Buying Manager - Men’s, Accessories & Footwear

As the Buying Manager, you be setting the buying strategies for seasonal and carryover product to drive the success and rapid growth of the Men’s, Accessories & Footwear business. Using the Open To Buy, partnering with Merchandising and Planning to manage sales, inventory and profitability. Help manage the merchandising calendar and collaborate with cross functional teams to ensure various initiatives are supported. Clearly identify risks and opportunities within the business as far as product assortment and deliveries are concerned.

At Alo, the buying team is responsible for forecasting the unit sales of any given seasonal & carryover style-color within their division. They are expected to use their fashion intuition as well as their very strong financial skills to accurately put together the buy units by channels, rank the assortment and give recommendations on the assortment based on their findings. You will be expected to coach, mentor and educate the Men’s, Accessories & Footwear buying team, making sure that the team’s responsibilities are met and in alignment with the brand’s philosophy.

Responsibilities: 

• Review & approve buys before presenting to Sr. Buying Director and leadership team.
• Help manage the financial elements of the business with Merchandising & Planning, e.g., Open-To-Buy, Gross Margin Targets, SKU/Unit Plans, etc. for assigned categories
• Drive growth by partnering with Merchandising team to help develop assortment strategies with respect to category split, store capacities, SKU count, breadth vs. depth, and new vs. carryover
• Present to leadership the various analysis on sales in-season and post-season, utilize learnings to inform in-season and future season actions, strategies, and assortments.
• In concert with the planning team present & review bottoms up hindsight, identify opportunities, risks, hits, misses, and develop associated action plans.
• Attend all pertinent meetings for the divisions and provide recommendations as needed based on knowledge of trend and selling data.
• Communicate business needs with internal cross-functional partners & leadership, including but not exclusive to Planning, Merchandising, Marketing, Design, & Production.
• Review best and worst-selling styles, colors with buying team and coach them on identifying style-colors which should become carryovers and never be out of stock.
• Review & approve the recommendations from the buying team who will identify phase outs and markdowns.
• Review and understand the needs of the any given division from an Omni level, identify stores needed vs Digital needs.
• Help manage the launch calendar as well as track deliveries to ensure products are arriving on time for each channels to hit launch dates.
• Be able to communicate and present solutions when deliveries are pushed out.
• Manage buying process & calendar and be able to identify areas where we need improvements.

Qualifications:

• Ability to work accurately and efficiently, managing multiple assignments under strict and often competing deadlines.
• Ability to demonstrate critical thinking.
• Ability to communicate effectively both verbally and written with multiple departments.
• Innovate and expand our processes and procedures, whether it be to automate or to find efficiencies or deficiencies within.
• Ability to swiftly identify areas of opportunities within the business and pivot accordingly.
• Ability to be a team player, taking on any task needed to support the broader team & organization.
• Ability to help plan, prepare and execute strategic business plans.
• Ability to develop effective processes and procedure that support business growth.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with all levels of management, build partnerships and direct teams.
• Must display a high degree of professionalism, tact, and diplomacy.
• Must possess strong organizational and time management skills, with strong attention to detail and ability to prioritize multiple projects and priorities.
• BFA or BA in Fashion Merchandising, Business, or related field.
• 10+ years of apparel buying, planning, merchandising experience; with a minimum of five years of planning-buying management experience.
• Strong knowledge of and the ability to apply retail math concepts, including markup, margin planning, open to buy, and inventory productivity measures.
• Must be able to adapt to constant change and multi-task in a fast-paced environment.
• Must be results oriented and have excellent organizational skills.
• Must have excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Must possess a keen eye for design, trends, and color.

The base salary range for this position is $140,000-$165,000 per year which represents the current range for the base salary for this exempt position. Please note that actual salaries will vary based on factors including but not limited to location, experience, and performance. As such, on occasion and when applicable, there is the possibility that the final, agreed-upon base salary may be outside of the upper end of the range. Please also note the range listed is just one component of the company’s total rewards package for exempt employees. Other rewards may include performance bonuses, long term incentives, a PTO policy, and many other progressive benefits.