Senior Fashion Buyer (Procurement)

Develop and implement MAKDZONE Fashion Brand and Product Strategy with a view to supporting the successful achievement of MAKDZONE goals and objectives. Be a leading member of the buying team, re-focusing & planning the department to maximize our brand's full selling potential while still maintaining our group strategy in line with our team KPIs.

Pre-season Planning & Strategy Buildup

• Develop, maintain and communicate to team members as well as Account Manager a clear and well-articulated buying plan supported by sales, promotion, and branding/supplier strategy.
• Drive and manage the assortment development and review, providing analysis to support decision-making whilst owning product selection oversight.
• Reconcile top-down budgets with bottom-up department plans and forecasts alongside the Merchandise Planner and present these to the Account Manager.
• Maintain awareness of yearly & seasonal business revenue shapes and manage inventory planning for uptake in sales keeping in mind and potential loss in margin due to promotional activity.

Collection Development & Selection

• Manage a holistic view of your business and constantly feedback information to the teams to make sure we are meeting plans.
• Manage a brand & category matrix to help identify duplication as well as potential gaps in our assortments.
• Understand your customers and provide the teams with a detailed view of varied customer profiles.
• Accumulate trend information and generally maintain market and competitor awareness in keeping with our target customers to inform and analyze buying decisions and product performance.
• Target and acquire brands/products based on style knowledge and understanding of MAKDZONE’s strategy and target customers as well as identify new categories and product opportunities.
• Make selections by working closely with your Merchandising counterpart from identified suppliers based on robust analysis of sales and inventory data, developing the assortment within your category and adhere to budget and price levels as agreed by top management.
• Manage responsibility of overseeing buyers & junior buyers selections making sure the analysis and roll up are in line with business plans & targets.
• Proactively identify strong and weak selling items to make adjustments to your selection strategy accordingly.
• Ensure that purchased products are competitively priced while margins are kept in line with budgets and business requirements.
• Understand product and price positioning of products and gather knowledge of how the design and specifications impact on the target cost price.
• Negotiate contracts, discounts and payment terms with suppliers to improve margins and cash flow across the department in line with buying strategy and KPIs.
• Make regular business trips to preview new season collections and present the brand with a business review to aid in commercial terms development

Order & Intake Management

• Manage monthly department level open-to-buy whilst ensuring alignment to business plans.
• Manage inventory levels through ordering sufficient quantities of the product while ensuring the best performers are adequately stocked and poor performers are cleared (negotiate returns to supplier and markdown contribution).
• Manage order deadlines to allow enough time for the account manager to review & approve orders before placing.
• Plan deliveries in line with sales targets & % mix by category, price level and stock levels to achieve sales, profitability and turnover.
• Communicate regularly with suppliers to build robust and preferential relationships and secure timely delivery of orders and favorable credit terms.
• Conduct weekly meetings with supply chain and update account manager and rest of the team on the delivery status and actions to be taken.
• Build strong relationships with the operations, logistics and production teams to proactively ensure easy and accurate exchange of information.

Marketing

• Plan the launch of key brands together with the marketing team.
• Work closely together with the account manager on Marketing and Content trends and planned brand shoots for various marketing channels.
• Determine which samples will be used in monthly edits, social pushes or special events in a timely manner.
• Ensure sample handover to visual merch kept within the deadline

In-season Trading

• Analyze vendor profitability, SKU productivity and key item performance by brand and category.
• Have a clear plan, strategy, and direction for own portfolio on a monthly basis and be ready to report on progress ad hoc, as well as monthly.
• Review and monitor sales reports for all brands, products, categories and price levels including best/worst sellers and using this to aid future buying decisions, maximizing sales and minimizing risk.
• Monitor progress against plan, adherence to budgets and the ability to adjust and revise buying strategy according to organizational objectives on a weekly and monthly basis.
• Ensure timely and accurate replenishment of stock at size level.
• Negotiate with suppliers on collaborating through markdown contributions during promotions by understanding the sales benefits for the supplier.
• Participate in the weekly trade meetings and collaborate on best strategies to address product liabilities and develop action plans to liquidate in a timely and profitable manner (stock swaps, return to suppliers)
• Provide detailed data inputs for complete category reviews as well as supporting them with “own perspective” of potential opportunities. Use data to create good positioning arguments.
• Work closely with the Account managers to interrogate budgets, sales and inventory data to inform and monitor buying decisions as well as stock replenishments and liquidation.
• Develop department-wide risk mitigation plans and execute when appropriate.

Other Responsibilities

• Constantly analyze internal and external processes in order to drive the improvement of processes
• Coach and develop Buyers, Junior Buyers and Assistants (Dubai and India) to ensure category buying is in line with departmental plans and budgets and admin processes are being adhered to
• Actively seek opportunities and resources to develop oneself
  
  

Key Performance Indicators

• Sell Through%, Sales and Margin Value (PC1) in conjunction with seasonal targets
• Favorable credit terms with vendors
• Favorable discounts and entry margins with vendors
• Depth bought meets the depth needed to ensure the highest profitability
• Demonstrate team leadership and development of more junior members in the team