Career avenues for Fashion Business Management graduates - Prof Dr. Sunita Gupta Konwar, IIAD

The fashion industry has gained popularity expeditiously and reached its peak. Since it is a giant business industry, it requires a lot more than just designing clothes. Here, fashion business management plays a crucial role in running the business of a fashion company, retail store or designer. Professor Dr. Sunita Gupta Konwar, Course Leader-Associate Professor, Fashion Business Management, Indian Institute of Art and Design(IIAD) penned down the career avenues for Fashion Business Management graduates.

The fashion industry is highly dynamic and it is expanding at a rapid pace. Though it harbors creative and talented designers, business acumen and strategic tactical skills are also essential for the smooth running of this industry. Fashion business management courses mold students into industry professionals ready to strategically and efficiently run the business front of any fashion company. The curriculum of this course incorporates various subjects like fashion marketing, human resources, strategic management, merchandising, E-Commerce, market research.

Fashion business management helps students to understand critical aspects of this industry like retail operations, supply chain, customer psychology, current market trends, strategic-decision making, leadership, product knowledge and various nuances related to brand promotion.

From global brands to Indian designers and home-grown startups , the marketing possibilities within the fashion industry are endless. Moreover, with the boom in the e-commerce industry made the Indian fashion industry brimming with vacancies for management positions. The career path for fashion business management graduates will depend on the skills and interests of the candidates. Following are some of the job profiles for FBM graduates one can opt for:

Product Development

This area of expertise plays a pivotal role in the development of a product. Working professionals from this field carry out tasks involving conducting market research, deciding the product's price etc which plays an integral role for any fashion company's design and development process.

Fashion Marketing

All businesses rely heavily on their marketing strategies. A Fashion Marketer understands the needs and demands of the customer and helps in crafting strategies while keeping competitive brand activities in mind to dial up the company's sales.

Entrepreneur

Individuals can also look after their own ventures with an underlying endeavor to push the global fashion industry forward with unique innovations. Be it building a brand from the ground up or launching a fashion tech business, the realm of fashion entrepreneurs is ever-growing.

Digital & Social Media Marketing

A Social Media and Digital Manager is in charge of generating content keeping the target audience in mind. This task further helps in creating strategies and campaigns to generate sales.

Retail

The role of a Retail Manager involves the running of a store and its departments smoothly. Their daily tasks include managing the staff, re-stocking and resources. But above all, to also articulate marketing, promotion, and customer satisfaction strategies to maximize profits.

Chief Merchandiser

A Chief Merchandise Officer plays an integral role in Fashion Business. Their responsibilities include allocating merchandise, developing product assortment plans, and running business analytics to boost sales, among other activities that help the brands grow and develop.

Fashion Buyer

A fashion buyer predominantly observes fashion trends, attending trade shows and showrooms. The primary focus is to select items for retail store stock and work with designers and their inventory. The type of retail business impacts the responsibilities of a fashion buyer in question.

Vendor Analyst

Vendor Analysts are responsible for surveying vendors for the highest quality materials at the lowest possible costs. It is a core part of the Fashion Business and Management industry.

Fashion Consultants

A fashion consultant is a person who has all the necessary skills and knowledge required in the fashion and retail industry. Their primary focus is to enhance their clients image through their wardrobe, while evaluating their body type, personality and career goals.

Instead of putting a complete halt on the fashion industry, Covid-19 has acted as a turning point for many companies. The pandemic made brands deploy more sustainable and conscious techniques, not just in terms of their products and accessibility, but also with the communication and the overall brand image. The lockdown witnessed increasing footfall on online platforms. As a result, the traffic of retail shops has shifted to the virtual world. This gave a boost to all the e-commerce portals like Myntra, Ajio, Flipkart, Amazon, etc. Most brick-and-mortar outlets re-invented themselves and created an online presence to stay in business. Almost all brands are now adapting to the digital realm, which is evident from their social media and marketing campaigns. The pandemic, in other terms, has changed the whole world irrevocably, paving the way for far more digital and management jobs than ever before.

As the name suggests, this course deals with maintaining and increasing a brand's value as well as awareness of a given product through various campaigns. A professional from this field is responsible for creating new and innovative strategies for marketing a given product to increase its demand and value in the market. Furthermore, this field requires thorough research and analysis of the upcoming and prevailing trends in the fashion industry. This helps predict the success and popularity of the product line amongst potential consumers, based on its price and usability. Therefore, fashion managers must possess virtues like an eye for detail and exemplary communication skills, in addition to an in-depth knowledge of the prevailing market trends.