Essential Duties and Responsibilities - Fosters relationships with vendors. Negotiates deals with vendors. In instances when purchases are not made, maintains positive vendor relationships for future opportunities.
- Defines the merchandise strategy, such as mix of close-out vs. non-closeout business.
- Jointly with the planner, develops a merchandise plan to support the strategy and achieve stated sales, turn and margin goals.
- Identifies opportunities to exploit sales and margin opportunities and partners with planner and merchandise analyst to develop execution tactics.
- Collaborates with Planning, Allocation, Distribution and Transportation Services, and Field Management to understand and improve upon internal company processes.
- Travels to stores to understand merchandise packaging and presentation requirements, customer requirements and customer trends. Shops competitor stores to assess direction of competition and understand competitive pricing structures.
- Travels to trade shows and vendor locations to develop a network of contacts, to stay informed on industry and competitor direction, and to source deals.
- Develops a collaborative team atmosphere through an open exchange of ideas and positive feedback between buyer, planner and allocation analyst team members.
- Trains and mentors Assistant Buyers and/or Buyers, as requested.
- Performs administrative tasks, as needed or requested.
- Accountabilities: Achieve annual Sales Dollar, Margin Dollar and Inventory Turn targets for assigned product areas.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities - College degree, preferred.
- A minimum of five years of retail buying experience, preferred.
- Experience in buying complex merchandise categories and categories with large sales volumes.
- Excellent negotiation and marketing skills.
- Excellent oral and written communication and organization skills.
- Motivated and self-starter, willing to take on new challenges and learn every aspect of merchandising.
- Able to work as part of a team to achieve common goals.
- System capable in spreadsheet, word processing and data analysis tools.
Equal Opportunity Employer
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