At the end of the week I assisted Kirsten and Nathan with the etail buy. The nice thing about buying for etail is that all the garments from the line book are bought but some at a higher rate of sale than others. The way in which Animal buy for etail is they review sales figures from the previous year and buy the nearest product for this season by the rate of sale it sold to previously.
Kirsten and Nathan buy from the best selling item the previous year and work their way down from this. As they go down the best sellers they decide a rate of sale or if the item is a close match to the previous seasons they base it on the same rate of sale. The items they decide are not going to sell that well are bought at a flat rate of sale.
In the buy today my part was mainly to observe. I pulled each category of clothing onto a rail as we ran though the items and held them up. At the begging of the day I just held up the items as I learnt how they conducted the buy. After a while though I was able to join in on the thought process and especially when it came to the women's buy I could be a different perspective as I learnt the average female etail customer is a size 12-14 where as in store they are only a 8-10. When reviewing the clothes for the buy I was able to comment on fit and if their typical customer buys in size 12-14 that some styles and fit may not attract this type of customer. My thoughts were taken on board and on one instance Nathan even asked me what I thought and he would go with my decision.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Again this week I agreed with Kirsten to work Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and be able to use Wednesday as a day for uni work.
Today was my last Monday which felt very weird. Much like the last few weeks my Monday task was to compile the top 10 best sellers ready for the trade meeting. After compiling the information for the trade meeting I then moved onto the best sellers for units and etail to have this all completed before the meeting. In the meeting I was pulled up with a small discrepancy between the printed out top 10 best sellers for units and the PDF copy pasted into the pack. Even in my last week I was learning things as I found that after I had saved down the original excel document and closed when I re-opened it to save it as a PDF I must update the document as there are so many formula's I had not realised previously but without updating it the formula's are not at its most recent calculations.
On Tuesday I was in the sample area continuing to make sure the SS12 samples were hung. I wanted to make sure this was completed before I left my work experience so that I could leave it all clear and in order for Kirsten to be able to just go to as she needed.
Kirsten was also kind enough on the Tuesday to allow me to pick out a collections of samples for myself to say thank you for my time working at Animal. This was really kind of her and I managed to get myself some great goodies including a handbag, purse and a large travel holdall. She let me take the products on Tuesday as when I would be in on Thursday and Friday we would be busy with the etail buy.
Today was my last Monday which felt very weird. Much like the last few weeks my Monday task was to compile the top 10 best sellers ready for the trade meeting. After compiling the information for the trade meeting I then moved onto the best sellers for units and etail to have this all completed before the meeting. In the meeting I was pulled up with a small discrepancy between the printed out top 10 best sellers for units and the PDF copy pasted into the pack. Even in my last week I was learning things as I found that after I had saved down the original excel document and closed when I re-opened it to save it as a PDF I must update the document as there are so many formula's I had not realised previously but without updating it the formula's are not at its most recent calculations.
On Tuesday I was in the sample area continuing to make sure the SS12 samples were hung. I wanted to make sure this was completed before I left my work experience so that I could leave it all clear and in order for Kirsten to be able to just go to as she needed.
Kirsten was also kind enough on the Tuesday to allow me to pick out a collections of samples for myself to say thank you for my time working at Animal. This was really kind of her and I managed to get myself some great goodies including a handbag, purse and a large travel holdall. She let me take the products on Tuesday as when I would be in on Thursday and Friday we would be busy with the etail buy.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
On Thursday I spent the day working on the samples area. The week before I had spent a few hours packing away the luggage and hanging out the samples for SS12. The rest of the SS12 samples were boxed up so today Kirsten asked I pack away all the AW11 samples and hang out the SS12 samples in book order. This took up my whole day, the items being packed away were to be labelled up for sample sale, the items to be hung took a lot longer as to get them in order of the line book took precision and I wanted to make sure it was in the right order for Kirsten as I know she is very particular about things being in order.
I have had a lot of chances over my time at Animal to review the product in the line book but it was a really good chance to see the bought items for SS12 and see the different materials and prints used. As I will be assisting with the etail buy next week it was good for me to understand what look and styling the design team have gone for with the products for the season leading into AW12.
I have had a lot of chances over my time at Animal to review the product in the line book but it was a really good chance to see the bought items for SS12 and see the different materials and prints used. As I will be assisting with the etail buy next week it was good for me to understand what look and styling the design team have gone for with the products for the season leading into AW12.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
This week I have agreed with Kirsten that I can have Wednesday and Friday off for uni work.
Today was the same as any Monday. I had my set tasks to complete so I began with the top 10 bestsellers ready for the trade meeting and this particular day Kirsten asked me to paste the PDF into the presentation pack.
