Students who plan to work in fashion management, selling, or buying should consider the Fashion Merchandising program. Students choosing the Fashion Merchandising major will learn about merchandising, retailing, consumers, retail buying, and fashion promotion.  Graduates will be prepared to buy, promote, and sell merchandise for retailers and wholesalers, and to merchandise, promote, and sell products for manufacturers.  The program offers the Bachelor of Science degree in Fashion Merchandising.

DEGREE PLANS

Careers

Careers in fashion merchandising are challenging, exciting, and rewarding!  The wide variety of opportunities in the industry for graduates attracts people with many different interests, goals, and abilities.  Most jobs require people with business know-how, analytical ability, and management skills while others require people with a high degree of artistic creativity and originality.  Regardless of the position, successful people working in a fashion merchandising career have a pleasing personality, a real interest in people, and a willingness to work and learn.

Individuals with a degree in fashion merchandising work as merchandisers, buyers, sales representatives, store managers, regional managers, wholesalers, manufacturer’s sales representatives, merchandise planners, merchandise analysts, merchandise allocators, promotional coordinators, manufacturer’s store coordinators, fashion coordinators, fashion directors, advertising managers, visual merchandisers, resident buyers, fashion forecasters, educators, divisional merchandise managers, product developers, general merchandise managers, entrepreneurs, and company owners.  So many choices!

For people just beginning a career, many large companies offer entry-level training programs while smaller firms offer a wide variety of entry-level positions.  Typical entry-level positions include executive trainee, buyer’s assistant, and department manager.  Regardless of the starting position, responsibilities increase with hard work and a keen interest in the job.  For those people who demonstrate the necessary talents, upward mobility is relatively easy.