Specialist, Buying

Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organization: This role is responsible for supporting Own Retail (ORT) business by implementing all day-to-day trading activities of the department by reviewing buy and work closely with In-season Trading (IST) team to focus upon delivering of planned sales, margin and terminal stock objectives. This includes: Implementation of Merchandising Country Strategy Execution of the Merchandising End-to-End (E2E) process Planning the right buying strategy & buy volume for ORT Monitoring all in season activities for Franchise BLR Finalize assortment planning for ORT Providing feedback to SEA DTC Buying Department Abbreviations: DTC: Direct to Consumer ORT: Own Retail FRS: Franchise BLR: Brand Led Retail OTB: Open to Buy A&R: Allocation & Replenishment EOS: End of Season PLC: Product Lifecycle E2E: End to End Key Responsibilities: Support the implementation of key strategic priorities in the country across ORT within the SEA DTC Buying Department framework. Responsible for the Buy in the country for ORT. Prepare Forecast and place Final Orders at an article level based on the given Open-To-Buy (OTB) budget for ORT. Drive and achieve Benchmarks and KPIs on productivity and sell-through which are aligned with SEA DTC Buying Department. Build the right product mix based on the share of business of store formats, product categories, store types, age and gender mix for ORT . Review and implement the right buying analysis by categories for ORT . Support our ORT to ensure their sell-in buy is appropriate by giving them the right range recommendation per store based on SEA DTC Buying seasonal strategies Provide guidance to ORT to ensure that all merchandising strategies and principles are executed timely and correctly. Review and apply correct size ratios for order placement for ORT. Ensure orders are placed accurately and on-time for ORT. Carry out and ensure products are launched on time with adequate stock for ORT. Work closely with In-season Trading (IST)/ Store Operations to ensure product grading and product option plan are in line with space management guideline (pre-season) for ORT. Work closely with IST key person in monitoring and ensure that the Best Sellers are fully replenished on a weekly basis. Compile each store’s capacity plan for reference during the Buying process. Generate and analyze ORT’s Key Buy, Sales and Inventory reports. Ensure in-season chase models (SPEED, In-Season-Creation and Planned-Responsiveness) are well managed to make sure inventory is optimal for ORT. Follow ORT store-visit schedule to achieve an expected amount of time spent in the stores. Ratio of time to be spent in office versus stores is recommended as 60%/40% respectively. Analyze ORT (SVP) Store Visits Pack prior to store visits. Key Relationships: Internal: Own retail stores, Country Retail Operation Team, Country Category Marketing, Country Finance, SEA DTC Buying team. Knowledge, Skills and Abilities : Datamining & Presentation skills Strong analytical mind set - detail and numbers oriented Advanced Excel/computer skills Business Acumen & problem solving skills Category know how - products, ranges, market trends Big picture thinking Process and system understanding Collaboration & Influencing skills Ability to multitask Requisite Education and Experience / Minimum Qualifications: Educational: University degree in business, ideally with marketing and sales focus or equivalent professional experience Merchandising/Retail Finance/ Business Analytics Experience: 4-5 years Management Experience:0-2 years Functional: Merchandising skills with a minimum 4-5 years’ experience in retail planning and operations Fluency in English Exposure in managing multiple markets will be a plus Industry: Preferably in apparel/ fashion/ FW or FMCG Retail Exposure: Sports, Fashion