Available now · Retail & Consumer Business
Mastering Merchandising
Two-Day Commercial Merchandising Programme · For fashion and retail teams.
Range, buy, stock, margin, vendors, trading and markdown — taught as one chain of decisions, and worked on your own category rather than a case study.
Two days · In person or live online · 8–18 participants · Delivered by Aditi Vohra, with over 16 years of experience across retail and fashion functions, including considerable leadership experience in India and the GCC.
Who it is for
This is built for the people who decide what the business buys and what happens when the buy is wrong.
- Merchandisers, buyers and planners who own range, depth and open-to-buy
- Category and business heads who sign the buy and carry the margin
- E-commerce and marketplace merchandisers managing assortment and availability
- Retail and operations leads who inherit the consequences of a stock decision
It works with a mixed-seniority room. Every content block is marked foundation, core or advanced, so a planner of two years and a category head of twelve take different things from the same session.
The merchandising problem
Merchandising topics are often taught separately — assortment, open-to-buy, sell-through, markdown — and the team is left to work out how they connect.
Commercial decisions are not made separately. A range decision sizes the buy. The buy sets the stock position. The stock position drives the markdown. The commercial consequences appear where those decisions connect.
The gap is rarely taste. It is that the decisions are made by different people, at different times, against different numbers, with no single point at which someone says: this is what we own, this is what it is worth, and this is when we correct it.
What changes after the programme
- The team plans against a merchandise financial plan, not a buying list.
- Assortment decisions carry a stated reason — the option count and the price ladder are justified rather than inherited.
- The team can calculate and interpret open-to-buy, cover, sell-through, GMROI and terminal stock, and say what each one should change.
- The weekly trading meeting produces owned decisions instead of a status report.
- Vendor decisions are judged on landed cost and evidence, not unit price and relationship.
- There is a clear, defensible position on where AI belongs in merchandising work — and where it must not be trusted.
The programme commits to practical capability and tangible participant outputs. Commercial outcomes depend on the client’s starting position, decisions and subsequent execution and are not guaranteed.
The commercial merchandising system
The programme teaches merchandising as one system of linked decisions. Every decision has an owner, a number, and a point at which it must be corrected.
Strategy → Financial plan → The buy → The trade
Each stage hands something specific to the next. The commercial consequences appear where those handovers connect, and that is where the two days concentrate.
The nine-module journey
| Module | What the team leaves with | |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Merchandising foundations and the profit system | Decision-rights map and five-rights diagnosis |
| 02 | Strategic planning, financial planning and assortment architecture | One-page assortment plan with a price ladder |
| 03 | Consumer behaviour and fashion demand | Customer signal translated into a range change |
| 04 | Inventory planning, open-to-buy and weekly trading | Open-to-buy calculation and a week traded on the WSSI |
| 05 | Vendor management and strategic sourcing | Vendor segmentation and evidence-based scorecard |
| 06 | Pricing, promotion, markdown and terminal stock | Break-even promotion test and markdown ladder |
| 07 | Omnichannel and digital merchandising | Channel range differentiation |
| 08 | Visual merchandising and the value of space | Display brief with a measurable target |
| 09 | Merchandising analytics and AI governance | Weekly trading review and a completed AI decision control |
AI inside merchandising
AI is taught inside the merchandising decision, never as a separate topic and never as a software demonstration.
For each place it genuinely helps — forecast support, assortment scenarios, stock and allocation exceptions, product content, customer and review signal — the programme states four things: what the human decides, what evidence the analysis runs on, what must be verified, and what the failure mode is if verification is skipped.
Nothing in this programme proposes AI making a buying, allocation, pricing or markdown decision. The model proposes. A named human decides and owns the outcome.
Practical throughout
Participants work on their own category data from the first session. Each module has a working exercise, and each one uses a tool the team keeps:
Merchandise financial plan · Open-to-buy calculator · Assortment planner and price ladder · Weekly trading sheet (WSSI) · Sell-through and GMROI tracker · Markdown ladder model · Vendor scorecard · Performance review
Worked examples are clearly distinguished from client data, and commercial measures are calibrated to the participating business rather than presented as universal benchmarks.
