Assistant Buyer- The Limited

Position Summary   

The Assistant Buyer position provides experience and growth opportunities that may enable advancement to a Buyer position. 

The major responsibilities include:

•  Providing business support to the Buyer through report generation and analysis of business results
•  Maintaining communication with Regional Merchandise Coordinator
•  Maintaining vendor contacts and tracking orders
•  Supporting and participating in assortment planning, seasonal financial planning and store planning
• Assisting the buyer in managing the by-store inventory and Open-to-Buy
•  Working closely and communicating with the Planners, Allocators, Buyers, and stores

Essential Functions

• Provide business support to the Buyer through report generation and analysis of business results
•  Maintain vendor contacts and relationships. Negotiate significant business decisions in partnership with Buyer
• Support and participate in assortment planning, seasonal financial planning and store planning
• Assist Buyer in projecting and managing all aspects of the Open-to-Buy
• Support Planning team in business analysis to identify opportunities in sales, inventory, and margin by store, department, and class (i.e. ladder plans and re-orders)
• React to business trends and customer/store feedback in a timely and efficient manner
• Create all necessary analysis based on trends and reviews results with buyers
• Execute price changes
• Strategize and execute cross-channel marketing decisions, including review of past effectiveness, planning, negotiating, and securing the distribution of co-op
• Shop competition and provide actionable feedback to the team
• Develop and manage seasonal and monthly visual needs
• Analyze, forecast, and propose pricing markdowns
• Make recommendations on re-order to drive business results.  Utilize merchandising systems to drive business results and place conceptual orders (What-If orders, Assortment Planning Tool (APX), Size & Pack Optimization (SPO))

• Provides coaching and mentoring opportunities for Executive Trainees, interns, and Merchandise Assistants
• Support eCommerce and Content Acquisition Request System (CARS) team as needed
• Support Marketing Workflow activities as needed
• Special projects and other duties as assigned.
• All employees are expected to be in compliance with government and corporate laws, rules, regulations, policies, and procedures.

Position Requirements

Education & Experience:

• Specific Degree: Four-year college degree
• Specific work or project experience: Demonstrated experience using merchandising systems; demonstrated basic-level Microsoft Excel proficiency
• Industry experience: Corporate buying office experience OR internal Executive Trainee program OR relative wholesale experience (e.g. account executive, sales assistant, retail planner)

• Specific work or experience: Demonstrated intermediate-level proficiency using Microsoft Office Suite

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

Minimum Required:

• Performs basic retail math calculations and utilizes formulas for analysis, pricing, and marketing activities
• Possesses intermediate written and verbal communication skills to present ideas and oneself in a professional manner and to communicate with all merchandising levels, stores, and vendors
• Flexible; capable of shifting to different projects as priorities change; successfully navigates ambiguity and drives business results regardless of obstacles\
• Analyzes data from multiple sources to identify trends & risks, resolve issues, and recognize opportunities
• Ability to use corporate retail merchandising systems to support buying activities
• Demonstrated ability to develop forecasts/projections based on trends and relationships in data to set future expectations and influence strategy

• Demonstrated experience using Microsoft Excel, Oracle or SAS retail merchandising systems

Competencies:

• Exempt professional without direct reports; Supports company initiatives/objectives; Embraces change; Collaborates effectively; Commitment to development; Builds customer loyalty & confidence; Personal accountability for results.
• Contacts are primarily with immediate supervisor, other personnel in the section or group, and both internal & external cross-channel contacts.
• Internal communication including operations, merchandising, planning, digital, data governance
• External communication with vendors 

• Decision Quality

  Problem Solving

  Action Oriented

  Time Management

• Uses his/her time effectively and efficiently; values time; concentrates his/her efforts on the more important priorities; gets more done in less time than others; can attend to a broader range of activities.
• Enjoys working hard; is action oriented and full of energy for the things he/she sees as challenging; not fearful of acting with a minimum of planning; seizes more opportunities than others.
• Uses rigorous logic and methods to solve difficult problems with effective solutions; probes all fruitful sources for answers; can see hidden problems
• Makes good decisions (without considering how much time it takes) based upon a mixture of analysis, wisdom, experience, and judgment; most of his/her solutions and suggestions turn out to be correct and accurate when judged over time; sought out by others for advice and solutions.
• Can be counted on to exceed goals, successfully; is constantly and consistently one of the top performers; very bottom-line oriented; steadfastly pushes self and others for results.

Physical:

•  Available and able to travel
•  Able to see and distinguish colors
•  Able to lift up to 25 pounds.

For reasonable accommodation information for an ADAAA qualified disability please see Belk Associate Handbook for policy and procedures.