Free People, Associate Buyer - Beach

Free People•Philadelphia, PA

About The Position

Free People is seeking an Associate Buyer to work in its growing FP Beach category. The role partners with the buyer to create timely, exciting product assortments for retail and direct businesses that meet or exceed the department’s sales and profit objectives. This growth category offers opportunities to develop trends and build a key assortment. The Associate Buyer supports daily buying operations, owns a product class, helps plan assortments and manage merchandise flow, and works with cross-functional partners to achieve business plans.

Requirements

At least three years of experience in retail buying or a similar capacity.
Ability to build and maintain productive partnerships.
Strong listening, oral, and written communication skills.
Strong organization and prioritization skills.
Flexibility and adaptability to changing priorities.
Attention to detail.
Creative thinking.
Ability to work as a team player.
Proficiency in Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint.

Responsibilities

Support daily operations in the designated buying area and partner with the buyer on necessary tasks.
Own buying for a product class within the buying area.
Conceptually plan assortments that meet financial objectives.
Delegate and direct assistants’ daily activities and provide direction to the team.
Prioritize tasks and balance immediate and long-term business needs.
Research and execute product development in the marketplace.
Work effectively with cross-functional partners and the team to achieve plans.
Work with planning to understand financial indicators and respond to and drive the business.
Work with the buyer to determine the mix of market and private-label products for each buying area, ensuring the mix is customer-oriented.
Work with the buyer to place buys with conviction.
Learn from buying mistakes and apply those lessons to future buys.
Proactively express opinions in cross-functional and larger merchant meetings.
Manage the flow of merchandise.
Enter, update, manage, track, and organize purchase orders to ensure timely delivery.
Communicate late deliveries to the buying team.
Set up new vendors and send them routing guides and pre-ticketing information.
Prioritize and respond urgently to requests from merchant and cross-functional teams.
Assist the buying team with proofreading catalog copy.
Identify web photos that should be reshot to drive sales.