Associate Buyer

International Shoppes•Valley Stream, NY

11d

About The Position

The Associate Buyer of Liquor manages the execution and merchandising of products in assigned categories. The role balances short-term and long-term initiatives and responds constructively to changing demands, priorities, and challenges. The Buyer uses feedback from customers and business partners to identify improvement opportunities and company initiatives, and supervises Buyer Assistant positions.

Requirements

Buying experience is required.
3–5+ years of retail buying experience preferred.
Experience working with and managing multiple vendors.
Experience managing or planning a large-volume department with a high volume of SKUs.
Experience buying from sophisticated multinational vendors.
Expert-level skills and knowledge in negotiation, key performance indicator measurement, and financial analysis, including retail math.
Advanced-level skills in Microsoft Excel and Outlook.

Nice To Haves

Experience with LTC.
Experience buying for a retailer with multiple outlets.
Travel retail experience.
Logistics experience.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute business strategies to maximize the profitability of assigned categories.
Communicate the organization’s, department’s, and business’s vision and needs to the team, and provide timely updates and information to team members and leaders.
Research business and marketplace trends, analyze competitor products and customer needs, and identify opportunities to increase the company’s market share.
Analyze financial reports, identify critical issues, and assess patterns, trends, and root causes.
Partner across levels to form and train the merchandising team as business needs dictate, including Associate Buyers and Assistant Buyers.
Manage financials, including open-to-buy planning and profit and loss; oversee pricing, inventory control, net margin, vendor profitability, and total profitability.
Prepare, develop, plan, and implement pricing strategies.
Manage products throughout their trend curves through tactical and strategic merchandising and marketing decisions.
Plan and execute product assortments and manage product evaluation and selection.
Maintain strong partnerships with existing vendors and proactively source new vendors and suppliers.
Resolve vendor irregularities and negotiate key issues, including new-product availability, merchandise distribution, delivery timing, returns to vendor (RTVs), and vendor allowances.