Merchandising Specialist Education Requirements And Courses

Merchandising specialist education requirements

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

Usually, merchandising specialists don't need a college education. The most common degree for merchandising specialists is bachelor's degree with 52% graduates, with only 20% merchandising specialist graduates earning associate degree. Merchandising specialists who decided to graduate from college often finish University of Phoenix or University of Wisconsin Colleges. Some good skills to have in this position include customer service, sales floor and cash handling.

Popular merchandising specialist certifications include Certified Billing and Coding Specialist (CBCS), Certified Criminal Justice Specialist (CCJS), or Food Safety Manager Certification. To improve merchandising specialist qualification and skills, we prepared some online courses to help in merchandising specialist education paths.

What education do you need to become a merchandising specialist?

What degree do you need to be a merchandising specialist?

The most common degree for merchandising specialists is bachelor's degree, with 52% of merchandising specialists earning that degree. The second and third most common degree levels are associate degree degree at 20% and associate degree degree at 18%.

Bachelor's, 52%

Associate, 20%

High School Diploma, 18%

Master's, 3%

Other Degrees, 7%

What should I major in to become a merchandising specialist?

You should major in business to become a merchandising specialist. 28% of merchandising specialists major in business. Other common majors for a merchandising specialist include marketing and communication.

Business, 28%

Marketing, 9%

Communication, 6%

Psychology, 6%

Other Majors, 51%

Best majors for merchandising specialists

Rank	Major	Percentages
1	Business	27.7%
2	Marketing	9.4%
3	Communication	6.2%
4	Psychology	6.1%
5	General Studies	6.1%

Show more common merchandising specialist majors

20 best online courses for merchandising specialists

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1. Visual Merchandising Course For Retailers and Students

4.2

(949)

Learn the key principles of great Visual Merchandising & Window Dressing...

2. Fast Track Retail Buying and Merchandising

4.6

(3,982)

The essentials of merchandise management, buying, range planning, product development and many more...

3. Create POS System - Inventory & sales with PHP 7 & adminLTE

4.5

(282)

Learn how to create a POS system with inventory management and billing using PHP 7 and Admin LTE...

4. Supply Chain Management A-Z: Operations & Logistics Basics

4.5

(2,394)

Supply Chain Management Basics: An MBA style course to boost your career as a business operations & logistics manager...

5. PHP for Beginners to Inventory POS Sales Project - AdminLTE

4.2

(392)

Create Inventory POS System Project With Billing by use of Bootstrap Responsive Admin LTE Dashboard With PHP PHP7 MYSQL...

6. Open To buy- Retail Merchandising Planning

4.4

(1,470)

Merchandise Financial Planning...

7. Fundamentals of Logistics, Supply Chain & Customer Service

4.5

(3,822)

Learn Logistics, Supply Chain and Customer Service. 3 Courses in 1...

8. SAP MM Materials Management (beginner to expert level)

4.3

(331)

Master SAP Materials Management module with practical implementation steps. Prepare and crack SAP MM Certification exam...

9. MBA: Retail business, Merchandising, and E-commerce

4.5

(307)

Build and grow your own retail business and e-commerce...

10. Financial Accounting - Inventory Costs

4.3

(254)

Mastering Inventory Costs & Flows: An In-Depth Guide to Accounting for Inventory in Business Operations...

11. Laravel 9 - Build Complete Inventory Management System A-Z

4.5

(666)

In This Course, You Will Build Two Different Projects With Laravel 9 including Inventory Management System A-Z...

12. eBay Drop Shipping Guide with No Inventory - Work From Home

(9,490)

Learn exactly how to work from home purely selling and drop shipping on e Bay. No up front inventory! Basic to Advanced!...

13. SAP Materials Management (MM) Super User Training

4.6

(614)

Complete Beginner and Intermediate Purchasing & Inventory Management Training - Perform all the task in SAP in no time...

14. RA: Data Science and Supply chain analytics.(A-Z with R)

4.5

(322)

Learn R,Supply-chain Data Science, Inventory Optimization,Big Data forecasting, Machine learning and Revenue Management...

15. Product Management Fundamentals

4.4

(4,918)

Case-based practical course on product management to build strong foundations in product concepts, process & frameworks...

16. Product Management 101

4.6

(17,475)

Learn to become a more strategic product manager - and have a greater impact on your company and your products...

17. Smart Tips: Product Management

4.7

(656)

Find impact, innovation, and success as a product manager...

18. Comprehensive Product management for Product managers

4.5

(366)

Become a great product manager with comprehensive product management Real world case study with JIRA & Confluence...

19. Insightful Customer Interviews for Product Managers

4.5

(340)

Direct conversations with real customers to gain insight, test product concepts, and drive product success...

20. Product Marketing for Technology Companies

4.5

(463)

Master your product marketing skills through practical examples and exercises...

Average merchandising specialist salary by education level

According to our data, merchandising specialists with a Bachelor's degree earn the highest average salary, at $37,013 annually. Merchandising specialists with a Associate degree earn an average annual salary of $34,813.

Merchandising specialist education level	Merchandising specialist salary
High School Diploma or Less	$31,783
Bachelor's Degree	$37,013
Some College/ Associate Degree	$34,813