On Tuesday I completed the WSSI's and the Go pro comparisons. I then refereed to my faulty e-mails. These e-mails are sent through from the stores with a description of the product and what is faulty. These e-mails are usually responded to by the merchandising team to acknowledge the faulty items and authorise the destruction of the items. When I was last at Animal they had a faulty log that was filled in with all the items that come through on the e-mails. I found this excel document as since there had been redundancies at Animal this document was something the merchandising team were not aware of. As this was something I have been managing in my time at Animal I amended the document to recognise on each page when there was the same product code entered into the faulty log so that it could be recognised the products that were repeatedly being returned faulty. I also discussed with Kirsten an idea to create a page at the end of the document that with formula's could show the repeated faulty items so when it came to a buy or just providing feedback they had the information to review and back it up.
Today was the same as any Monday. I had my set tasks to complete so I began with the top 10 bestsellers ready for the trade meeting and this particular day Kirsten asked me to paste the PDF into the presentation pack.
On Tuesday I completed the WSSI's and the Go pro comparisons. I then refereed to my faulty e-mails. These e-mails are sent through from the stores with a description of the product and what is faulty. These e-mails are usually responded to by the merchandising team to acknowledge the faulty items and authorise the destruction of the items. When I was last at Animal they had a faulty log that was filled in with all the items that come through on the e-mails. I found this excel document as since there had been redundancies at Animal this document was something the merchandising team were not aware of. As this was something I have been managing in my time at Animal I amended the document to recognise on each page when there was the same product code entered into the faulty log so that it could be recognised the products that were repeatedly being returned faulty. I also discussed with Kirsten an idea to create a page at the end of the document that with formula's could show the repeated faulty items so when it came to a buy or just providing feedback they had the information to review and back it up.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
On Monday Kirsten was back so she completed the majority of the pack and I was back to the task of the top 10 best sellers. As I knew I could complete the top 10 best sellers for value and collect the samples quite quickly I was also able to complete the top 10 best sellers for unit and etail before the trade meeting and save these down as PDF's to be sent out to retail.
On the Tuesday and Wednesday of this week I was up with design helping to move the final garments from SS12 samples to archive and then we began to unpack the shipments of AW12 that had come in and hung them in the design sample area.
Thursday was the only other day I was at Animal this week as they were kind enough to give me Friday to spend the day doing some uni work.
Thursday was a day for the smaller jobs to be completed. I completed the WSSI's and the GoPro comparisons and then I went round to the sample area to pack up the AW11 luggage and bags to make space for the SS12 luggage that had now been delivered.
On the Tuesday and Wednesday of this week I was up with design helping to move the final garments from SS12 samples to archive and then we began to unpack the shipments of AW12 that had come in and hung them in the design sample area.
Thursday was the only other day I was at Animal this week as they were kind enough to give me Friday to spend the day doing some uni work.
Thursday was a day for the smaller jobs to be completed. I completed the WSSI's and the GoPro comparisons and then I went round to the sample area to pack up the AW11 luggage and bags to make space for the SS12 luggage that had now been delivered.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
My week started out in the retail department and on Tuesday I continued with my tasks including top 10 best sellers, WSSI's and go pro comparisons.
The rest of my week was spent helping out with other areas of the business.
The rest of my week was spent helping out with other areas of the business.
On Thurday I was back up helping with product development and finishing moving the SS12 samples up to archive. Whilst doing this there was still a small amount of SS11 samples that needed to be boxed away to be sent to the warehouse for storage so Katie and I worked together to pack away the SS11 stock to make room for the SS12 archiving. I really enjoyed working with Katie as her and I clicked instantly, she only graduated in the summer so she still has a fresh mind.
On Friday I went back up to e-tail in the afternoon after completing a few tasks for Kirsten in the morning. I was requested Sean in Etail to help them out with auditing.My task with etail was to audit products for the website. I was given a list to work from with all the product numbers and my task was to go through the list and make sure the each of the products were published, that the description of the product showed as was clear and spell check each product. I really like working up in the e-tail department, In retail is always very quite and the mood is quite sombre where as marketing and etail work in the same space and there is a really upbeat and fun atmosphere on their floor. Neither departments work any harder but in etail and marketing it just makes working much more enjoyable where I feel retail have lost that.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Last few days this week before Kirsten is back from holiday. Today I had the responsibility again of compiling the reports. This week I was less daunted by the task of it but I came in early all the same to allow myself the time in case of any problems.
Having the responsibility of compiling the reports has been really insightful and I have enjoyed having something I can take charge of and have the satisfaction of finishing. Understandably they cannot give me too many responsibilities at Animal and although I have found most of the tasks they give me beneficial I have felt much more part of the team at Animal having the responsibility.
