Category Buyer - Home Décor at Flexi-Personnel

Job Purpose

The Category Buyer – Home Décor will be responsible for recommending, sourcing, negotiating and purchasing home décor merchandise in a cost efficient and timely manner

Key Responsibilities:

Home Decor Category Buying

• Issue LPO’s, communicate with supplier and the management with regular updates
• Provide analysis to support merchandising strategies for the home decor category.
• Ensure new stocks are displayed in the showroom 1 week after they are received at the warehouse.
• Coordinate with other category buyers to understand the theme of the season.
• When required, assist in carrying out regular stock takes for home décor category.
• Assists in the bi-monthly forecasting of sales and inventory management ensuring no over or undestocking.
• Support the development and execution of aged inventory exit strategies.
• Follow up to ensure the sales budget, GP margins for the home decor category in the showrooms are being met.
• Prepare sale summaries reports within given timelines.
• Convey right merchandising patterns to the sales team.
• Offer suggestions for improved product mix to generate / improve sales.

Merchandising:

• Monitor and conduct regular market surveys to understand current & latest industry trends, evaluate competition and attend major markets as feasible and necessary.
• Provides information for the development of the merchandise strategy and from time to time be requested to assist in product selection.
• Lead the creative interiors efforts on developing overall design concepts and design presentation strategies.
• Ensuring uniformity of displays across multiple store locations & monitor the overall store presentation to ensure it is always of the highest standards.
• Merchandise and take corrective measures whenever required - physical changes and educating the supervisor / staff on the retail floor.
• Display merchandise for better visual appeal and explaining the utility.
• Merchandise showrooms on change or new product introductions.

Pricing and Promotion:

• Assists in providing information for the timely response to store visit notes.
• Provides feedback to the marketing team for stock on promotional items and ensures the communication of in-stock issues to stores.
• Regular visits to the showroom to check on product display.
• Changing display to promote new product launches or to reflect festive or seasonal themes.
• Communicate with marketing team to establish strategies and design concepts for seasonal product launches and displays.
• Work with the Commercial Manager in brand positioning within the showrooms.
• Conduct regular benchmarks to ensure competitive pricing.

  Compliance and reporting:

• Ensure compliance with the laid down processes and policies and applicable legal requirements.
• Prepare periodical reports on category performance as maybe required
• Monitor supplier performance and provide the management with appropriate recommendations

EDUCATION QUALIFICATION, EXPERIENCE, SKILLS, AND TRAITS

• Bachelor’s degree in, procurement, interior design, visual merchandising, fashion merchandising, exhibition design, visual communications or related field required; coursework in computer-aided design (CAD) highly preferred.
• Interior design certification highly preferred.
• At least 6 - 7years of related experience required.
• Basic understanding of building codes and inspection regulations related to interiors.
• Ability to use computer-aided design (CAD) software.
• 4-5 years international experience/ working with international retailer is desired.
• Detail-oriented with excellent problem-solving and organizational skills.
• Ability to apply a sense of style to create aesthetically pleasing interiors.
• Strong visual design skills including proportion and aesthetics.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite or related software.
• Ability to lead, mentor and train the visual merchandising team.
• Experience in doing analysis reports.