Senior Buyer

Apparel Group; Dubai; On-site; AED 240,000 - 420,000; Full time

Job summary

Apparel Group is seeking an experienced fashion buying professional in Dubai to plan and select merchandise ranges, negotiate with suppliers, and drive seasonal strategies. You will work with Brand Managers and VM to align with budgets, margin targets, and brand positioning.

You will lead the buying calendar, manage supplier contracts, and analyze weekly sales to optimize product flow and range performance for multiple brands within the group.

Qualifications

• Plan and select range, type, quality and quantity of merchandise according to demand and trends.
• Strong negotiation and supplier management skills.
• Experience with Out Of The Box (OTB) planning and seasonal buying cycles.

Responsibilities

• Carry out buying activities in-line with brand plans.
• Manage supplier relationships and ensure adherence to contracts.
• Drive seasonal strategies and assortments in line with brand positioning.
• Negotiate pricing, terms, freight and training with suppliers.
• Develop sourcing plans and timely range builds.
• Monitor weekly sales performance and adjust production flows.

Job description

Job Description:

POSITION OBJECTIVE - Plan and select the range, type, quality and quantity of merchandise according to customer demand, trends, store policies and set prices and sell through targets in conjunction with the Brand Manager/GM to ensure they are in line with the budget

• Carry out buying activities in-line with the brand buying plans


• Maintain profitable relationships with existing suppliers and monitor the adherence to the contract terms

Key Responsibilities

Business Strategy:

• Drive the seasonal strategies in line with the brand positioning to formulate Gross Margin Plan


• Develop a fine tuned assortment and investment plan


• Create the sourcing development plan and action the critical path to deliver timely


• Negotiate with new suppliers on product pricing, payment terms, cost of freight, provision of training, and the extent of their involvement in advertising and promotions, to decide on placing a purchase order with the supplier for the concerned product


• OTB Planning

- Manage OTB in tandem with the planning counterpart

• Deliver the seasonal business strategy by monitoring and impacting the critical path, range building and product selection


• Prepare and manage the buying calendar


• Formulate seasonal product focus plan with Marketing and VM to drive key product initiatives


• Focus on holding current business and build new categories


• Conducting customer focus groups and competitive shopping Performance and Operations:


• Analysis and reporting of weekly sales performance at style, range, category and business unit level against range plan. Take in season action to revise production flows and maximize sales


• Manage TNA plans


• Implement the buying calendar for timely seasonal analysis and range build


• Perform regular competitor surveys to identify product gaps, influence lessons learnt and range plans


• Manage range and product hierarchy and create the seasonal phasing plan


• Responsible for the 'The Look' for the season. Influence product selection, in-store VM as per guidelines and layout planning


• Keep abreast of market trends and awareness of competitor activities


• Manage the product training of staff to ensure up-to-date knowledge. Prepare regular trends training and deliver to the business units


• Review buying feedback reports and provide recommendations to General Manager as to buying strategy for a respective brand/collection

Requirements