What does a Merchandising Internship do?
In a merchandising internship, an intern's duties will depend on the directives of a supervising staff or manager. Their tasks may involve preparing and processing documents, organizing and disseminating files within the company, answering calls and correspondence, running errands, and participating in creating marketing strategies. They may also assist in monitoring inventories, liaising with clients, and performing market research. Aside from gaining insights while performing support tasks, an intern must also learn and understand the policies and regulations of the company, including its vision and mission.
Merchandising internship responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real merchandising internship resumes:
- Lead seasonal consolidation/re-assortment of own consignment estate jewelry to strengthen merchandise productivity by door.
- Research and create city guides for major U.S cities using PowerPoint.
- Work with divisional team in analyzing the POS process and developing nonfood and service products.
- Perform daily tasks of cash handling, POS usage, stocking, store opening and closing procedures.
- Lead seasonal consolidation/re-assortment of own consignment estate jewelry to strengthen merchandise productivity by door.
- Perform all ambassador duties representing the EPSON line of printers.
Merchandising internship skills and personality traits
We calculated that 11% of Merchandising Interns are proficient in PowerPoint, POS, and Sales Floor. They’re also known for soft skills such as Math skills, Selling skills, and Customer-service skills.
We break down the percentage of Merchandising Interns that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- PowerPoint, 11%
Analyzed ready-to-wear prices in context of the contemporary marketplace and presented research in a PowerPoint presentation to Merchandising Managers and Assistants.
- POS, 8%
Worked with divisional team in analyzing the POS process and developing nonfood and service products.
- Sales Floor, 7%
Worked weekly in local Stein Mart stores to help enhance knowledge and experience of sales floor and back office operations.
- Purchase Orders, 5%
Communicated daily with intimate apparel vendors, providing assistance with purchase order questions and deliveries.
- Product Development, 5%
Designed apparel and communicated product development plans to international manufacturers for collections featured on ships in Summer 2011.
- Indesign, 4%
Designed ads and assisted in creating comic preview magazines using InDesign
Common skills that a merchandising internship uses to do their job include "powerpoint," "pos," and "sales floor." You can find details on the most important merchandising internship responsibilities below.
Math skills. The most essential soft skill for a merchandising internship to carry out their responsibilities is math skills. This skill is important for the role because "retail sales workers must have the ability to calculate price totals, discounts, and change owed to customers." Additionally, a merchandising internship resume shows how their duties depend on math skills: "conduct sales, provide excellent customer service, merchandising hobbies/interest/affiliations: design, fashion, mathematics, science, photography"
Selling skills. Another essential skill to perform merchandising internship duties is selling skills. Merchandising interns responsibilities require that "retail sales workers must be persuasive when interacting with customers." Merchandising interns also use selling skills in their role according to a real resume snippet: "posted monthly sales reports related to patterns, and attend international fabric exhibition for the purpose of trend forecasting updates"
Customer-service skills. This is an important skill for merchandising interns to perform their duties. For an example of how merchandising internship responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "retail sales workers must be responsive to the wants and needs of customers." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a merchandising internship: "set up merchandise in nyc showroom and maintained relationships with vendors and customers to resolve conflicts or production-related issues. ".
Interpersonal skills. merchandising internship responsibilities often require "interpersonal skills." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "a friendly and outgoing personality is important for these workers because the job requires almost constant interaction with people." This resume example shows what merchandising interns do with interpersonal skills on a typical day: "core focus of customer service and experience requiring excellent interpersonal skills and product knowledge. "
The three companies that hire the most merchandising internships are:
- Ascena Retail Group12 merchandising interns jobs
- RANDA Solutions3 merchandising interns jobs
- Dollar General2 merchandising interns jobs
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Compare different merchandising interns
Merchandising internship vs. Window display designer
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a merchandising internship are more likely to require skills like "powerpoint," "pos," "sales floor," and "purchase orders." On the other hand, a job as a window display designer requires skills like "design ideas," "powershell," "store displays," and "window treatments." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
The education levels that window display designers earn slightly differ from merchandising interns. In particular, window display designers are 1.9% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a merchandising internship. Additionally, they're 0.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Merchandising internship vs. Free lance displayer
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, merchandising internship responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "pos," "sales floor," "purchase orders," and "product development." Meanwhile, a free lance displayer has duties that require skills in areas such as "web site," "free lance," "photography," and "graphic design." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
Average education levels between the two professions vary. Free lance displayers tend to reach higher levels of education than merchandising interns. In fact, they're 5.9% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Merchandising internship vs. Display designer
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, merchandising interns are more likely to have skills like "pos," "purchase orders," "indesign," and "photo shoots." But a display designer is more likely to have skills like "graphic design," "autocad," "cnc," and "adobe creative suite."
When it comes to education, display designers tend to earn similar degree levels compared to merchandising interns. In fact, they're 1.2% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.5% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Merchandising internship vs. Display specialist
Types of merchandising internship
Updated January 8, 2025
