Merchandising and Buying Placement Review

The role involves:
Creating an optimal product mix through analysis and allocation of goods to maximise profitable sales on a daily basis.
Identifying, recommending and executing business opportunities, forecasting 1 to 3 months, by analyzing sales trends, researching market trends that reflect merchandise strategy; measures results and provides recommendations
Tracks and interprets inventory levels to ensure they are achieving plans by monitoring store sales, inventory and inventory to sales ratio

During my placement year I felt that I was given a huge amount of responsibility on my department, in my ability to challenge the status quo, suggest new business opportunities and partake in merchandising meetings.

Teamworking - I had the opportunity to develop my team working skills and build strong relationships with the department team, European counterparts and buying partners on a daily basis.
Time Management - Scheduling, diarising and attending meetings and completing work tasks efficiently
Commercial Mindset - Gaining an understanding of the market, spotting and driving business opportunities to bolter the product mix.

There was a good support system in place during my placement year. We were assigned a specific placement team, which were excellent at arranging monthly catch up meetings and answering any questions we had throughout the year. There were also 121 meetings with line managers to discuss performance and improvement points.

From my experience the company culture was warm and welcoming, I was made to feel part of the department team from the first day.
As my placement experience was almost entirely virtual, I did not experience a lot of the social events and activities, local community work and on-site leisure facilities.
The business are moving in the right direction in terms of sustainability and recruiting a diverse workforce.

Overall, I enjoyed my placement year with TJX as I managed to experience merchandising and buying roles throughout the year, as well as develop personal and professional skills. Buying provided a valuable insight into the world of corporate buying and the flexible lifestyle of a retail buyer, whereas Merchandising was a more fixed 9-5 desk job. However, as an analyst I did enjoy the responsibility I had to suggest and drive business opportunities on department.

Yes