Attracting passing customers is more important than ever, and today merchandisers play a key role in the process.
By Peter Howard.
What are these mysterious but vital gears doing in the retail machine known as the merchandiser? How can contracted marketing organizations assist retailers when they emerge from a pandemic that has significantly changed the retail landscape?
It's a small army
To understand the opportunities and benefits of outsourced sales and marketing, Retail World spoke with the Chairman of the Association of Sales and Merchandising Companies Australasia (ASMCA), Keith Quigg.
"When we look back at the early stages of the pandemic, when there was significant panic buying and many other supply issues, particularly in the food industry, we saw that the role of merchandisers became part of essential retail services," he said.
“There has been some communication between the Prime Minister's Office, Prime Ministers and others to ensure that the services required by retailers are recognized by their suppliers as well as in their own field, and to ensure this there was a lot of people available.
“We get an idea of the size of the industry when we see Woolworths immediately employing 10,000 people who have been laid off by Qantas and others in the aviation industry to ensure a workforce is available.
“There are currently between 50,000 and 100,000 merchandisers helping to keep retail stores as active as possible. It is difficult to be precise, but right now I would say that service providers probably employ up to 50 percent of all of these people. "
Read the sales and marketing feature in the May issue of Retail World magazine.