Having the responsibility of compiling the reports has been really insightful and I have enjoyed having something I can take charge of and have the satisfaction of finishing. Understandably they cannot give me too many responsibilities at Animal and although I have found most of the tasks they give me beneficial I have felt much more part of the team at Animal having the responsibility.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
This weekend was the Animal Sample sale. I have never been at Animal when they have had a sample sale so I was particularly excited to get some bargins for myself and for christmas presents. As I am classed as staff I was able to invite +3 to the sample sale too so I was able to take my boyfriend and her mum and partner. They are HUGE fans of Animal so I was in the good books :)
The warehouse where the sample sale was held was just massive and the whole area was filled with boxes. Being staff I was able to turn up to the sale at 8am so I made sure I got there for that time and it was lovely and quite so I was able to take my time.
At 10.30am the general public came and it got very busy very quickly so I was glad I was able to grab the bits I had beforehand.
Between my boyfriend and I we managed to grab some great stuff and we didn't realise how much we had quite bought until we got it home and sorted through it......!!!!!
The warehouse where the sample sale was held was just massive and the whole area was filled with boxes. Being staff I was able to turn up to the sale at 8am so I made sure I got there for that time and it was lovely and quite so I was able to take my time.
At 10.30am the general public came and it got very busy very quickly so I was glad I was able to grab the bits I had beforehand.
Between my boyfriend and I we managed to grab some great stuff and we didn't realise how much we had quite bought until we got it home and sorted through it......!!!!!
Monday was my day to shine. I was in at half 7 to get a head start on the work. I was looking to do a good job and make sure all the reports were exact. I worked my way through each of the reports checking as I went.
With getting into work so early I managed to get the reports finished just before lunch so I set the presentation pack to print as I popped out to get some lunch so that when I returned I have time to staple the packs all together and get them distributed before the trade meeting at 2.
The trade packs went down well in the meeting without any mistakes which I was pleased about as I had been very careful as I know how important it is for the reports to be exact.
In the trade meeting it was discussed why Animal is down on sales in the year. The one thing that was mentioned is that the VM is not the reason for the stores not performing as the sales are coming in from the garments hung in the prime VM positions. Both the Retail Manger Nikki and the Area Manager Cat travel around a lot of stores each week to make sure the stores are presentable and the VM is there to entice customers.
Personally in my time at Animal I have gotten to know where the stores are located and for me location is key. Many of their stores are off the main strip of shopping town centres so the footfall passing the shop is not there. From my own observations I believe that the location of stores are not in the key areas they should be and with sales on the retail side not performing I think what should be done is that they close most if not all of their stores, they focus on their wholesale and build up the brand again and then pick a few key locations to be re-opened making Animal a brand to be desired and people visit the locations for the stores.
I know that it is easy for me to conclude this and that in principle it is a much bigger job but I think it needs to be done now while there are still customers following the brand before they loose their market and they then have to build up the customers again from scratch.
On Tuesday I came into work but was not feeling 100%. I ran thought the best seller reports for top 10 units and for etail and saved these down to PDF's to be sent across to Chloe Crosby to be sent out to retail and I also saved PDF's of the cut down version to be sent to the finance manager Richard Bouch.
As I was not feeling too well I left work at lunch to go home to rest so that I could be feeling better for the following day. Unfortunately I went home and was off most of the week Ill. I think it may have been largely down to the previous week and having a lot of stress with my partner having surgery.
On Friday I was back at work and I had my usual job of prepping mondays reports. Once I had done this I was sent up to Product Development in design by Nathan to help with clearing the SS12 samples to the archive area. For this job I was assisting the Junior Garment Developer, Katie. The job itself was just a simple one of putting the clothing into order of what company made the sample and then to transport it to the 4th floor for it to be hung in archiving so it was still available to review as needed by design. The main challenge came when we came to move the rails of clothing and we found there was no lift between the 3rd and 4th floor so it was then a lot of manual work to shift it. I saw this as a good bit of exercise and got stuck straight in.
With getting into work so early I managed to get the reports finished just before lunch so I set the presentation pack to print as I popped out to get some lunch so that when I returned I have time to staple the packs all together and get them distributed before the trade meeting at 2.
The trade packs went down well in the meeting without any mistakes which I was pleased about as I had been very careful as I know how important it is for the reports to be exact.
In the trade meeting it was discussed why Animal is down on sales in the year. The one thing that was mentioned is that the VM is not the reason for the stores not performing as the sales are coming in from the garments hung in the prime VM positions. Both the Retail Manger Nikki and the Area Manager Cat travel around a lot of stores each week to make sure the stores are presentable and the VM is there to entice customers.