What participants produce
Eight worked artefacts, built on your category rather than on invented data:
- A one-page assortment plan with a price ladder
- An open-to-buy calculation with a cover exception list
- A week traded on the weekly sales, stock and intake sheet
- A vendor segmentation and scorecard
- A break-even promotion test and a markdown ladder
- A channel range differentiation
- A display brief with a measurable target
- A completed AI decision control
The two-day format
Day one — planning the season. Foundations and decision rights; merchandise financial planning and the five plans; assortment architecture and the price ladder; consumer behaviour and forecasting; inventory, cover, open-to-buy and allocation; vendor segmentation, scorecards and landed cost.
Day two — trading the season. Pricing, promotion economics and the markdown ladder; terminal stock; omnichannel, range differentiation and returns; visual merchandising and space; GMROI, GMROF and the weekly trading review; AI governance and the decision control.
Approximately six and a half contact hours per day. Delivered in person at your site or a venue of your choosing, or live online with the same facilitator-led format.
Who should and should not attend
A good fit if you have a merchandising, buying or planning team, you own inventory and make range decisions, range authority sits with more than one person, and you can bring data for one live category.
Not the right programme if there is no real merchandising, buying or planning team, range authority is concentrated entirely with one person, or the commercial complexity does not justify a two-day team programme. Also not right if you hold no inventory and make no range decision, or you need an accredited qualification. We would rather say so than sell you two days you do not need.
Smaller groups may still be suitable where the necessary merchandising decision owners are represented and the client accepts the standard programme fee.
Commercial snapshot
₹4,50,000 + GST
for the two-day programme, for up to fifteen participants.
- Additional participants ₹15,000 + GST each, to a maximum of twenty
- Learner workbook and the eight-tool working pack included for every participant
- A preparatory call with the sponsor, and worked examples tailored to your category
- Travel and accommodation included within Delhi NCR; billed at actuals elsewhere and agreed in writing beforehand
- 60% on written confirmation, 40% seven calendar days before delivery. Dates are held once written confirmation and the first payment are received
International delivery
- Live online — US$10,500 for the two-day programme, up to fifteen participants. Additional participants US$500 each, to a maximum of twenty.
- Onsite, GCC and international — US$13,500 on the same participant basis, plus travel, accommodation, visa and local transportation at actuals, agreed in writing before confirmation.
- Professional fees are exclusive of any applicable taxes. Applicable taxes, withholding or statutory treatment will be handled in accordance with the relevant engagement and jurisdiction.
Frequently asked
Can you deliver this in one day?
No. The second day is where planning becomes trading — the weekly rhythm, markdown economics, analytics and governance. A one-day version would teach the topics without the connections, which is the thing this programme exists to avoid.
Can you deliver it online?
Yes. The programme can be delivered live online or in person. The online version is facilitator-led and retains the same commercial decision framework, exercises and working tools. For international teams, the live contact time can be scheduled across shorter sessions where time zones or operating schedules make that preferable.
Do we need to share our real data?
Your team needs its own category data to work on. Client data remains on client-controlled devices. Yin and Yang Global does not retain a copy unless separately agreed in writing.
What if confidentiality is a constraint?
Where confidentiality prevents the use of live category data, you may provide an anonymised extract or use the programme’s synthetic dataset.
How is AI handled with our data?
Client-confidential information is not entered into public AI tools during the programme. Where you provide your own approved enterprise AI environment, use follows your policies for that environment. Otherwise AI demonstrations use illustrative, synthetic or anonymised data.
Is this an AI course?
No. It is a merchandising programme in which AI is taught where it genuinely improves merchandising work, with the verification and accountability that has to sit around it.
What certification do participants receive?
A certificate of completion carrying the completion month and year. No accreditation is claimed or implied.
How many people can attend?
Eight to eighteen is the ideal working range. Twenty is the maximum — above that the group exercises stop functioning. Smaller groups may still be suitable where the necessary merchandising decision owners are represented and the client accepts the standard programme fee.
What if our buying calendar is busy?
Then we pick different dates. Peak buying and trading windows can materially reduce availability, and we would rather move than push.
Discuss this programme
Twenty minutes is enough to tell you honestly whether this is the right thing for your team — and to say so if it is not.
Yin and Yang Global Ventures Private Limited · CIN U70200HR2025PTC129362