life. I adored being part of the decision-making that shaped what customers bought. Specifically, I enjoyed learning how to understand my customers so deeply that I could shop of them — thousands and thousands of them. What you and I have in common is that we excel at translating visual or emotional inspiration into something a customer will pay for. We also have strong presentation skills — from visual communication to store merchandising to selling. Like you, I love this large portion of the job being a merchant! During this early part of my career, I could have left the rest of the merchant role behind. Believe me when I tell you, I tried and here’s how it went! Ultimately, I couldn’t. I couldn’t pick and choose what to focus on and what to ignore, and neither can you. I quickly learned that selling inventory to a paying customer happens in an ecosystem of sorts and that this environment has an infinite amount of infl