CTD 481 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Abercrombie & Fitch, Gross Margin, Markdown

• School: University of Alabama
• Department: Clothing, Textiles and Interior Design
• Course: CTD 481
• Professor: Ms.Davis

Document Summary

Defining the basic profit factors: the primary responsibility of a merchandiser in retailing is to attain a profit for the business. Question: why do we analyze profit calculations: make comparisons between departments and/or stores to determine relative strengths and weaknesses: Which departments or vendors are the most profitable in the store or the overall company: direct trends: Which have declined: make changes in merchandising strategy to achieve an increase in profits: Drop certain vendors and give the budge/floor space to more profitable brands. Decrease the size of unprofitable departments to maximize floor space for more profitable areas. Struggling: close least profitable store locations, merge corporate. Indicate the direction of the business and whether it is prosperous, struggling for survival, or bankrupt: Prosperous: open new store locations, renovate stores, brand extensions, etc. H&m, zara, free people locations into one (cid:523)macy(cid:495)s(cid:524), replace upper management, etc. Bankrupt: merge or sell to another company, close the business betsy.