What are the responsibilities and job description for the Strategic Sourcing Specialist position at WHSmith North America?
As a Sourcing Specialist you will partner with Buying Teams for procuring, developing, and managing effective merchandise assortments to achieve the sales, margin, and turnover targets for his/her respective buying areas. In partnership with their DVP and respective Planner.
Job Responsibilities
- Assist with Developing and executing merchandise assortment strategies to meet or exceed the financial goals
- Product development as needed in accordance with the respective brands, departments, and concepts.
- Partner with Planners to manage and adhere to Open-to-Buy (OTB) budget.
- Work with vendors to resolve purchase order discrepancies and compliance issues.
- Analyze business at division, department, class, subclass, attribute, and store level.
- Create and maintain open lines of communication with Planner, Store Managers, Regional Managers and other co-workers.
- Prepare for and participate in regular Merchandising meetings such as Weekly Performance Meetings, Month End Review / OTB meetings, Collaboration meetings, New Store Review meetings, etc.
- Visit our stores (including visits on location as requested) to evaluate assortments, presentations, stock levels, marketing, customers, and obtain feedback from store personnel. Visit competitors to evaluate pricing, assortments, and market trends for possible opportunities.
- Carry out tasks related to new stores, including research into new markets (including visits on location as requested), participating in Planogram meetings, developing new assortments for new concepts or stores, etc.
- Work closely with Planner to manage allocation, reorder flow, and product lifecycle including promos, markdowns, transfers and RTVs.
Qualifications:
- 1 years of merchandise buying experience within a multi-unit retail organization.
- Product development and assortment planning experience required.
- Ability to adapt, multi-task and problem solve in a fast-paced and changing environment.
- Advanced computer skills, including Microsoft Office (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and experience with a merchandising software platform.