Mia Salvaggio

FCFA 488 Buying

December 5, 2016

Sales Results
Target Market
Our target market includes women ages 35 to 45. According to the VALS characteristics,
our customer would be classified as an innovator (60%) or a thinker (30%). Being an innovator
means this particular customer is complex, involved, proactive and sophisticated. They have a
high self-esteem and are willing to take calculated risks. They have good interpersonal skills,
global perspectives, abstract thinkers and understand nuance and complexity. Innovators are also
among the most likely to be business and government leaders. These individuals are successful
with an upscale taste which is justified by their high income. These women are also very brand
conscious and are willing to pay more for a brand name.
Perrys Department store locations are limited to the Mid-Atlantic region of the United
States. The highest percent of innovators in the counties of Virginia are Arlington County,
however the city of Mclean has a higher percent of innovators. Montgomery County has the
highest percent of innovators in Maryland, however the city of Chevy Chase has the highest
overall percent of innovators.
Thinkers tend to be mature, comfortable, and tend to be well educated. They favor
durability and value in products and actively seek out information in the buying decision-making
process while shopping in the Womens section. With thinkers, they are more concerned with
buying high quality products than a cheap price. durability is more one of the most important
aspects to them when it comes to shopping for Womens clothing. Since these people tend to be
well educated, they are interested in knowing where the products are coming from and what they
are made out of. They are very motivated by their ideals and have a broad worldview which
makes them more open to new trends and styles. Thinkers households have the highest net
worth because they are responsible, organized planners, anticipate needs, and save for the future.
Innovators are most likely to be in a career field that involved them being leaders and are
also social people with a strong work ethic. They are very cultured attending many art and sports
events, however they also entertain at home. They stay up to date with news and gather this
information from a variety of new and old news sources. 96% have a bachelors or postgraduate
degree, 75% are employed, 47% are women, 60% are married, and 32% have kids.
Thinkers are confident, conservative, informed, and responsible. They are intellectually
curious but slow to change. They balance work, family, and personal time to achieve a
considered quality of life. 78% have a bachelor's or postgraduate degree, 28% are retired, 50%
are women, 71% are married, and 87% have kids.

Assortment Mix and Trend Analysis

 Our womens department is broken up into eleven different classifications. These
classifications include shirts, sweaters, pants, jackets, knit tops, dresses, activewear, outerwear,
sleepwear, skirts, accessories. For each of these sections we have a subclassification. For the fall
and winter season we wanted to include pieces that can be layered as well as a few pieces that
can be worn during very low temperatures. Knit tops, jackets, shirts, and sweaters are all easy to
layer together for cold winter temperatures or worn separately for a nice fall day. Our outerwear
section which includes parkas and trench coats is perfect for the low temperatures often found
during the winter in the mid atlantic area.
Our activewear section was important to include because our target market, although
constantly on the go, takes pride in their appearance and well being. On an average day out
consumer will work a full day in the office and hit the gym on their way to pick up the kids from
daycare. The sports tank, leotard, and drawstring shorts are made out of wrinkle resistant
polyester and spandex which is perfect for storing in a bag all day. As mentioned prior, 75% of
our target market is employed. Due to this, we found it important to include a variety of dresses,
pants, skirts, and shirts that would work for both in and out of the office. These items can easily
be transitioned from day to night by pairing it with a pair of heels and our drop earrings and
handbag. The chart below illustrates each classification along with its subclassification.

Classificatio Subclassification
n

Shirts Button up, Wrap Shirt

Sweaters Cardigan, Turtleneck

Pants Flared Jeans, Tapered Jeans

Jackets Hoodie, Suit Jacket

Knit Tops Cap Sleeve Tee, Raglan Long Sleeve

Dresses Spaghetti Strap, Empire Waist, Jumper with Ruffled

Blouse

Activewear Sports Tank, Leotard, Drawstring Shorts

Outerwear Parkas, Trench Coats

Sleepwear Nightshirt, Two Piece Set

Skirts Jean Skirt, Tiered

Accessories Small Handbag, Drop Earrings

 Since our target market is quite a wide range of people we needed to include a variety of
sizes, colors, styles, and fabrications. The breakdown of our department shows that pants take up
the highest percentage and shirts have the lowest percentage. Since much of our target market is
employed, a higher percentage of the items such as pants and dresses can be worn in the
workplace. Our sections such as sleepwear and accessories are the lowest percentages because
they have the least amount of subclassifications and are bought the least by our target market
when compared to items such as dresses and jackets. We carry sizes Small, medium, and large.
Based off of our research about our target market we know that these sizes will be the three most
popular.

All of our styles come in small (35%), medium (35%), and large (30%). Since our most
popular sizes are small and medium we tend to carry a little more of those sizes than we do size
large. Since our target market prefers to compare prices and quality of pieces we decided to
include a wide range of prices in our department. Some of our most expensive pieces include
dresses, coats, jackets, and pant which are high quality items that sell well to our target market.
They are items that can be easily transitioned from office to night and for this reason, our
consumer is willing to pay more for them. Some of our most inexpensive items include cap
sleeve tees, spaghetti strap dresses, activewear, and pajamas. These items are marked lower
because they cannot be transitioned from day to night and are only worn at certain times of the
day. For example, activewear is usually only worn at home or while working out for an hour a
day and pajamas are only worn at night. We marked the spaghetti strap dress a little lower to
give a cheaper dress option to our consumer.