Personally in my time at Animal I have gotten to know where the stores are located and for me location is key. Many of their stores are off the main strip of shopping town centres so the footfall passing the shop is not there. From my own observations I believe that the location of stores are not in the key areas they should be and with sales on the retail side not performing I think what should be done is that they close most if not all of their stores, they focus on their wholesale and build up the brand again and then pick a few key locations to be re-opened making Animal a brand to be desired and people visit the locations for the stores.
I know that it is easy for me to conclude this and that in principle it is a much bigger job but I think it needs to be done now while there are still customers following the brand before they loose their market and they then have to build up the customers again from scratch.
On Tuesday I came into work but was not feeling 100%. I ran thought the best seller reports for top 10 units and for etail and saved these down to PDF's to be sent across to Chloe Crosby to be sent out to retail and I also saved PDF's of the cut down version to be sent to the finance manager Richard Bouch.
As I was not feeling too well I left work at lunch to go home to rest so that I could be feeling better for the following day. Unfortunately I went home and was off most of the week Ill. I think it may have been largely down to the previous week and having a lot of stress with my partner having surgery.
On Friday I was back at work and I had my usual job of prepping mondays reports. Once I had done this I was sent up to Product Development in design by Nathan to help with clearing the SS12 samples to the archive area. For this job I was assisting the Junior Garment Developer, Katie. The job itself was just a simple one of putting the clothing into order of what company made the sample and then to transport it to the 4th floor for it to be hung in archiving so it was still available to review as needed by design. The main challenge came when we came to move the rails of clothing and we found there was no lift between the 3rd and 4th floor so it was then a lot of manual work to shift it. I saw this as a good bit of exercise and got stuck straight in.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
This week I have been up in Sheffield with my partner while he has radiotherapy surgery.
On Friday I went into work to prep the reports ready for Monday when I would be doing the weeks reporting. I only stayed at work for a few hours to get the necessary tasks completed as I am the sole carer for my partner I was worried and I wanted to get back to him to assist.
On Friday I went into work to prep the reports ready for Monday when I would be doing the weeks reporting. I only stayed at work for a few hours to get the necessary tasks completed as I am the sole carer for my partner I was worried and I wanted to get back to him to assist.
Friday, November 11, 2011
The rest of the week consisted of my other jobs to complete. Kirsten had put together my jobs in a week planner so that I but also Nathan, the Buying/Merchandising Manager, knew what I had to work on whilst she was away and he can then also give me other jobs for himself or other departments if I was not too busy.
My jobs for the week consisted of:
Tuesday - Top 10 Best Sellers to be done for Units and Etail.
- ICON invoices/credits print and file & check and sign off.
Wednesday - WSSI's
Thursday - ICON check and sign off
Friday - Put together the bits for monday and prep all the sheets for Monday reporting
Once these tasks were done I had other smaller tasks to get through if I had the time:
Go Pro Comparisons - check out competitors prices on GoPro Camera's and Accessories.
Tidying the Sample Area - SS12 samples are starting to be delivered so I need to stack the boxes of samples neatly away until we can pack away AW11 samples.
Adhoc tasks for Nathan
Support Sean in Etail
On Tuesday I made my way through the tasks some which I had been doing anyway but others were something I was taking on while Kirsten was away so I wanted to make sure I was confident in the jobs.
On Wednesday and Thursday I was up in design to help with the product development team. They assigned me to packing up all the SS11 garments in archiving. The area for archiving is on the 4th floor. I was on my own up there as it is not manned by anyone. I soon got myself into a rhythm of working. I had to pack one sample of each to be sent to the warehouse for further archiving. If there were duplicates of a garment it was to be boxed ready for the sample sale in a couple of weeks time.
As it was so quite on the 4th floor I remembered to bring my ipod in on the Thursday to keep me company.
On Friday Kirsten was back and my job today was to get all the sheets prepared for Mondays reports. Kirsten left me to get on with the reports and as I had done with the Mondays reports I had previously put together a to do list for Friday.
I was getting nervous by this point as this was my last day with Kirsten before I would take over while she was on holiday. I wanted to make her proud as well as do a good job for my own development.
My jobs for the week consisted of:
Tuesday - Top 10 Best Sellers to be done for Units and Etail.
- ICON invoices/credits print and file & check and sign off.
Wednesday - WSSI's
Thursday - ICON check and sign off
Friday - Put together the bits for monday and prep all the sheets for Monday reporting
Once these tasks were done I had other smaller tasks to get through if I had the time:
Go Pro Comparisons - check out competitors prices on GoPro Camera's and Accessories.
Tidying the Sample Area - SS12 samples are starting to be delivered so I need to stack the boxes of samples neatly away until we can pack away AW11 samples.
Adhoc tasks for Nathan
Support Sean in Etail
On Tuesday I made my way through the tasks some which I had been doing anyway but others were something I was taking on while Kirsten was away so I wanted to make sure I was confident in the jobs.
