Specialty Buyer: Books, B2B & Events

Lovestruck Books & Cafe; Cambridge (MA); On-site; USD 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Lovestruck Books & Cafe in Harvard Square seeks a Specialty Buyer to manage book, merchandise, and sidelines for onsite and offsite events, B2B and bulk sales, and subscriptions. Build scalable systems for sourcing with strong margins while delivering outstanding customer service and growth beyond the physical store.

You will forecast demand, maintain vendor relationships, and coordinate with Events & Marketing to turn buying opportunities into coordinated promotions and revenue.

Qualifications

• 2-3 years of book buying experience, ideally supporting nontraditional sales channels such as B2B, events, subscriptions, or drop-shipping.
• Experience in inventory management, publishing, or high-volume purchasing, with a track record of managing complex supplier relationships and lean inventory turnover; 3-5+ years is a plus.
• Experience in sales, marketing, business development, or bottom-line revenue responsibility, with the ability to balance customer experience, operational feasibility, and margin health.

Responsibilities

• Source, negotiate, and order books, merchandise, and sidelines for onsite and offsite events, corporate and bulk sales, subscription boxes, drop-shipping orders, and special partnerships.
• Forecast demand and manage stock levels to meet program needs while protecting warehouse and backroom capacity and avoiding unnecessary overstock.
• Negotiate with publishers, wholesalers, and other vendors to maximize profitability through returnability, discount tiers, co-op support, freight terms, and other favorable arrangements.
• Maintain rigorous tracking of ISBNs, formats and editions, publication dates, and embargo requirements across all specialty programs.
• Monitor sales, sell-through, stock movement, and margin performance by channel; use findings to improve future buying decisions and inventory turnover.
• Manage fulfillment logistics and drop-shipping workflows with internal teams and external partners, ensuring accurate, timely delivery and clear communication throughout each order.
• Create, curate, and schedule title deliveries for recurring subscription boxes, specialized book clubs, and other programmed sales channels.
• Coordinate digital fulfillment platforms, freight shipments, pallets, multi-location staging, and firm delivery deadlines for offsite events, festivals, and bulk orders.
• Ensure excellent end-to-end service throughout quoting, purchasing, fulfillment, delivery, and post-order follow-through.
• Build, document, and improve repeatable workflows, checklists, and administrative systems that allow specialty sales programs to scale reliably.
• Lead the B2B and corporate sales process, including curated title lists, fast and accurate quotes, marketing materials, customer communication, and order execution.
• Prepare wholesale and corporate quotes, custom invoice terms, and tax-exempt purchasing workflows for schools, nonprofits, corporate clients, and other partners.
• Track, analyze, and report sales, sell-through, and profit margins for each external sales channel; develop quarterly projections and communicate performance clearly to leadership.
• Identify and evaluate new partnerships, programs, and revenue opportunities that align with Lovestruck's brand, customer experience, and profitability goals.
• Partner with the Events Manager to forecast and secure stock for on-and-offsite author and community events.
• Coordinate closely with receiving, marketing, leadership, and store teams so that product information, delivery timing, and fulfillment responsibilities remain aligned.
• Manage multiple concurrent projects through timely, proactive communication across email, phone, and internal chat channels.

Skills

Book buying

Inventory management

Vendor relationships

Forecasting

Excel/Sheets

Negotiation

B2B sales

Event coordination

Fulfillment logistics

Supply chain

Customer service

Publishing knowledge

Relationship building

Communication

Tools

Bookmanager

Edelweiss

Ingram

Pirate Ship

Job description

Lovestruck Books & Cafe in Harvard Square seeks a Specialty Buyer to manage book, merchandise, and sidelines for onsite and offsite events, B2B and bulk sales, and subscriptions. Build scalable systems for sourcing with strong margins while delivering outstanding customer service and growth beyond the physical store.

You will forecast demand, maintain vendor relationships, and coordinate with Events & Marketing to turn buying opportunities into coordinated promotions and revenue.