The Three Biggest Barriers Facing Merchandising Teams Today
In our second conversation, John Wang, former Head of Merchandising at Dockers, and I discussed one of the defining characteristics of merchandising: it sits at the intersection of art and science.
As John put it:
"Merchandising is where art and science come together. The science gives you the facts. The art is knowing what to do with them."
The science provides the foundation for every merchandising decision through sales performance, inventory, margins, consumer insights, competitive intelligence, and regional demand. The art is where merchants apply judgment, recognize emerging trends, understand consumer behavior, and make calculated bets on the future.
Before merchants can focus on the art, they need confidence in the science. During our conversation, John identified three areas that consume valuable time and reduce the amount of it merchants can spend where they create the greatest value.
1. Getting the data
Merchants depend on information from across the business to make informed decisions. Sales performance, inventory, margins, consumer insights, and regional demand all contribute to building a successful assortment. The information often exists, but bringing it together into a complete picture can require significant effort.
Reports arrive from different functions in different formats. Product information evolves throughout development. Data must be standardized, connected, and organized before it becomes meaningful. As John pointed out, "the speed of data" remains one of the biggest opportunities for merchandising organizations today.
2. Using the data
Access to information is only the first step. Information creates value when it’s interpreted in the right business context.
John emphasized that commercial acumen — including retail math and financial fundamentals — is what enables merchants to move beyond reporting and make informed decisions that strengthen both the assortment and the business. Understanding margins, productivity, pricing strategy, and consumer demand helps merchants recognize which business levers to pull, when to pull them, and the impact those decisions will have across the organization.
3. Trusting the data
Confidence in the information is just as important as access to it. Product information naturally evolves throughout the development process as designs mature, costs are refined, and assortments are adjusted. Merchants also receive information from multiple functions, each with its own structure and perspective. Bringing those pieces together into a trusted, consistent view of the business takes time.
That effort is part of the reality of merchandising, but every hour spent validating information is an hour that can’t be invested in evaluating opportunities, collaborating with cross-functional partners, or shaping the assortment.
These three areas rarely exist in isolation. A merchant may receive commercial updates from Planning, product changes from Development, and regional feedback from Sales — each designed for a different purpose and presented in a different way. Before the conversation can shift to strategy, those inputs need to be connected into a single, trusted view.
John made another point that perfectly captures the role of a merchant:
"You need to know what all these metrics mean... and what are the levers to pull to move the business."
That’s where merchandising creates value. The objective isn’t simply to collect more information. It’s to spend less time preparing it and more time applying commercial judgment. When merchants have timely, trusted information and the commercial acumen to interpret it, they can focus on the work that differentiates brands: understanding consumers, recognizing emerging opportunities, and making confident decisions about the future.
The science informs the decision.
The art creates differentiation.
The opportunity isn’t simply to improve the flow of information. It’s to enable merchants to spend more of their time applying the judgment, commercial acumen, and creativity that move the business forward.
How do we give merchants faster access to trusted information so they can spend more time creating value and less time preparing to make decisions?
This is part two of our merchandising series. Read part one: What Makes a Great Merchant?