On Wednesday and Thursday I was up in design to help with the product development team. They assigned me to packing up all the SS11 garments in archiving. The area for archiving is on the 4th floor. I was on my own up there as it is not manned by anyone. I soon got myself into a rhythm of working. I had to pack one sample of each to be sent to the warehouse for further archiving. If there were duplicates of a garment it was to be boxed ready for the sample sale in a couple of weeks time.
As it was so quite on the 4th floor I remembered to bring my ipod in on the Thursday to keep me company.
On Friday Kirsten was back and my job today was to get all the sheets prepared for Mondays reports. Kirsten left me to get on with the reports and as I had done with the Mondays reports I had previously put together a to do list for Friday.
I was getting nervous by this point as this was my last day with Kirsten before I would take over while she was on holiday. I wanted to make her proud as well as do a good job for my own development.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
This week is about me getting to grips will all the reports and feeling confident in putting them together on a Monday and checking the information entered it updated correctly. Kirsten is not on holiday until the 15th November but next week I am having to have a week off to travel up to Sheffield for my partner to have radiotherapy surgery so I have only got this week to make sure I am confident.
On the Monday I was left to do the full reports by myself so I came in at 7.30 in the morning to allow myself additional time so I had the time to take on each report. I had previously typed up my to do list for the Monday so I had a list of what to do and in what order. As I ran through the reports there were a couple of times where I had to check with Kirsten as I had not fully remembered so I made additional notes on my to do list so I had every tiny detail so I did not forget whilst she was away.
On the Monday I was left to do the full reports by myself so I came in at 7.30 in the morning to allow myself additional time so I had the time to take on each report. I had previously typed up my to do list for the Monday so I had a list of what to do and in what order. As I ran through the reports there were a couple of times where I had to check with Kirsten as I had not fully remembered so I made additional notes on my to do list so I had every tiny detail so I did not forget whilst she was away.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
The rest of the week was spent on a collection of different things.
I had the SS12 packs to complete to be sent out to the stores. These did not have to be sent just yet but Kirtsen had asked me to work on them when I had the time to get them ready so they can be sent out in the next week or so.
One of my tasks for the week was to log the markdown prices using System 21. This system is the online pricing system used for creating orders and changing prices.
At the end of the week Kirsten sat with me again to run though the process of preparing the sheets ready for updating the reports on a Monday. It is not as easy as clearing the spreadsheets as there are a lot of formula's created within the reports and in many cases I had to copy TW (this weeks) formulated values and and paste them into TW-1 (this week -1) so the right information is held to the new weeks information to refer against.
By preparing the reports on the Friday it means on the Monday that there is less rush so making sure the information has updated and been entered is correct and allows time for checking.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
This Monday Kirsten was in the office so before the trade meeting I was back to completing the top 10 best sellers. Once I had completed all three of the the best sellers in values, units and etail I then created them inot PDF's and sent them to Chloe, the Retail Operations Manager, to be sent out to the retail team and also and amended copy showing just the picture and style code to the finance manager.
In the trade meeting today we reviewed how the pound off in store was going, sales seem to have increased so retail manager Nikki has agreed lets move with this and add additional items to the pounds off to keep it running if its bringing in the pounds. This week there is going to be quite a few late night and VIP events so this should see and increase in sales this week with any hope, Christmas window will be in stores as of next Monday to hopefully get the Christmas buzz around stores.
On Tuesday Kirsten set me the task to put together a SS12 pack to be sent out to stores. The packs include a SS12 line book, a SS12 collection catalogue, dropped lines, revised styles and the Anniversary watch information.
In the trade meeting today we reviewed how the pound off in store was going, sales seem to have increased so retail manager Nikki has agreed lets move with this and add additional items to the pounds off to keep it running if its bringing in the pounds. This week there is going to be quite a few late night and VIP events so this should see and increase in sales this week with any hope, Christmas window will be in stores as of next Monday to hopefully get the Christmas buzz around stores.
On Tuesday Kirsten set me the task to put together a SS12 pack to be sent out to stores. The packs include a SS12 line book, a SS12 collection catalogue, dropped lines, revised styles and the Anniversary watch information.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Kirsten was still off Ill this week tonsillitis so I completed a few jobs for Nathan which included creating an excel sheet to show the markdowns clearly to be sent to the stores so they had a record.
On Friday Kirsten returned to work. She called me over once she had had a chance to catch up on work and I was looking forward to her acknowledging the fact I had been able to complete the reports for the trade meeting. She acknowledged I had been able to compile the reports but she just picked at a few small bits I had done wrong and did not even mention anything about me having completed the reports with just having been shown once and under the pressure of finding out she was Ill.
I know that I would not get any praise for doing any work as I am there to learn but I felt really deflated that I worked so hard on the Monday to get the reports done and it was not even acknowledged how hard I had worked.
