Buying Job Description
Buying Duties & Responsibilities
To write an effective buying job description, begin by listing detailed duties, responsibilities and expectations. We have included buying job description templates that you can modify and use.
Sample responsibilities for this position include:
Buying Qualifications
Qualifications for a job description may include education, certification, and experience.
Licensing or Certifications for Buying
List any licenses or certifications required by the position: APICS, ISM, CPSM, PMP, UPC, CPIM, RVT, CVT, CPM
Education for Buying
Typically a job would require a certain level of education.
Employers hiring for the buying job most commonly would prefer for their future employee to have a relevant degree such as Bachelor's and Collage Degree in Education, Business, Engineering, Business/Administration, Marketing, Fashion, Merchandising, Technical, Management, Economics
Skills for Buying
Desired skills for buying include:
Desired experience for buying includes:
Buying Examples
Buying Job Description
- Works closely with analytics teams to identify key tactical insights and establish agency best practices for this growing space
- Experience with inventory planning software
- Strong financial skills and understanding of key metrics such as sales, inventory turn and margin
- Manage emails
- Attending approval meetings and reorder reviews
- Completing purchase order entry and delivery date follow-up
- Conducting E-Commerce research
- Creating product item numbers and entering product information into merchandise database
- Develop long, mid & short term strategies to maximize Divisional and Departmental opportunities
- Lead cross-functional team to achieve strategic priorities and goals
- Pro-active and able to show initiative/ideas to constantly improve the brand
- Entrepreneurial spirit with the creative flair to drive a business forward
- Degree level education preferably in a marketing, retail or business-related subject
- Desire to be the best and provide exceptional customer value and experience
- Excellent organisational skills, with the ability to prioritise and handle multiple tasks simultaneously
- BA or BS degree with 10 years’ buying experience and currently in a Merchandise Manager or DMM role preferred
Buying Job Description
- Lead product life cycle planning to ensure balance between new, refresh and reorder product mix
- Collaborate pre-season with peer Buying Director(s) to ensure synergy of total product offer
- Elevate product quality over time to ensure compelling price/value relationship across product offer
- Manage pricing decisions to enable the financial objectives of the Women's business in total while ensuring that each style's price/value relationship is in tact
- Partner with Planning & Allocation Director to drive quarterly milestone processes & results
- Lead team to manage departmental Open To Buy actively and responsibly
- Lead team to learn and react to trends in season in order to optimize client experience and results
- Make market awareness a priority for self and team
- Act as our clients' strongest advocate - analyze selling and client data to inform decision making
- Build and main strong partnerships with cross-functional partners, peers and direct reports
- Previous off-price and e-commerce buying experience
- Must be comfortable managing multiple campaigns of varying size and objective simultaneously
- Ability to manage large budgets on day to day basis
- Must have the ability to understand and interpret strategy and execute this within the applicable platforms
- Very diligent – staying on top of the details and understanding how they fit into the big picture
- Ability to create an overall 3 year plan with SMART objectives and defined activities
Buying Job Description
- General management responsibility for the Buying Team (product, people and market)
- Monitor business performance and formulate initiatives to deliver financial targets and drive revenue
- Closely monitor OTB planning, responsible for keeping in line to budgets
- Oversee the Global OTB, selection and buy strategy for THE OUTNET
- Guide the Buying Team to ensure the correct brand and product mix in line with overall strategy from the Chief Merchant
- Devise future growth plans for the introduction of new brands, category growth and new departments – developing a strategy for timing and launching
- Determine pricing strategies for products/suppliers based on market reviews, competitor positions, supplier financials
- Responsible for negotiation of terms and conditions with existing and new vendors, ensuring delivery of initial margin targets
- To be innovative and forecasting upcoming trends or special collaborations – Always aware that fashion moves on
- Ensure the Buying are delivering a consistent buy message across the Division, present seasonal and annual strategies to the wider business
- Liaising with luxury brands, planning buy trips and booking brand meetings
- Produce weekly trade reports
- Update vendor packs for brand meetings
- Working with the Buy Team Assistant based in New York to organise meetings and help ensure team are always in the right place at the right time
- Must have immediate availability and able to work Monday to Friday between the hours of 9 am to 6 pm
- Experience in a fast paced, coordination or admin heavy role
Buying Job Description
- Develop a strong management team below you – ensuring they allocate resources and effectively prioritize business needs
- Be an ambassador for The Outnet business
- Proactive continuous global product sourcing in an opportunistic environment
- Lead a buying team to ensure compliance and implementation of buying strategy
- Be a buying professional with a successful management track record in a busy retail environment, preferably with Hardware, homewares and home living experience
- Have demonstrated experience of working in a similar role and be able to demonstrate a track record of driving a business forward
- Have experience or insight into the category management / range planning function and work to increase sales and reduce stock through effective category / space management practices
- Demonstrate understanding of a supplier strategy process and previous successes
- The ability to work to stock budgets whilst delivering sales and margin budgets
- Excellent leadership skills combined with a hands on approach
- Strong numerical skills with an ability to analyse and pull key trends, stories or figures from reports
- Excellent verbal and written skills with an ability to build strong and trusting relationships with suppliers and external contact
- An excellent eye for detail and brilliant organisational skills
- Preference to work on the disruptive side of business, with new technology
- Strong knowledge of statistical concepts relevant to optimization, scientific testing in live media environments
- Footwear and Accessories experience preferred
Buying Job Description
- Ability to analyse and evaluate purchasing / sales trends, and identify and exploit opportunities and address gaps in product range
- Developing the strategic direction of the brand and products across a range of categories
- Delivering innovative product while maintaining constant supply of key merchandise
- Follows-up the Purchase Order acknowledgement details of different factories for theoutstanding Purchase Orders (PO)
- Identifies and resolves discrepancies on acknowledgement details against order bookingthrough proper and timely coordination with factories, buyers, customers, ortechnical team
- For cases of acknowledged price discrepancies, provides the factory with thecomputation of Purchase Order unit prices from their published quotations orprice lists with the corresponding discounts
- Entersfactory acknowledged number and factory acknowledgment schedule ship date intothe Fourth Shift WebUI, which is the central information system for theoutstanding orders
- Reviewsthe Supply / Demand Analysis screen to determine enough inventories forcustomer needs by analyzing current stock on hand, safety stock level, plannedand actual quantity requirement
- Approveschanges reflected in the PO Acknowledgement Review to update the Fourth ShiftSystem
- Investigatesand addresses customer inquiries, complaints, issues, and problems to supportthem in planning and in organizing their order timetables
- Experience in a multi-channel vertical retail environment is required
- Minimum of 5 years previous experience in retail buying
- Organisation and Coordination of all runway show tickets for the Buy Team during the show season (London, Paris, Milan and New York)
- Compile detailed buying appointment schedules for Buying Director and liaise with Assistant Buyers on coordinating schedules
- Create vendor packs for buying teams for all appointments
- Make all necessary travel and accommodation arrangements for Buy team in line with seasonal budget