Assistant Buyer – Data-Driven Merchandising

Claires; Rosemont (IL); On-site; USD 54,000 - 66,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

401(k) match

Bonus plan eligibility

Paid time off

Sick time and paid leave

Job summary

Claire’s is modernizing its buying organization in the U.S. and Canada. The Assistant Buyer is involved from the very beginning, following product from first sample to store, sitting in the room where the assortment is shaped, and reviewing weekly data to understand what customers chose and why.

Your decisions reach 900 stores and your ownership grows as you translate reads into action. In your first year you’ll become the person in the room who knows your product area best, turning weekly reads

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in fashion merchandising, business, or related field, or equivalent experience.
• Experience in retail or merchandise buying preferred.
• Curiosity about the customer we serve and what she is choosing right now.
• Comfort with numbers, including retail math, and the instinct to interpret what a number means.
• Organized enough to hold a critical path on time without being chased.
• Clear written and verbal communication with partners outside merchandising.
• Proficient in Excel and PowerPoint.

Responsibilities

• Analyze and report on your area weekly and provide tactical in season trading actions to drive the business forward.
• Build expertise in the customer and the competition for the assigned department, including other retailers' assortments, pricing and promotions against Claire's, and report back findings, white space opportunities and actions.
• Track assigned tests cleanly: matched doors, matched weeks, and per-department reads, so scale, extend or exit decisions rest on actuals.
• Use retail math to analyze the department weekly, monthly and seasonally, provide accurate investment inputs, and explain item level sales, margin and inventory variances, escalating errors and emerging risks.
• Create and maintain style boards and line sheets with the product detail cross-functional partners need.
• Manage the sample process: sort styles by category and season, track every sample against requirements, and communicate product changes before shipment.
• Develop and maintain cross-functional relationships with Design, Product Development, Sourcing, Planning, Allocation, Marketing and In Store Presentation to learn the seasonal buying process.
• Support the Buyer and the merchandising team on day-to-day functions for the assigned departments.
• Own administrative deliverables: meeting reports and recaps, purchase orders, submits, sample tracking and seasonal buy recaps, keeping the critical path on time and the information accurate.
• Manage email correspondence efficiently, escalates concerns to the merchandising team, and meet deadlines without a reminder.

Skills

Customer insight

Retail math

Organization & management

Communication

Excel

PowerPoint

Education

Bachelor's degree in fashion merchandising, business, or related field

Tools

Excel

PowerPoint

Job description

Claire’s is modernizing its buying organization in the U.S. and Canada. The Assistant Buyer is involved from the very beginning, following product from first sample to store, sitting in the room where the assortment is shaped, and reviewing weekly data to understand what customers chose and why.

Your decisions reach 900 stores and your ownership grows as you translate reads into action. In your first year you’ll become the person in the room who knows your product area best, turning weekly reads