Have you ever passed by the window displays of Selfridges, Bloomingdales or Printemps and stopped on your track as you admired their design? At the opposite of the spectrum, have you ever wondered what is this instinct that urges you to push the opaque fiber glass doors of the Comme des Garcons flagship store in Rue du Faubourg St. Honore in Paris? Whether we are astounded by their complexity or our curiosity or intrigued by their apparent simplicity, stores that achieve to make customers « pop in » to take a look are the ones that have mastered the art of visual merchandising.
Visual merchandising is a highly ultilized platform applied by brands to promote a visual concept to its customers. Visual merchandisers are highly sought after, as they develop visual strategies and promote products, services in store and in catalogs, to excite and engage. This first point of contact is also known as silent selling.
Too often reduced to window dressing, visual merchandising is a much more complex function of retail as it entails not only props or external decor in general but also interior architecture. The specific path that we follow within a store without even realizing it, the light intensity that varies according to the day or the impulse buying products strategically placed right next to the cashier are as many elements that participate to the achievement of the visual merchandiser’s ultimate goal: maximize the sales volume per available retailing square meter.
As part of its philosophy to provide students that the most up to date and industry relevant academic programs, IFA Paris has crafted a unique Bachelor in Visual Merchandising in collaboration with its Florentine academic partner: Academia Italiana.
Following the principle of campus rotations that IFA Paris has pioneered, students enrolled in the Bachelor in Visual Merchandising will have the possibility to follow their course in 3 locations: Shanghai, Florence and Paris. Being three important centers for the fashion industry those three cities will provide our students different but complementary perspectives that will allow them to think outside the box.
The 3 years structuring the course correspond to the 3 levels identified within the Higher Education Framework. The course is constructed in compliance with the Bologna Convention principles and grants participants, upon completion, a total of 180 ECTS (60 ECTS per year).
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