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Source: www.telegraphindia.com/1071206/asp/careergraph
Eye drive-Decking up store windows is the hot new profession, says V.Kumara Swamy
Till a few years ago, visual merchandising meant installing a couple of mannequins in the store along with some garish decorative pieces. That is no longer the case. Calcutta-based student Saurabh Gunderia would like us to believe that visual merchandising is the emerging salesman. “For a retail outlet, the most important thing is to communicate silently. If the visuals manage to lure the consumer inside the store, selling a product becomes easier,” he says.
He is quite excited about the future for visual merchandisers (VMs) like himself. “VM is all about detailing. Most multi-brand outlets have nearly the same products, the only difference is in the way they are presented, that is, the experience a store offers,” says Delhi-based Swati Bhalla, CEO, Studio Atomium, a VM consultant and trainer.
According to Swati, the increasing demand for VMs is inspiring professionals from other fields, such as fashion designing and interior designing, to try out this field. Because of the retail revolution, the most job vacancies for VMs are in this sector. Some of the other fields VMs can get into are designing, training and interior decoration. That's not all. Even software companies that design games and other entertainment software employ VMs for designing and marketing the product.
In a retail chain, VMs are involved right from the layout drawings designing aisles to ensure smooth customer flow to micro details of placement of products and brands in strategic places.
“A good VM makes sure that the company moves forward with a standard selling strategy, thus delivering a consistent application of company policy in store, which improves the customer experience and maximizes sales opportunities,” says Karl McKeever, an international expert on VM.
“In India, only two per cent of the retail market is organised, so lots of people are required in VM to help explore the rest of the market. And since the concept of VM itself is very new in the country, competition is also very low at this point,” says Calcutta-based Jayant Chandouk who is a consultant for various multinationals in the field.
“A good VM should have a sense of colour co-ordination and an eye for detail apart from an acquired aesthetic sense. And of course, a VM should be innovative,” says Astuti Bajaj, an established VM and head designer of a major retail chain.
Chandouk stresses that a VM should display ownership. “Recently, on my visit to a leading electronics retail chain store during Diwali, I saw the National Flags, originally put on display for the Independence Day, still making their presence felt. Someone who takes ownership will not make such mistakes,” he says.
Experts also warn that this is a career where most of the work happens late at night (after the retail outlet closes) and on weekends. That means no weekly offs on Saturdays and Sundays. But the hard work is often well paid. Though a fresh VM diploma holder may get a salary of Rs 8,000 or 10,000 per month, if your efforts justify your worth, then sky is the limit. “With three to four years of experience, one can earn Rs 50,000 easily,” says Chandouk. And the ladder of growth is fast too. The average package for the head of the department of a company is around Rs 15 to 20 lakh per annum.
Apart from the National Institute of Fashion Technology, institutes that offer courses in VM include the Pearl Academy of Fashion, Delhi, Wigan & Leigh, the JD Institute of Design, Delhi and the Mudra Institute of Communication, Ahmedabad. In fact, some institutes have aligned themselves with retail chains to offer courses in VM. Pearl Academy has joined hands with retail giant Pantaloon to conduct a six-month course in visual merchandising. Online courses are available too, like the one offered by Studio Atomium. While diploma courses, usually spread over two years, cost around Rs 1,50,000, certificate and online courses cost a lot less.
Swati aptly concludes, “One thing is for sure, there is no stopping a talented VM.” |
