Associate Buyer Job in Columbus 43219, Ohio US
Basic Responsibilities:
Owns execution of merchandise strategy and product assortments that enable the achievement of financial plan. Works in collaboration with all cross functional partners to deliver departmental plans.
Specific Responsibilities:
Positioning
Business/ Assortment Planning
-Works with Merchandise Manager to develop and execute the strategic vision of the department integrating customer insight, competitive information, market intelligence, sales and fashion trends, fashion intuition and product distortion to maximize sales and profit.
-Architects balanced assortment plan that integrates fashion, lifestyle, pricing pyramids and tiered strategies in partnership with Merchandise Manager and Planning and Allocation.
-Develops category strategy in partnership with Merchandise Manager. Identifies key categories/items and distorts them to focus on driving newness, sales and fashion penetration.
-In season, reacts to current business trends; ensures the integration of fashion newness, develops upside strategies, recognizes product evolution and potential voids; prepares contingency plans to drive sales and profit objectives.
-Responsible for hind-sighting product performance.
-Ability to effectively present strategies and report on their business
Intelligence: Customer/Market/Competitive
-Understands the customer. Research and anticipates what the customer wants next; uses information from store visits in decision making and planning process.
-Patterns competitors and fashion leaders and understands how they are projecting their brand. Focuses on overall assortment, fashion offering, pricing/promotional cadence, and presentations. Reports on and uses findings/information in season and future line planning.
-Collects industry/ consumer/ competitor trend information. Reports on and integrates findings into the development of the strategic vision and the future selection of product.
-Synthesizes trend intelligence and determines its relevancy to LB’s brand strategy.
-Develops, in partnership with Merchandise Manager, product testing strategies that drive top line sales and margin.
Business Management
-Pre-seasonally, partners with Merchandise Manager and Planning and Allocation around sales forecasting/planning, Average Store, promotional cadence, flow order, color/size buys, minimum /maximum quantities, etc.
-Determines, based on history, trend, market information and customer knowledge, the ranking of each item in their assortment.
-Drives superior performance by reviewing business in-season to maximize sales and profit; owns the in-season management of sales and profits in partnership with Planning Allocation Teams.
-Adheres to the business calendar – preparation and ownership of meetings and marketing/photo shoot process.
-Ensures assortment planning tools are maintained in the PLC process including CAP, eforms, photo shoot and ecomm guides
Product
Design/ Sourcing
-Partners with Design/Sourcing to execute to the merchandise strategy from concept to market.
Place
-Ensure Merchandise assortment is appropriate for store layout.
-Ensure Merchandise assortment is represented on ecommerce.
-Delivers on time fashion assortment that projects one eye point of view.
-Makes merchandising/promotional recommendations to distort key categories/items which integrate with the merchandising, marketing and promotional plans.