On Friday Kirsten returned to work. She called me over once she had had a chance to catch up on work and I was looking forward to her acknowledging the fact I had been able to complete the reports for the trade meeting. She acknowledged I had been able to compile the reports but she just picked at a few small bits I had done wrong and did not even mention anything about me having completed the reports with just having been shown once and under the pressure of finding out she was Ill.
I know that I would not get any praise for doing any work as I am there to learn but I felt really deflated that I worked so hard on the Monday to get the reports done and it was not even acknowledged how hard I had worked.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Monday - Today Kirtsen was off I'll and when I came in Nathan the Buying/Merchandising manager asked if I knew how to put together the reporting. Last week I went through the tasks with Kirsten and made notes along the way so I recalled the notes and worked as hard as I could to get the reports ready. As Kirsten had only been through the reports the once with me I felt the pressure to get the reports completed in time but I worked my butt off to get the reports done in time for the trade meeting and print off the packs. Unfortunately Nathan did not know how to update most of the reports so I could ask for help even if I needed to.
I managed to get the majority of the pack completed for the meeting and afterwards I felt a great sense of achievement that my hard work had paid off.
In the meeting it was brought up that the Northshore Boot has been returned quite a lot as faulty goods and the stitching and sole are coming apart. The decision was made to leave the Northshore Boot in store but to add them into the markdown to clear the stock they had left.
I managed to get the majority of the pack completed for the meeting and afterwards I felt a great sense of achievement that my hard work had paid off.
In the meeting it was brought up that the Northshore Boot has been returned quite a lot as faulty goods and the stitching and sole are coming apart. The decision was made to leave the Northshore Boot in store but to add them into the markdown to clear the stock they had left.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Thursday – went up to design to be a helping hand. I assisted design by listing the exact measurements for the sample knitwear hats they had received and got to use a really interesting device used for measuring the circumference of the hats. I was also able to use my illustrator skills to help them change the animal logo label shown on the hat in one of their designs. (illustrator design document on e-mail)
Friday – went up to e-commerce in the afternoon to assist with validating on the online shop. I began by arranging the clothing so that as a customer all the *New Arrival* clothing was placed at the top and forefront so it’s the first thing visible when clicking on a tab.
I then had to check through every item to check that if it had other colour ways that they were showing under ‘also available in’ on the site. If the links were not connected properly I then had to update the site and make sure markers were within the site formatting to recognise other colour ways.
Lastly I checked the Zoom function within each picture. If this was not working it meant downloading the picture again from the Asset Bank – a online source where all the animal pictures are kept. I then head to re-attach the image to the page and update it to make sure the zoom took effect.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
My 3rd Week: at Animal:
Best sellers done on Monday – Downloaded the top 10 reports from the online reports system for Retail by value and Retail by Units. The online system used does not allow me to access the Etail report. I have had to contact I.T to be-able to gain access to all reports as a temp for the meantime Kirsten will download the report so I could access the report for the top 10 Etail. On each of the reports the first column of the top 10 all comes through as without a value for TW sales and TW-1 so it is my job to re-enter the formula so this information is shown correct.
On a Monday I download and complete the retail top 10 by value first and once the sheet is done All, Men’s and Women’s top 10's are then picked by me from the samples area and didplayed on a rail ready for the meeting. These are picked and shown in the meeting to get a better understanding of what works for Animal and what each week the customers are buying.
Tues – Met with Kirsten and discussed what I would like to get out of my placement and what jobs she would like me to take on. Discussed about me teaching me how to collate the information for reporting on a Monday and putting the trade pack together for the trade meeting. As Kirsten is going away on holiday throughout my placement for 3 weeks the aim is to have me knowledgeable on the processes for reporting by this time.
Wednesday - Today Kirsten sat down with me and she began running through the different reports that I need to learn. The first report we ran through is the Bits for Monday report which is a report that looks over the margin percentage met that week. It is important to do this report first as the information for other reporting.
The rest of the reports ran in this order.
Bestsellers pictures - as I have mentioned these are the picture sheets showing the amount of sales for the top 10 of each product and are displaying in categories.
Branded Sales Summery - this is a summery of the sales made for the different brands at Animal. Currently there is a jewellery concession Icon and the camera concession GoPro.
Daily Sales - this is a review over the previous weeks daily sales which is narrowed down into stores and then there is a second Daily sales sheet that is the prediction of the week completed by Nathan.
Category Summery - this is a break down of the categories and then broke down even further to each product type and its an overview of how each category are performing.
Department sales by store, Department sales by store TW-LW-LY & Colour story sales by store - dept sales by store is a break down of sales by store, dep sales by store TW-LW-LY is a comparison against LW sales and LY sales and colour story sales by store is a percentage break down the colour stories in store.
