Market week. L O L. Market week is a week filled with stress, free food, long days, insane workloads, and stress. Just kidding. That’s just my definition of it. ;) Market week is actually a week when all merchandising buyers from all companies worldwide visit different vendors to discuss what merchandise they plan to purchase for the upcoming fashion season. This past month, I began my internship working at the start of the August 2015 market week. Although that week was a very stressful and overwhelming first week of work, I learned so much about our company and another side of the retail industry that I had never experienced.
During market week, the interns were instructed to follow the sales reps during their meetings with the buyers from each company. Each day, we would follow the sales reps around the show rooms, recording each style number and then taking pictures of that style, keeping all of this organized in numerical order for each picture. Once we recorded the samples, we put all of the merchandise back in it’s correct spot in the showrooms and darted for our computer to download and begin the tedious task of labeling all of the pictures.
We had to organize all of the pictures we took per company in their own folder labeled with the company’s name. Once we sorted out the photos into their correct folder, it was time to begin the labeling process. We were instructed to open each picture in paint, resize the image to 21x21, crop when needed, and then type the company name and date the photograph was taken in the top left corner of the picture. Style number went in the top right and the colors went below or above the item. Once completing this, we then had to resave the image as the style number and delete the original photo. Simple enough. But when you have over 100 pictures to label for one company and there were 5 company meetings you sat in on and took pictures for—that simple process turns into a BIG pain!
After labeling all of the pictures per company, it was time to pull samples to send for each corporation. Per each style, we typically get around 5 samples per style. At Cejon, we have an enormous amount of samples ranging from cold weather to warm weather, 2009 to 2015. Almost all brands are stored separate from each other, which makes it easier to “pull samples” from our inventory. Typically when we pull samples to send out to each company, we try to send at least one color of each style so the company understands what the product is supposed to look like. Once we pull all samples for a company, we log them in Excel to keep track of what we are sending and to whom it is going to. We also have to make tags with the style number, color, and company name written for each product we send out. Once everything is tagged and logged, we send it to the company over UPS or we walk the samples to the office (if it’s within a decent distance).
This may not seem like a lot of work but trust me, when you have to do this process for over 10 accounts each containing at least 20+ styles, your brain fries before you even realize.
So there it is folks—my first official market week in the books. Too bad for me, I didn’t realize you never really recover from market week as we are still sending and receiving samples that were dealt with during market. The work never ends but that means neither does this awesome experience!
XXO
Alison
During market week, the interns were instructed to follow the sales reps during their meetings with the buyers from each company. Each day, we would follow the sales reps around the show rooms, recording each style number and then taking pictures of that style, keeping all of this organized in numerical order for each picture. Once we recorded the samples, we put all of the merchandise back in it’s correct spot in the showrooms and darted for our computer to download and begin the tedious task of labeling all of the pictures.
We had to organize all of the pictures we took per company in their own folder labeled with the company’s name. Once we sorted out the photos into their correct folder, it was time to begin the labeling process. We were instructed to open each picture in paint, resize the image to 21x21, crop when needed, and then type the company name and date the photograph was taken in the top left corner of the picture. Style number went in the top right and the colors went below or above the item. Once completing this, we then had to resave the image as the style number and delete the original photo. Simple enough. But when you have over 100 pictures to label for one company and there were 5 company meetings you sat in on and took pictures for—that simple process turns into a BIG pain!
After labeling all of the pictures per company, it was time to pull samples to send for each corporation. Per each style, we typically get around 5 samples per style. At Cejon, we have an enormous amount of samples ranging from cold weather to warm weather, 2009 to 2015. Almost all brands are stored separate from each other, which makes it easier to “pull samples” from our inventory. Typically when we pull samples to send out to each company, we try to send at least one color of each style so the company understands what the product is supposed to look like. Once we pull all samples for a company, we log them in Excel to keep track of what we are sending and to whom it is going to. We also have to make tags with the style number, color, and company name written for each product we send out. Once everything is tagged and logged, we send it to the company over UPS or we walk the samples to the office (if it’s within a decent distance).
This may not seem like a lot of work but trust me, when you have to do this process for over 10 accounts each containing at least 20+ styles, your brain fries before you even realize.
So there it is folks—my first official market week in the books. Too bad for me, I didn’t realize you never really recover from market week as we are still sending and receiving samples that were dealt with during market. The work never ends but that means neither does this awesome experience!
XXO
Alison