fashion store

From Selling to Buying – My adventure continues in E-Commerce at Fashion ID

After two weeks of experiencing the Selling perspective I have been part of the Buying team of P&C’s online shop Fashion ID for already four weeks. I am mainly working in the Young Fashion section, more precisely I support the team who buys items from brands such as Only, Jack&Jones, Replay, Guess or Tom Tailor. The Young Fashion team also purchases items from Review. A fashion label that belongs to the International Brands Company and is also part of the Peek & Cloppenburg Group. My other colleagues are responsible for the purchase of kid’s wear, premium clothing and shoes.

What I really like about my internship

I am not sitting at my computer all the time because there are several meetings every other week. There are for instance regular appointments with suppliers and designers.

So far I had the possibilities to take part in several big meetings where the designers present the upcoming collection to the buyers of both Fashion ID and Peek & Cloppenburg. I think it is super exciting to first of all have a look at the upcoming fashion trends and the designers’ fashion line. And the discussions about the collection itself may be intense but also very interesting.

For the girls I can already tell you that hippie and bohemian looks will be still a trend in the upcoming winter season.

The biggest challenge for me is the usage of different systems and the merchandise control system which are very complex. But I am becoming more and more familiar with it and there is always somebody in my team who can help me.

My current project concerns the analysis of Fashion ID’s return quotes. I basically have a look at the brands and actual items which are mostly sent back by our customer. The next step would be to find out the concrete reason for the returns and to decide whether to remove a certain item from the assortment.

Next week there’s going to be an internal outdoor event, a high rope course (Hochseilgarten) in Düsseldorf. I am sure that it is going to be lots of fun and I will have the chance to get to know other people from Fashion ID. I will keep you guys up to date if everybody survives this event :)

Start of my fashion adventure at Peek & Cloppenburg

I am more than happy to be the Blind Applying champion for Peek & Cloppenburg, one of Germany’s biggest fashion companies. On top of that it is located in Düsseldorf, a wonderful city in Germany being known for its fashion-oriented people and its outstanding architecture. From May to August I will be doing an internship there in Sales and Buying.

After receiving the exciting message that I would be a part of P&C, I had the possibility to choose where I want to put my focus on during the internship. I went for Buying at Fashion ID, which is P&C’s online shop. Two years ago I was already an intern in the E-Commerce sector at mytheresa.com, since then I really wanted to grow my knowledge and experiences in this field.

The start of my internship

After a friendly welcoming event, my internship started directly at the P&C store in Düsseldorf. As you can see in the photo, the building itself is outstanding due to its modern architecture. As a customer you can find a humongous selection of clothing and accessories from various brands, spread over 4 floors. In Germany, Peek & Cloppenburg has more than 60 stores and is also present in other European countries such as Austria, Poland and Czech Republic. During the first week I was working in the premium section for both men and women. Then I got the chance to have direct contact to the P&C customer and I really enjoyed helping them when they were looking for a special occasion outfit. On the other hand it was pretty tough to be literally standing the whole day, especially at the beginning. After the third day, I almost got used to it :)

The second week I was working at the cash register which did not simply mean delivering the customers their paid products in a bag. I also took care of product returns, processing complaints and finding and picking reserved clothes from a back room. This seems to be obvious activities taking place at a cash register, but you have to keep in mind that the store is super huge compared to a regular fashion store. So I was constantly very busy and was in charge of different tasks. 

I think it was a good and helpful experience for me to get an insight in the different areas of a P&C fashion store during the first two weeks. Now I have a better understanding of the P&C customer and I am more familiar with the broad range of labels which is essential for my further internship in the Buying team of Fashion ID.

Until next time,

Gianna

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