BUYER (LEVEL I) - UNIFORMS

NEXCOM•Virginia Beach, VA

About The Position

The Buyer maximizes sales and profitability for an assigned group of businesses by developing and implementing strategy, analyzing performance and reacting appropriately to sales trends. The role leads merchandise strategy for assigned categories in a worldwide omni-channel retail organization, including assortment planning, vendor negotiations and performance, sourcing, marketing, inventory and replenishment planning, and merchandise presentation. The Buyer leads and develops staff, works with internal planning teams and store management, and maintains collaborative relationships with vendors and colleagues. The position works under the general supervision of the Divisional Merchandise Manager and operates independently within NEXCOM policies, procedures and regulations. The incumbent must file a Financial Disclosure Report (OGE Form 450).

Requirements

Seven years of total experience, consisting of three years of general experience and four years of specialized experience.
General experience must be in administrative, merchandising, technical or other responsible work that provided knowledge of merchandising and procurement practices, skill in person-to-person work relationships, and the ability to exercise mature judgment.
Specialized experience must be progressive and provide a background in procurement practices, methods and procedures; developing and maintaining open-to-buy; selecting sources of supply; comparison shopping; merchandise pricing, markdowns and stock rotation; planning and developing sales promotions; and other merchandise controls or similar procurement operational work.
Alternatively, education above the high school level may substitute for general experience at one year of education for nine months of experience, up to a maximum of a four-year bachelor's degree for three years of general experience.
Must file a Financial Disclosure Report, OGE Form 450.

Responsibilities

Develop and implement business strategy for assigned categories to achieve departmental sales, gross margin and turnover objectives.
Lead, supervise and develop assistant buyer, merchandiser and other subordinate staff, including providing training seminars as appropriate.
Analyze market trends and offerings to develop and maintain merchandise assortments, business strategies, goals and seasonal plans.
Negotiate with vendors for favorable prices and allowances and manage vendor performance.
Conduct global sourcing for private-label, seasonal and basic merchandise as appropriate.
Collaborate with other internal teams on space allocation, adjacencies, seasonal visual guidelines and planograms for store sets and renovations.
Develop and execute marketing plans for assigned departments; oversee order placement and tracking to ensure timely merchandise receipt.
Maximize cooperative market development funds.
Work with merchandise, inventory and financial planning teams to plan sales, gross profit and stock turn seasonally and annually, and maintain monthly in-season forecasts.
Analyze financial performance using tools such as the Data Warehouse and Category Scorecard, take corrective action when needed, and help ensure established goals are met.
Work with merchandise and inventory planning teams to determine and execute automated replenishment methods.
Work with financial and inventory planning teams to determine optimal order sizes, inventory levels and allocations.
Prepare merchandise information and training materials for communications and retail directives, including weekly retail focus, seasonal trends, merchandise presentation, promotions, product and vendor launches, returns, pricing errors, product holds, advertising errors and in-stock issues.
Conduct store visits to evaluate merchandise presentation, customer demographics, assortments and inventory levels, and work with store management to maximize business opportunities.
Attend trade shows and markets as appropriate.
Maintain collaborative partnerships with vendors and internal and external colleagues.
Perform other related duties as assigned.