Our garments are offered in a wide variety of fabrications depending on style and price
point. Our sweaters and one suit jacket are made from cashmere and wool which is why they are
some of the most expensive items we carry. The majority of our stock is either cotton or
polyester. Our button up shirts are carried in cotton, polyester, and a blend of the two. Other
cotton garments include our jeans, with both styles being offered in 100% cotton and
cotton/spandex blend, hoodie, cap sleeve shirt, raglan long sleeved shirt, a couple of our dresses,
leotard, both of our outerwear options, all sleepwear, and finally both of our skirts. . Jeans with a
spandex blend are popular among our consumers because they stretch which make them more
comfortable and easy to swear for an entire day. Our polyester items include our button up and
wrap shirts, cardigan, hoodie, suit jacket, jumper, and several activewear pieces. We decided to
offer several polyester options because polyester has a different feel and looks different from
cotton. We were also able to offer the same garment at different price points. We wanted to
appeal to both types of consumers. Besides cotton and polyester, we also offered viscose, nylon,
and spandex dresses, nylon outerwear, acrylic wrap shirt, and an acrylic cardigan.
As you can see, having a variety of fabrics was very important to us. We wanted to be
able to offer our consumers several options because we know that they like to compare options
and choose quality of price in most cases. Another reason why this was so important is because
our consumers live in a variety of climates even though they all are in the Mid-Atlantic region. It
is a large region and several states experience drastically different temperatures throughout the
year.
Our color assortment is broken up into five different categories including neutral,
primary, pastel, fall neutral, and seasonal. These categories cover a wide spectrum of color. Our
neutral category, white, black, brown, gray, khaki, and navy is estimated to be the most popular
among our target market. Since the majority of them are career women, we know that they will
need items that can be worn in the workplace and that can be mixed and matched with more
trendy pieces.Our neutral pieces are some of the highest quality so that they will last for years to
come.

Neutral White, Black, Brown, Gray, Khaki, Navy

Primary Red, Yellow, Green, Blue

Pastel Baby Blue, Purple, Baby Pink

Fall Neutral Salmon, Yellow Olive, Burnt Sienna

Seasonal Red, Green, White

 White Blue Baby
Blue

Black Baby Burnt

Pink Sienna

Brown Green Gray

Khaki Navy Orange

Purple Red Salmon

Yellow Yellow
Olive

November Training Simulation

After considering our variety of merchandise, we decided to offer our entire merchandise
selection in the month of November. Reason being, all of our items can be layered or transitioned
in a way that can be worn in warmer or colder weather. Some of these items include spaghetti
strap dress, shirts, knit tops, and skirts. These items can be layered with jackets, sweaters, and
outerwear. Our staple pieces that can be worn in the workplace such as, shirts, pants, sweaters,
dresses, and skirts are offered all year round. Since 78% of our target market is employed and the
large majority have college degrees, we know that these items will sell well all year long.
Another reason we decided to offer our full inventory is because our consumers were
buying electronically. This means that we did not have a set amount of floor space restricting us
from only carrying certain items in our womens department. We also know that our target
market likes to have options. They prefer to compare a couple similar items before they make
their purchases so they can compare quality, cost, and style. This was easy for them to do online
from the convenience of their home or workplace.
As discussed, our consumers are located in the mid atlantic area which can experience a
variety of different temperatures during November. For this reason, it was important for us to
offer items for cold temperatures and moderate temperatures. Our consumers in Florida will face
much different temperature during the month of November than our consumers in Virginia. It is
a balancing act of offering the right amount of merchandise for our consumers across the region
and not offering too much to avoid overwhelming them.

Report your sales results

Styles then colors
Analysis of Sales Results
The use of tables, charts and graphs in this section would be beneficial in communicating your
results. The tables, charts and or graphs should clarify, and highlight your report, but should not
replace the text information in your report. As you report your results, you will be indicating how
many total products you offered (excluding color offerings) and how many different
classifications. How many items overall did you sell (excluding color)? What % of your total
offerings sold? Break your sales results down by classification. What were the total and % of
each classification offered? Now consider the colors offered in each what sold (overall and
by classification) what is the % of each color sold? NOTE DO NOT use the titles from the
vendors catalog in your report. This is simply the vendors code and does not provide a
description of the product you are referring to

Accessories-
activewear,
dresswear,
knit tops,
Cap sleeve-white, black, gray navy

outerwear,
Pants/skirts,
sleepwear
Sweaters
Cardigans-white,blue, yellow olive, black, Navy
 Turtle neck- blue, yellow, black, 1 gray ,1 navy

Recommendations for Adjustments and Changes

In the future, we recommend using more than one vendor to select merchandise from.
This is very important because if we were able to use more than one vendor then we would have
been able to have more choices. More choices means that we would be able to better serve our
consumers with exactly the merchandise they are looking for. The problem with this vendor is
that they only had a couple different styles in each category. A couple times we were forced to
select items that we knew were not necessarily perfect for our consumers but were the best
choice we had from our one vendor. We would have liked to have been able to compare what
styles we liked the most between vendors, get the best prices, and get first choice over our
competitors. We need to start building relationships with multiple vendors to be able to beat out
the competition.
According to our feedback, our merchandise was priced fairly but we need to offer a
wider variety of styles within each classification. This again comes back to our choice of vendor.
On the other hand, our feedback indicated that we had a nice scale of merchandise ranging from
trendy to professional clothing. In the future, I would recommend slightly raising the prices of
our merchandise to better match the competition. Some of our items such as jeans and shirts
come in well below what our competition is selling them for. Pricing below our competition is a
good strategy but we do not want to be priced too low. If we are priced too low we will not be
seen as competition, our consumers will think that our merchandise is lower quality, and we will
soon be seen as a lower end store. This may sound drastic but in the long run this is something
serious to consider. All in all, our feedback indicates that our online store was very easy to
navigate. One suggestion stated that we should consider categorizing our colors and organizing
them better for a more professional look. We could not agree more and we think this should be
done in the future.