Sr Buyer - Private Brands

at Follett Higher Education Group Inc in Westchester, Illinois, United States

Job Description

Westchester
Merchandise Buying
Full-time
#LI-DG1
#LI-Hybrid

Position Overview
Join the Follett Team where employees are valued, respected, and offered career paths throughout its many campus locations.
Follett serves over half of the students in the United States and works with 80,000 schools as a leading provider of education technology, services, and print and digital content. We're higher education's largest campus retailer and a hub for school spirit and community as we operate nearly 1,200 local campus stores and over 1,600 virtual stores across the continent. We take pride in the fact that for more than 140 years, we have been helping to improve people's lives by supporting a lifetime of learning and education.
The Senior Buyer - Private Brands develops and maintains sourcing relationships with vendors to develop private brand assortments. Selects, oversees, and negotiates merchandise assortments for various product categories, working with vendor/manufacturer representatives specific to clientele and demand, ensuring vendor compliance with terms and conditions. Implements and manages pricing strategy, promotional ideas, events, inventory control management, and re-orders based on sales cycle to maximize revenue and margins. Monitor, analyze, and report sales and inventory data. May supervise other buyers or support staff and participate in systems implementations and upgrades as required.
Responsibilities
Develop and execute a Brand Strategy representing multiple categories of business in the collegiate licensed retail space. Project manage cross-functional teams to launch and promote the brand across all areas of the company to drive consumer sales in a specified timeline.
Manage the sourcing and development of products from key local and overseas suppliers. Responsible for building relationships, negotiating contracts, and overseeing all aspects of the private label lines to maximize sales opportunities. Set aggressive retail and margin goals for the program.
Partner with the Follett Sourcing Team across Categories to determine sales/margin opportunity and brand placement within the matrix. Monitor, update, and report sales trends, business plans, and goals utilizing reporting programs and formats. Create and conduct sales trend presentations for all vendor meetings. Oversees and approves special requests including new style and graphics.
Inspect and appraise prospective merchandise to determine value or yield and select and order merchandise based on the sales plan. Select and order merchandise based on clientele or demand.
Actively work with vendors and the E-Commerce team to ensure the online assortment is complete with images and copy to match the in-store assortment.
Perform other duties as assigned.

Bachelor's degree or equivalent, educational background in merchandising, business, marketing, or related field preferred.
5-7 years of buying/planning experience with 1+ years of supervisory experience.
Advanced computer proficiency in Microsoft Office, including Excel.
Advanced experience using JDA MMS and RetailIDEAS or similar retail planning and reporting systems.
Excellent oral and written communication skills, including effective presentation development and delivery skills.
Strong analytical acumen and problem-solving skills.
Ability to multi-task, meet deadlines, and adapt to a dynamic work environment.
Work well and develop strong relationships with cross-functional teams.
Ability to occasionally work non-standard hours and engage in 10-50% business travel, which may include overnight travel. International travel required.

Equal opportunity employer.  This company considers candidates regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.