Graph forward sheet - this is always worked to a week in advance as it is a forward sheet to predict the next weeks sales trend.
Weather Sheet - this a review of the weather for the week so the team can determine if the weather may have an impact on footfall.
Best sellers done on Monday – Downloaded the top 10 reports from the online reports system for Retail by value and Retail by Units. The online system used does not allow me to access the Etail report. I have had to contact I.T to be-able to gain access to all reports as a temp for the meantime Kirsten will download the report so I could access the report for the top 10 Etail. On each of the reports the first column of the top 10 all comes through as without a value for TW sales and TW-1 so it is my job to re-enter the formula so this information is shown correct.
On a Monday I download and complete the retail top 10 by value first and once the sheet is done All, Men’s and Women’s top 10's are then picked by me from the samples area and didplayed on a rail ready for the meeting. These are picked and shown in the meeting to get a better understanding of what works for Animal and what each week the customers are buying.
Tues – Met with Kirsten and discussed what I would like to get out of my placement and what jobs she would like me to take on. Discussed about me teaching me how to collate the information for reporting on a Monday and putting the trade pack together for the trade meeting. As Kirsten is going away on holiday throughout my placement for 3 weeks the aim is to have me knowledgeable on the processes for reporting by this time.
Wednesday - Today Kirsten sat down with me and she began running through the different reports that I need to learn. The first report we ran through is the Bits for Monday report which is a report that looks over the margin percentage met that week. It is important to do this report first as the information for other reporting.
The rest of the reports ran in this order.
Bestsellers pictures - as I have mentioned these are the picture sheets showing the amount of sales for the top 10 of each product and are displaying in categories.
Branded Sales Summery - this is a summery of the sales made for the different brands at Animal. Currently there is a jewellery concession Icon and the camera concession GoPro.
Daily Sales - this is a review over the previous weeks daily sales which is narrowed down into stores and then there is a second Daily sales sheet that is the prediction of the week completed by Nathan.
Category Summery - this is a break down of the categories and then broke down even further to each product type and its an overview of how each category are performing.
Department sales by store, Department sales by store TW-LW-LY & Colour story sales by store - dept sales by store is a break down of sales by store, dep sales by store TW-LW-LY is a comparison against LW sales and LY sales and colour story sales by store is a percentage break down the colour stories in store.
Graph forward sheet - this is always worked to a week in advance as it is a forward sheet to predict the next weeks sales trend.
Weather Sheet - this a review of the weather for the week so the team can determine if the weather may have an impact on footfall.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
On Wednesday I was back at Animal and I had my usual middle of the week tasks of entering the Cat Summery information into the WSSI's.
On Thursday I got to take part in a buying and merchandising meeting (add info from placement report)
In the meeting I suggested was in the Teen Marketing for the new Flux range they are creating that an idea would be to put small but catchy stickers in store windows to say something along the lines of 'New Flux Range'. Nikki then explained to me that unfortunately any ideas they have including the one I suggested are not possible as Ronald the owner of the umbrella of companies Animal falls into has the final say on a decision, however he does not work with any of the areas in Animal or as a team. He makes his decisions on what he thinks best rather than drawing upon the knowledge of his staff.
After the meeting along with Kirsten I drew up the meeting notes and sent out the notes to the retail team with their initials next to each item for those that will be completing the task. When I working in project management at Liverpool Victoria I had to write up meeting notes like this so this was something I had done previously.
On Friday I got to visit the production team and assist them for the day. I was assigned the task to log all the style codes for the designs for AW12 collection on a system call Quest. Once the codes have been entered the images and codes are sent to be made into a line book so all departments have a book of reference of all they styles and when completing a buy they have got a clear visual of the collection.
On Thursday I got to take part in a buying and merchandising meeting (add info from placement report)
In the meeting I suggested was in the Teen Marketing for the new Flux range they are creating that an idea would be to put small but catchy stickers in store windows to say something along the lines of 'New Flux Range'. Nikki then explained to me that unfortunately any ideas they have including the one I suggested are not possible as Ronald the owner of the umbrella of companies Animal falls into has the final say on a decision, however he does not work with any of the areas in Animal or as a team. He makes his decisions on what he thinks best rather than drawing upon the knowledge of his staff.
After the meeting along with Kirsten I drew up the meeting notes and sent out the notes to the retail team with their initials next to each item for those that will be completing the task. When I working in project management at Liverpool Victoria I had to write up meeting notes like this so this was something I had done previously.
