Hunting high & low for AMs

Today I met with a group of top-level merchandising professionals and retail talent managers to discuss the current crisis in merchandising – the dire shortage of AMs. I’m in regular contact with many of my equivalents in other agencies, and we’re all struggling with this as much as our clients are. The amount of counter-offers taking place is at an all-time high, as retailers fight to retain their talent, not least because of the difficulty in replacing them. And the knock-on effect of the dearth of candidates is that salaries are going up and up by the month – tales of £38k AMs are increasing.

This morning’s roundtable breakfast meeting covered the subject from a few angles. Firstly, what’s changed? Secondly, why? And thirdly what can be done to reset the dial?

The feeling that fewer people are interested in a career in merchandising was strong. An industry lecturer told me that Gen Zs (more of them later) are shrewd and are keen to future-proof their careers. They see that digital is the future, and that AI will be more widespread, so are concerned that merchandising won’t support them long-term. They’re going into more tech or marketing roles as a result – there are more careers for somebody interested in working in retail than there used to be, and these are seen as the preferred routes.

But hasn’t merchandising changed as a function anyway? What was a “human abacus” 20 years ago, has taken on so many different new responsibilities now, liaising with logistics, marketing, socials… the role is broader than ever before. Does the title reflect that though? Could it be that tweaking the title to something encompassing Commercial Trading actually describes it far better – and be more appealing to jobhunters?

Next up is money. Again, the Gen Zs know their worth and aren’t prepared to compromise. They see fellow grads securing £30k roles, and therefore reject the £22k entry salary that merchandising offers. Yes, it grows quickly, and I’m sure that they will overtake many of their friends in due course. But that doesn’t help fund their lifestyle in the short-term. And certainly not when the national minimum wage rises to £20k in the spring.

Covid has definitely had an impact on the attractiveness of a career in merchandising too. People are looking at an industry that has been so badly battered, and thinking it’s not a sensible path to go down. In addition to those not joining merchandising, there are also all of those who have left the industry as a result of the stress that the sector has been under. The feeling in the room was that it’s been the merchandisers (biased, of course!) who have carried the can for their employers – cancelling stock commitment etc – and have been under enormous strain as a result. It’s little wonder many have given up on our world entirely, having been part of it at such a bad time.

When it comes to the AM problem specifically, it was felt that there is huge disparity in what the various levels mean in different businesses. Wouldn’t it be fantastic to get some kind of industry norm here, so it makes it clear which level somebody is at? Certainly we all seemed to agree that having more titles allowed clarity of progression – Entry AM, Established AM and Senior AM being those main titles – then the path is set in stone and every retailer works to the same blueprint.

The current situation with homeworking is creating a situation where an AM thinks they’ve done enough to secure a promotion or pay rise, but as so many of their days each month have been solus, they’ve not had the chance to see what others are doing at the level above – and that’s causing issues that didn’t previously exist when everybody was together 5 days a week. Additionally, we discussed how the homeworking set-up is creating a skills gap, where the sort of thing everyone used to pick up by sitting next to their merchandiser is no longer an easy information flow. The lag of this might well be that our current AMs are underskilled but overpaid.

So finally, what can be done to rectify what’s going on. Of course, without a magic wand this is less easy, but the new thinking is that potentially those who have been to university (and clocked up some debt) won’t necessarily join merchandising due to the money. Many retailers are happy to look at bright, savvy, analytical A Level students who love fashion and know their way around an Excel spreadsheet. Apprenticeships are another useful model that was discussed. Flexibility on the previous stipulation of a degree is needed.

In summary, there are things that can be implemented easily by retailers, and those more long-term pieces that would require the industry to come together and agree to do en-masse. Taking MAAs and Allocators from non-degree backgrounds is a quick win. Introducing apprenticeships could be a straight-forward tweak. But what of a different title entirely? Of everybody agreeing to use several titles for the AM level (or Commercial Trading Assistant, if that is its new name)? And of salaries going up across the board to ensure that our industry is getting a crack of the whip at the very best fresh new talent.

If you’re a merchandising business leader in your company – or in HR – and would like to contribute to this discussion, please email mary@aquaretail.co.uk. It would be great to meet again in the new year and see if we can actually start to bring about change and resolve this topic together!