Develop a timeless sense of style and gain a firm grasp of business strategy with the online Bachelor of Science (BS) in Fashion Merchandising Management degree from Southern New Hampshire University. The fashion world is dynamic evolving as seasons, culture, materials, and consumer behavior influence new trends. With an online fashion merchandising degree, you'll study fashion marketing, color and textile theory, consumer behavior and retail operations, planning, and management. You'll learn how to identify what styles will sell and how to sell them well. The fashion merchandising degree online courses are taught by industry experts working in the field. Class sizes are small, so you'll have the opportunity to interact with instructors who understand how style, business, and technology intersect. You'll also gain valuable real-world experience by completing a required fashion merchandising internship.

Learn how to:

- Identify product life cycle merchandising within the fashion industry

- Apply management theories and techniques to achieve retail objectives

- Analyze research in the fashion industry within a global context

- Examine differences between retail and wholesale fashion environments

- Illustrate how business and fashion decisions relate to industry technology

Not ready to commit to a bachelor's program? Earn your online fashion merchandising associate degree in two years or less. In earning your online fashion merchandising degree, you'll combine your understanding of color theory with business planning and marketing. Textiles, retailing, and merchandise planning are just the beginning you'll also choose from electives in consumer behavior, retailing management, and global fashion merchandising topics.

"SNHUs degree in fashion merchandising prepares our students for the business side of fashion," said associate dean Meleena Eaton. "Through the combination of discipline-specific courses as well as foundational business courses in accounting, marketing, and HR our graduates are prepared to work in the fashion industry."

Business core courses may include:

- Financial Accounting

- Managerial Accounting

- Business Law

- Business Systems Analysis and Design

- Marketing

These courses ensure you understand the business of fashion and can incorporate key business concepts into fashion merchandising roles. You can also build a strong foundation of valuable career skills with general education courses focused on writing, quantitative reasoning, humanities, social sciences, and more. Merchandising and management courses can help you understand how merchandise planning and purchasing impact retail profit. You can apply your learning to analyze profit and loss statements and gain insight into the factors that influence a retailer's financial performance. You'll also explore the relationship between manufacturers and retailers. You'll learn how ordering and managing the right merchandise are key to a retailer's success. And you can put this learning to the test by designing a fashion merchandise strategy for a local fashion retailer. You can also explore consumer behavior and retail sales promotion.

These courses can help you prepare for fashion marketing roles. You can explore the way that consumers make buying decisions, and discover how store layout and design, merchandising, pricing, and other factors influence retail fashion sales. Your degree also includes 18 elective credits so you can supplement your fashion merchandising online courses with courses in marketing, information technology, graphic design, or another area of interest. Throughout your coursework, you'll learn from expert faculty with years of experience working in the fashion and retail industries. They'll use their professional experience to help you apply your learning to real-world situations. You'll also get to apply your learning to a required fashion internship. The internship must be U.S.-based and include a minimum of 150 hours on the job. Your academic advisor can assist you with any questions you may have about finding an internship.

"The internship course that is offered at SNHU has given students the chance to work with some of the best retailers in the country in some of the most amazing fashion experiences," said Dr. Jessica Rogers, senior associate dean of business programs at SNHU. "Students have worked with the development of wholesale sales in corporate offices, shadowed department store management, used digital technology to help promote sales for social media, and worked in the corporate office merchandising a line of apparel. Internships enhance the skill set of the students intent in the field."

With a fashion marketing degree internship, you can build valuable career skills that are in high demand across many industries. These career skills include:

- Communication: Share ideas within an organization, department, or leadership team and target your message to a variety of business and consumer audiences.

- Analysis: Gather and review consumer behavior and retail data to set strategic goals and monitor an initiative's progress.

- Problem-solving: Connect classroom learning and practical experience to solve real-world retail problems and discover new opportunities.

- Critical thinking: Evaluate problems objectively and apply ethical, legal, and socially responsible practices to make strategic decisions.

As an online student, you'll also benefit from the full range of SNHU student services. These services include writing help, tutoring, and even online student clubs and professional organizations. Our career advising team can help you get ready for a job search by reviewing your resume and cover letter and helping you prepare for interviews. These services are available even after you graduate.

Expanding access to quality higher education means removing the barriers that may stand between you and your degree. That's why you can apply at any time and get a decision within days of submitting all required materials:

- Completed free undergraduate application

- Prior transcripts, which we can retrieve at no cost to you

- Test scores are not required as part of your application Acceptance decisions are made on a rolling basis throughout the year for our 6 (8-week) undergraduate terms.

$150 Graduation Fee, Course Materials ($ varies by course)