Associate buyers are responsible for sourcing compelling product assortments, negotiating and developing strategic vendor partnerships, and delivering great brands and products at an amazing value proposition, with guidance/supervision of Merchandise Manager.

Our ideal Associate Buyer is ambitious in nature, detail oriented, comfortable working in cross-functional teams, and passionate about the retail industry.  They are organized and adept at time management skills.

Customer Experience & Competitive Landscape

Develop expertise about customer needs, the product, vendor teams and landscape to drive business.

• Keep a constant eye on the app and site, monitor from a team and customer POV keeping customer experience in mind.
• Track trends on the site and in the marketplace to pass along to teams, to use as vendor inspiration to help drive portfolio demand. We are looked to as the trend drivers of Zulily and should always have our eyes and ears on what’s new, trending or coming in the market. Be a continuous researcher.
• Know the WOS org, this is our base. What are the team breakdowns from MM to Ab level, who are in their portfolios, how can we strategically plan to build demand leveraging collection events?
• Learn all orgs, who and what do these consist of how we can leverage by demand or storytelling to build using collection events to leverage sales.
• Continuously think of “Big Ideas” what is the next big demand driver? Continuously seek change and test new ideas
• “Win as A Team” Collections runs as a whole meaning we must work together to make sure product is placed correctly by aesthetic and demand to maximize vendor demand. Numbers are looked at as a whole and not by buyer like teams who own vendors. Look ahead and think of all the events as a whole when curating/ placing product. Working together and communication is key!

End to End Event Management

Accurate and timely management of all event stages, initial event planning through recaps.

• As you monitor the site and market, keep a list of event inspo/ new ideas or themes. These should be saved in the monthly folder prior to the calendar planning meeting.

• Buyers meet to calander plan/ plot event themes a minimum of 6 weeks in advance.  From there boards are assigned out to be created then compiled to be sent out to merch, a minimum of a month in advance.
• TB with your AB to establish a workflow and event timeline.  Go over vendor guidelines, SOPs and the curation process specific to the collections team.
• Understand all the details to make a successful event including how the metrics are tied into the aesthetic to tell an overall story.
• Understand the timeline differences for the mega and mighty events. Including advances in creative asks.
• Understand how to drive demand via creative treatment and site levers, what can be leveraged to engage the customer? 
• Buyers should own yet guide the HP process with their AB helping them learn how to select styles based on aesthetic/storytelling and demand.
• Make sure to provide detailed notes in the copy field to help retain the researched Event name.
• Work with your AB to complete the final audit before the event goes live.
• After your event ends utilize the collections report to recap (collections report link) to analyze and report findings

Communication & Attention to Detail

Provide timely responses along with detailed communication to teams.

• Stay on top of emails, they are demanding but are our main platform for communication, we do need to make sure we are responding during business hours within unless otherwise known as unavailable.
• Communicate with as much context as possible, think about who you are contacting and why – what will they need/ want to know? Try to get ahead of this in the initial correspondence.
• When communicating with leadership communicate clear bullet points or targeted information. They have access to the same reports we do, what are learnings do you have from the event level that you can share?

Team & Self Development

Set a high-performance standard through ownership, collaboration self-development and development of your direct report.

• Host weekly TBs with your direct to establish a path forward. Ask questions to understand their needs and wants for moving forward.
• Bring forward and ask your own questions during your TBs with leadership. Own your development, what do you want your path forward to look like, how do you see yourself getting there, what extra projects can you take on to drive this?
• Are there areas of your directs potential or expertise that they/we can maximize? Are there areas that that would like to learn and potentially grow into?
• Set aside the time for yourself (4 hours a month) for learning lab time. Utilize to build your self-development as well as management skills.  Ensure your direct does the same with 2 hours a month as an individual contributor.
• Continually seek to learn all areas of the business, as collections we want to drive cross divisional collaboration and drive innovation.

Continuous Improvement & Process Development

Drive a culture of innovation, change and continuous improvement.

• Help identify needs specific for/ to the collections bussiness, inculding tools   
• Utilize and drive tool and process adoptaion within the team be open minded an flexible
• Continually think of what processes can be improved on
• Own your individual projects as part of your development, work with leadership on what interests you or what you can take on to establish broader growth.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent combination of work and experience
• 1-3 years merchandising experience or relevant retail experience
• Demonstrated understanding of merchandising financials and the ability to manage profitability
• Experience in ecommerce preferred
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite, Excel preferred
• Clear and effective written and verbal communication and strong interpersonal skills
• Ability to travel minimum of 10%