I haven't done any merchandising and I'm curious how it works. Do you just come in and do your thing, or do you work under some supervisor, or what? Do you fill out reports, etc? I see several on the boards and am wondering if I want to give it a try or skip it.

There are a few different flavors of merchandising. Here are a few, and hopefully everyone else will add in their views, too:

1) Regular work, hourly wage. Usually reset work in grocery/drug/department stores. A company will have several regular accounts in the city, and you work on a crew with a supervisor. This is basically a job, as many of these companies will want you to put in 20-40 hours a week. The pay here is low, $10-$12 per hour is the norm.

2) Special projects. If you're not willing to commit to a lot of hours each and every week for the merchandising companies that need you for 20+ hours, try to get on a list of willing participants for work when they temporarily need a bigger crew for some sort of special project, and then negotiate for more money per hour. I once did a week long job setting up a new store. I was on the backup list, and they temporarily needed a bigger crew. I scoffed at $11/hour, and eventually got $16.

3) Regular work, paid by the job. Here you will be the person who routinely goes into a store and services a display at regular intervals. Sometimes the merchandise is shipped directly to you, and sometimes it's in the back room of the store. Besides needing to interact with store personnel to access the back room, you are mostly on your own. Sometimes you will be paid by the hour here, too, especially if you are servicing product in a grocery store.

4) Project work. These are one time jobs. For instance, the big home improvement stores code their signage with a little barcode in a corner, and they mistakenly shipped out a bunch of signs without the barcodes. There was a need to send in a fieldworker to place barcode stickers on the signs. It was a one time thing. There are lots of different one time projects, like putting up a new display, changing signage, taking measurements for potential new displays, the list goes on and on. These are gold mine jobs that fit perfectly with your MS jobs, and they often command a premium fee. Just because they are unique jobs doesn't mean that there are few of them. I've done hundreds of these. If you like variety, you will love doing these jobs.

I have found that for non-regular project work, merchandising companies are much more willing to meet your demands for higher fees. If you are going to do fieldwork, don't limit yourself to MSing only. Do merchandisng, facility audits, product recalls, and anything else that needs to be done. As you are out on your normal day, look around for things that freelance fieldworkers do, and follow up if the job interests you.

How do you find these jobs?
Jen



vanicek Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There are a few different flavors of
> merchandising. Here are a few, and hopefully
> everyone else will add in their views, too:
>
> 1) Regular work, hourly wage. Usually reset work
> in grocery/drug/department stores. A company will
> have several regular accounts in the city, and you
> work on a crew with a supervisor. This is
> basically a job, as many of these companies will
> want you to put in 20-40 hours a week. The pay
> here is low, $10-$12 per hour is the norm.
>
> 2) Special projects. If you're not willing to
> commit to a lot of hours each and every week for
> the merchandising companies that need you for 20+
> hours, try to get on a list of willing
> participants for work when they temporarily need a
> bigger crew for some sort of special project, and
> then negotiate for more money per hour. I once did
> a week long job setting up a new store. I was on
> the backup list, and they temporarily needed a
> bigger crew. I scoffed at $11/hour, and eventually
> got $16.
>
> 3) Regular work, paid by the job. Here you will be
> the person who routinely goes into a store and
> services a display at regular intervals. Sometimes
> the merchandise is shipped directly to you, and
> sometimes it's in the back room of the store.
> Besides needing to interact with store personnel
> to access the back room, you are mostly on your
> own. Sometimes you will be paid by the hour here,
> too, especially if you are servicing product in a
> grocery store.
>
> 4) Project work. These are one time jobs. For
> instance, the big home improvement stores code
> their signage with a little barcode in a corner,
> and they mistakenly shipped out a bunch of signs
> without the barcodes. There was a need to send in
> a fieldworker to place barcode stickers on the
> signs. It was a one time thing. There are lots of
> different one time projects, like putting up a new
> display, changing signage, taking measurements for
> potential new displays, the list goes on and on.
> These are gold mine jobs that fit perfectly with
> your MS jobs, and they often command a premium
> fee. Just because they are unique jobs doesn't
> mean that there are few of them. I've done
> hundreds of these. If you like variety, you will
> love doing these jobs.
>
> I have found that for non-regular project work,
> merchandising companies are much more willing to
> meet your demands for higher fees. If you are
> going to do fieldwork, don't limit yourself to
> MSing only. Do merchandisng, facility audits,
> product recalls, and anything else that needs to
> be done. As you are out on your normal day, look
> around for things that freelance fieldworkers do,
> and follow up if the job interests you.

To Jen (ludlow123),

Finding merchandising jobs isn't really any different than finding MSing jobs, except that there maybe a couple of different places that you look.

1) Some MSCs also do some merchandising work, like Marketforce purple (but they don't pay very well, so pick and choose the good jobs here). Lots of MSCs do different kinds of pricing/facility audits. Just keep an eye out during your normal job hunt on company sites or on Jobslinger/Shadowshopper/Volition, or whatever other site(s) you browse through.

2) NARMS--National Association for Retail Marketing Services. This is the merchandising equivalent of the MSPA. Like the MSPA site, NARMS members are listed on the NARMS site. Start applying to the companies on that list just like you have applied to the companies on the MSPA list. The site is www.narms.com.

3) On the NARMS site, spend a lot of time in the JOBS/CAREERS category. There you will find the Job Bank. There are lots of jobs listed there. You can also post your profile/resume. Merchandising companies do access this list--I get calls all the time from companies that saw my profile and need a job done. After you post a profile and establish a username and password, you can get into the Recruiter. It's like the Job Bank, except that if the job posted in the Recruiter is in the specific area listed in your established profile, you get an email sent to you. Remember to update your profile as you do more mercandising jobs and gain experience. Lastly, it's up to you whether you want to drop the $15/course to get the certifications available.

I have worked for Mosaic for the last year. They pay by the hour, pay mileage and travel time under certain circumstance and are quite a fair and honest company. They will hire you as an employee not a independent contractor.
www.mosaic.com

Great information. Thank you!

Thanks a bunch!



ces1948 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have worked for Mosaic for the last year. They
> pay by the hour, pay mileage and travel time under
> certain circumstance and are quite a fair and
> honest company. They will hire you as an employee
> not a independent contractor.
> www.mosaic.com

What about SASR? That's for temporary merchandising jobs.

...

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/04/2013 09:24PM by lucky7s.