Merchandising & Buying Operations

Types of Degrees Merchandising & Buying Operations Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many merchandising and buying operations graduations there were in 2019-2020 for each degree level.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Associate Degree	27
Basic Certificate	15
Master’s Degree	13

What Merchandising & Buying Operations Majors Need to Know

In an O*NET survey, merchandising and buying operations majors were asked to rate what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important in their occupations. These answers were weighted on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the most important.

Knowledge Areas for Merchandising and Buying Operations Majors

According to O*NET survey takers, a major in merchandising and buying operations should prepare you for careers in which you will need to be knowledgeable in the following areas:

• Sales and Marketing - Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Mathematics - Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.

Skills for Merchandising and Buying Operations Majors

When studying merchandising and buying operations, you’ll learn many skills that will help you be successful in a wide range of jobs - even those that do not require a degree in the field. The following is a list of some of the most common skills needed for careers associated with this major:

• Negotiation - Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Persuasion - Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.

Abilities for Merchandising and Buying Operations Majors

As a merchandising and buying operations major, you will find yourself needing the following abilities:

• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Merchandising & Buying Operations

Some careers associated with merchandising and buying operations require an advanced degree while some may not even require a bachelor’s. In general, the more advanced your degree the more career options will open up to you. However, there is significant time and money that needs to be invested into your education so weigh the pros and cons.

Find out what the typical degree level is for merchandising and buying operations careers below.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Less than a High School Diploma	14.8%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	21.5%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	10.9%
Some College Courses	8.7%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	12.1%
Bachelor’s Degree	36.7%
Post-Master’s Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Master’s degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees at the doctoral level.	1.3%

Online Merchandising & Buying Operations Programs

In the 2019-2020 academic year, 5 schools offered some type of merchandising and buying operations program. The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	1	0
Certificate (2-4 Years)	0	0
Associate’s Degree	3	1
Bachelor’s Degree	1	0
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	1	0
Post-Master’s	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Majors Related to Merchandising & Buying Operations

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to merchandising and buying operations.

Major	Number of Grads
General Sales, Distribution, and Marketing Operations	3,331
Retailing and Retail Operations	947
Professional Sales	911
Other General Merchandising, Sales, and Related Marketing Operations	229

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020
• Image Credit: By Nick Nijhuis under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.