Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between merchandising specialists and merchandising representatives can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a merchandising specialist has an average salary of $32,920, which is higher than the $32,303 average annual salary of a merchandising representative.
The top three skills for a merchandising specialist include customer service, sales floor and cash handling. The most important skills for a merchandising representative are little supervision, store management, and plan-o-grams.
| Merchandising Specialist | Merchandising Representative | |
| Yearly salary | $32,920 | $32,303 |
| Hourly rate | $15.83 | $15.53 |
| Growth rate | 4% | 4% |
| Number of jobs | 49,769 | 351,931 |
| Job satisfaction | 5 | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 52% | Bachelor's Degree, 53% |
| Average age | 40 | 47 |
| Years of experience | - | 4 |
A merchandising specialist is responsible for managing the promotion of the business' products, arranging creative displays both on the physical store and company website to attract consumers on purchasing the products to generate revenues and increase profitability. Merchandising specialists assist in the development of marketing campaigns, as well as facilitating promotional offers on different communication channels. They also monitor stock inventories, analyze pricing structures, and adjust selling strategies by researching the current market trends, identifying business opportunities to meet customers' demands, and improve the negotiation process.
Merchandising representatives are professionals who are responsible for providing point-of-purchase and shelf management services to produce sales. These representatives are required to plan and develop merchandising strategies so that they can balance the expectations of customers and the organization's objectives. They must maintain store shelves and display products appropriately so that they can maximize the interest of customers and sales levels. Merchandising representatives must also analyze sales figures, the reactions of customers, and market trends to anticipate their product needs and plan product stock.
Merchandising specialists and merchandising representatives have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Merchandising Specialist | Merchandising Representative | |
| Average salary | $32,920 | $32,303 |
| Salary range | Between $22,000 And $47,000 | Between $25,000 And $40,000 |
| Highest paying City | Cupertino, CA | Seattle, WA |
| Highest paying state | California | Maine |
| Best paying company | Apple | ECMD |
| Best paying industry | Manufacturing | Manufacturing |
There are a few differences between a merchandising specialist and a merchandising representative in terms of educational background:
| Merchandising Specialist | Merchandising Representative | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 52% | Bachelor's Degree, 53% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | - | SUNY College of Technology at Alfred |
Here are the differences between merchandising specialists' and merchandising representatives' demographics:
| Merchandising Specialist | Merchandising Representative | |
| Average age | 40 | 47 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 43.5% Female, 56.5% | Male, 47.2% Female, 52.8% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 8.5% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 13.8% Asian, 5.3% White, 66.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5% | Black or African American, 3.8% Unknown, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino, 13.9% Asian, 5.1% White, 73.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 17% | 6% |