[Hiring] Assistant Buyer @Saks Fifth Avenue

Role Description

As the Assistant Buyer, you are a motivated individual who will participate in vendor selections and partnerships. The Assistant Buyer will assist in providing information for the monitoring of inventory productivity, and the analysis of vendor profitability, while providing data and analysis for price changes, and assist in entering price changes online.

What You Will Do

• Order Management:
  • Liaise with Buyers, Associate Buyers, and brand partners to gather and confirm order details (e.g., item details, shipping details, delivery schedules, order prioritization), manage updates to buy sheets, and resolve discrepancies.
  • Oversee offshore Merchandise Assistants’ creation and transmission of purchase orders to brand partners, ensuring timely delivery and accuracy of order details, overseeing communication between Merchandise Assistants and brand partners, and resolving or escalating any issues raised.
  • Provide allocation direction to the Planning Allocation team and help manage allocations for high-touch categories such as Designer.
  • Manage communication of receipt flow changes to the offshore team and ensure POs are maintained to ensure accurate view of ship windows, order quantities, and on-order.
• Market Preparation:
  • Prepare Buyers for Market through working with Planners to provide comprehensive insights on historical performance (e.g., best and worst sellers by door), emerging trends, customer preferences, coordinating market appointments and periodically attending NY market.
  • Support Buyer in style-out sessions including coordinating logistics and preparing insights to support assortment presentation.
  • Initiate the development of strategic product assortments to drive sales and brand growth.
• Bottoms-Up In-Season Analysis:
  • Act as primary point of contact on execution questions and feedback from brand partners, visual merchandising, site merchandising, stores, digital, marketing (incl. promos), planning (incl. pricing).
  • Constantly review business performance in close collaboration with Assistant Planners, communicating bottoms-up style insights to Buyers, recommending in-season actions (e.g., ask the vendor for ATS on sold out item) and helping to prepare for monthly OTB.
  • Manage markdown cadence and oversee offshore execution of price changes (frequency varies by category), RTVs, etc. and resolve any escalated issues.
  • Collaborate with offshore reporting team to generate custom Buying reports, maintaining structural changes to views and ensuring timeline delivery by offshore teams on expected cadences.

Qualifications

• Manages ambiguity well, self starter, and is able to thrive in a fast paced environment.
• Strong accountability, and ability to multitask and prioritize independently.
• Generates a variety of approaches to problem solving quickly including new and novel ideas.
• Strong interpersonal skills and can be both direct but diplomatic and gain trust from others quickly.
• You often go above and beyond your goals. You are a consistent performer with a proven track record in driving positive outcomes through objectives and measures within a large complex organization.
• Open to new perspectives and is willing to try new ways of working in our evolving business.
• Strong knowledge of and ability to apply retail math concepts, including elements of markup, margin planning, open to buy, and inventory productivity measures (WOS, T/O, GMROI).
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Strong ability to communicate effectively both verbally and in writing.
• Excellent computer skills including MS Word and Excel, Powerpoint, Google Sheets/Docs/Slides.
• Proficiency in systems (RFS, AMS, PCW, NuOrder).
• 1 - 2 years' experience as an Assistant Buyer, preferably in a major department store.

Benefits

• Opportunity to work in a dynamic fast paced environment at a company experiencing growth and transformation.
• Exposure to rewarding career advancement opportunities across the largest multi-brand luxury retailer from retail to distribution, to digital or corporate.
• Comprehensive benefits package for all eligible full-time employees (including medical, vision and dental).
• An amazing employee discount.
• We offer the following benefits for this position, subject to applicable eligibility requirements: medical insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance, 401(k) retirement plan, basic life insurance, supplemental life insurance, disability insurance, and a variety of additional voluntary benefits (such as critical illness, hospital and accident insurance).