Buyer

The Buyer is an analytical fashion curator who propels Andrews’ vision forward with clear and effective task prioritisation and allocation for themselves and across the Buying Team.

Buying - Strategy
• In collaboration with the Merchant, co-own the design and execution of the seasonal strategy,
ensuring oversight and completion for key activities such as:
o Trend research according to industry best practices and undertake competitive benchmarking
against key competitors
o Research of new brands, categories, and products according to the interests and needs of the
Andrews' clients
o Seasonal Post-Mortem / 360’s vendor, category and sub-category performance review
o Effective budget and Open to Buy budget management, whilst applying a balance of
commerciality and creativity
o Block Plan development, taking into consideration vendors, categories (classes and subclasses) based on previous sales (to include sales by colour and size) and forecasts.
• Identify points of intersection between legacy and digital buying processes for collaborative
development and implementation of improvements, solutions, and integrations. Ensuring change is
clearly communicated to relevant stakeholders.

Buying – Operations

The following outlines highlights of essential activities:

• Planning and Budget Management
  o Reviewing previous year’s performance against budget to set the merchandising direction and
  establishing a merchandise mix in budget
  o Analyse data and feedback to assess the day-to-day performance of physical and digital
  business; driving and managing trading activity through the team to maximise opportunities
  o Ensure provision of product performance reporting, while communicating opportunities and
  potential risks to relevant departments on a consistent basis.
• Management and Merchandise Mix
  o Ensure Assortment Plan is balanced; factoring in the Essentials, Seasonal Trends – bringing
  this together with the fashion element into the Assortment and Allocation Plan
  o Ensure Vendor Matrix is continuously refined and strategy-aligned; making recommendations for the offboarding of underperforming vendors and the onboarding of brand-ambition vendors
  o Build and maintain relationships with our vendors, proactively seeking out opportunities to
  collaborate, continuously discuss performance, and handle any negotiations.
• Product Activation:
  o Collaborate with bricks-and-mortar and ecommerce to ensure a consistent brand voice across the company-wide product assortment
  o Ensure optimal representation of assortment is reflected digitally and in-store
  o Ensure key evergreen and seasonal product and brand knowledge is effectively communicated
  o Stay abreast of customer engagement and feedback in collaboration with the digital team and physical stores.

Competencies, Technical Skills and Knowledge

10 years’ experience in Buying, Assortment Strategy and Planning, physical and digital
merchandising; covering planning through to execution, with experience in but not exclusive to:

• Retail Math, Financial Planning and Budget Management (e.g., Budget, Open to Buy
  budget)
• Strategy Development and Planning
• Vendor Management
• Analysis (e.g., trend forecasting, product research, brand matrix, consumer behaviour, competitive benchmarking)
• Inventory management (e.g., replenishment, stock level management)
• Brand and product launch management