On Friday I got to visit the production team and assist them for the day. I was assigned the task to log all the style codes for the designs for AW12 collection on a system call Quest. Once the codes have been entered the images and codes are sent to be made into a line book so all departments have a book of reference of all they styles and when completing a buy they have got a clear visual of the collection.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
This Monday and Tuesday I was at University taking part in the think tank project with the second years. It was really interesting working with the second years. They are a year I have not worked with previously so I do not know any of the students and it was interesting to get to know them and how they work. I felt it was a really beneficial experience being a third year as I felt our different experiences really helped to create different ideas. All of our different skills came together well to create the think tank book and I felt I also learnt new skills from their own experiences.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
First week at Animal has gone well, there is a lot for me to learn and in the process I think I am going to find out a lot about myself.
This week has all been about me getting back into the swing of things and Kirsten and I learning how each other like to do things. As I have been at animal previously I think I came into the placement expecting to remember some of the jobs as I have done previously. Although I have remembered many of the jobs I have been a bit careless with some of the tasks trying to finish them quick and efficiently. The mistakes were only small and a case not taking enough time to double check and I am slowly learning that accuracy is even more important when working in Merchandising.
This week has all been about me getting back into the swing of things and Kirsten and I learning how each other like to do things. As I have been at animal previously I think I came into the placement expecting to remember some of the jobs as I have done previously. Although I have remembered many of the jobs I have been a bit careless with some of the tasks trying to finish them quick and efficiently. The mistakes were only small and a case not taking enough time to double check and I am slowly learning that accuracy is even more important when working in Merchandising.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
So my first day went a little like this.....
Things have changed a bit since I was last at Animal....unfortunately earlier this year there were company redundancies being made and Abi the buyer I reported to the last time I was here was one of the members of staff to be made redundant. Whilst on placement I will be reporting to Kirsten Porter the Buyer/Merchandiser, I have worked with her previously when I was at Animal but I never really had much to do with her and we have never really chatted all that much so I was nervous to see how the relationship between us will be. I know that I am quite a vivacious chatty person however I am also hard-working and I hope that I can still bring a sense of myself to the job with professionalism.
My first role of the day was to download the Retail Top 10 from the previous week and format the information, change the layout and include the missing pictures so this could be fed to the business. I then had to go to the samples area and on a rail display the overall top 10, men's top 10 and women's top 10. The information on the top 10 is included in a pack that is reviewed at the trade meeting every monday between the retail staff, the sales manager and the area manager. At this meeting we also review the product itself that has made it into the top 10 to help understand the customers better and for the area manager to understand what stock may need to be brought forward in store to help sales on other items.
It is no shock to me that Animal is not doing as well as previous years with the redundancies they have made in the last year. In the trade meeting today week 39 was revieved and they were -37% LFLon last years sales. It was also mentioned in the meeting that they are down -25% on the year and that the forcast is that this will continue for the last quarter.
Things have changed a bit since I was last at Animal....unfortunately earlier this year there were company redundancies being made and Abi the buyer I reported to the last time I was here was one of the members of staff to be made redundant. Whilst on placement I will be reporting to Kirsten Porter the Buyer/Merchandiser, I have worked with her previously when I was at Animal but I never really had much to do with her and we have never really chatted all that much so I was nervous to see how the relationship between us will be. I know that I am quite a vivacious chatty person however I am also hard-working and I hope that I can still bring a sense of myself to the job with professionalism.
My first role of the day was to download the Retail Top 10 from the previous week and format the information, change the layout and include the missing pictures so this could be fed to the business. I then had to go to the samples area and on a rail display the overall top 10, men's top 10 and women's top 10. The information on the top 10 is included in a pack that is reviewed at the trade meeting every monday between the retail staff, the sales manager and the area manager. At this meeting we also review the product itself that has made it into the top 10 to help understand the customers better and for the area manager to understand what stock may need to be brought forward in store to help sales on other items.
It is no shock to me that Animal is not doing as well as previous years with the redundancies they have made in the last year. In the trade meeting today week 39 was revieved and they were -37% LFLon last years sales. It was also mentioned in the meeting that they are down -25% on the year and that the forcast is that this will continue for the last quarter.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Starting my three month placement at Animal today and I am really looking forward to learning more about working in a Buying and Merchandising department and the skills to compile Merchandising reports.
I have been working at Animal on and off since last September when I undertook work experience for a two week period. Since then I have pestered them every free time I have to be able to come in and build up my portfolio of experience.
As I am going to be at Animal this time for three months I am particularly excited to be able to take on some responsibility and to gain more experience in Merchandising as this is a particular area I am interested in pursuing as a job.
I have been working at Animal on and off since last September when I undertook work experience for a two week period. Since then I have pestered them every free time I have to be able to come in and build up my portfolio of experience.
As I am going to be at Animal this time for three months I am particularly excited to be able to take on some responsibility and to gain more experience in Merchandising as this is a particular area I am interested in pursuing as a job.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)