Buyer - Pre School Toys (12 month FTC)

Sainsbury's; Coventry; On-site; GBP 34,000 - 52,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Colleague discount: 10% after 4 weeks

15% off on Fridays and Saturdays at S

Pensions and life cover

Bonus up to 10% of salary

Annual holiday allowance + buy extra

Season ticket loans

Cycle to work scheme

Health cash plans

Pay advance before payday

Discounts from hundreds of retailers

Employee assistance programme

Up to 26 weeks maternity/adoption pay

Up to 4 weeks paternity pay

Benefits information at www.sainsburys

Job summary

Sainsbury's is recruiting a Buyer for Argos Commercial & Digital in the United Kingdom. You will translate and execute the category strategy for assigned ranges, owning key parts of the buying process, and helping deliver profitable growth while focusing on value, availability, and customer satisfaction.

You will use market, customer, and supplier insights to shape range plans, pricing, promotions, and supplier business plans.

Qualifications

• Buying experience with accountability for delivering a product range or supplier plan.
• Ability to analyse trading, customer, competitor, supplier data to make commercial recommendations.
• Working knowledge of sales, margin, stock, availability and profitability metrics.
• Experience managing supplier or brand relationships, including negotiations.
• Experience working cross-functionally with teams to deliver plans.

Responsibilities

• Translate and execute the category strategy for assigned ranges.
• Support delivery of category KPIs including sales and margin.
• Shape range plans, pricing decisions and promotional activity.
• Collaborate with Merchandising and cross-functional teams to forecast and manage budgets.
• Lead or support supplier negotiations and supplier-funded activity.

Skills

Buying experience

Data analysis

Commercial metrics

Supplier negotiations

Cross-functional collaboration

Job description

About The Team

Argos Commercial & Digital is focused on building customer-led, commercially strong ranges that help customers find great products at the right value, across digital and store channels. As part of the wider Buying team, you will work with expert colleagues across Merchandising, Digital, Marketing, Finance, Product Development, Technical and Global Sourcing, as well as major supplier and brand partners. It is a fast-paced, insight-led environment where strong commercial judgement, collaboration and ownership make a real difference to category performance.

More about the role

As a Buyer, you will translate and execute the category strategy for your assigned ranges, owning key parts of the buying process and helping deliver profitable growth. You will support the delivery of agreed category KPIs, including sales, margin, stock, availability, digital performance and customer satisfaction, while ensuring the range and proposition remain competitive, commercially effective and customer focused.

Day to day, you will use market, customer, competitor and supplier insight to shape range plans, pricing decisions, promotional activity and supplier business plans. You will work closely with Merchandising and cross‑functional teams to phase budgets, update forecasts and deliver trading plans. You will also build strong relationships with suppliers and large brands, lead or support negotiations, manage supplier‑funded activity, and guide Assistant Buyers and operational support teams to maintain pace, accuracy and compliance.

More about you

You will bring buying experience from a retail or consumer goods environment, with the commercial confidence to make decisions using trading performance, financial metrics and customer insight. You should be comfortable working with large, established brands and managing supplier conversations where there may be competing priorities or challenging negotiations.

You will be a collaborative and credible communicator who can influence across teams and levels, balance short‑term trading needs with longer‑term category plans, and take ownership in a fast‑moving environment. You will also be confident analysing complex data, identifying market opportunities and working cross‑functionally to turn insight into practical commercial actions.

Essential Criteria

• Buying experience with accountability for delivering a product range, category plan or supplier plan in a retail or consumer goods environment
• Ability to analyse trading, customer, competitor, supplier and/or market data to make commercial recommendations
• Working knowledge of commercial and financial metrics, including sales, margin, stock, availability and profitability
• Experience managing supplier or brand relationships, including commercial negotiation or challenging performance conversations
• Experience working cross‑functionally with teams such as Merchandising, Digital, Marketing, Finance, Product Development or Sourcing to deliver plans

We are committed to being a truly inclusive retailer, so you’ll be welcomed whoever you are and wherever you work. Around here, there’s always the chance to try something new‑whether that’s as part of an evolving team or somewhere else across the business - and we take development seriously and promise to support you. We also recognise and celebrate colleagues when they go the extra mile and, where possible, offer flexible working.

When you join our team, we’ll also offer you an amazing range of benefits. Here are some of them:

Benefits

• Starting off with colleague discount, you'll be able to get 10% off at Sainsbury's, Argos, TU and Habitat after 4 weeks.
• This increases to 15% off at Sainsbury’s every Friday and Saturday and 15% off at Argos every pay day.
• We've also got you covered for your future with our pensions scheme and life cover.
• You’ll also be able to share in our success as you may be eligible for a performance‑related bonus of up to 10% of salary, depending on how we perform.
• Your wellbeing is important to us too.
• You’ll receive an annual holiday allowance, and you can buy additional holiday.
• We also offer other benefits that will help your money go further such as season ticket loans, cycle to work scheme, health cash plans, pay advance (where you can access some of your pay before pay day) as well access to a great range of discounts from hundreds of other retailers.
• And if you ever need it there is also an employee assistance programme.
• Moments that matter are as important to us as they are to you which is why we give up to 26 weeks’ pay for maternity or adoption leave and up to 4 weeks’ pay for paternity leave.
• Please see www.sainsburys.jobs for a range of our benefits (note, length of service and eligibility criteria may apply).