Description
Plan, direct, and optimize merchandise strategy, assortments, buying, pricing, and presentation across retail or e-commerce channels. Lead buyers and planners, manage vendor relationships and budgets, and align inventory with sales and margin goals.
- • Resolve supplier disputes, delivery issues, and quality claims.
- • Maintain item masters, purchase orders, receipts, and inventory records.
- • Source and evaluate vendors and brands; assess product availability, quality, and terms.
- • Prepare seasonal assortments and place purchase orders to meet plan.
- • Manage merchandise budgets, open-to-buy, and inventory targets.
- • Recruit, develop, and lead buyers, planners, and allocators.
- • Review vendor agreements, item terms, and purchase orders for policy compliance.
- • Analyze sales, trends, and supply conditions to forecast demand and availability.
- • Define and implement merchandising, pricing, and purchasing policies and procedures.
- • Collaborate on product specifications, packaging, and private-label development.
- • Negotiate pricing, promotions, vendor funding, and service levels with suppliers.
- • Lead line reviews and vendor selection; approve assortments and bids.
- • Direct buying, planning, allocation, and replenishment activities across channels.
- • Prepare and present seasonal line plans, sales and margin forecasts, and buy approvals.
- • Produce reports on sales, sell-through, turns, margins, and market conditions.
- • Administer merchandising and e-commerce systems, catalogs, and item setup.
- • Manage markdowns, lifecycle planning, and clearance or disposition of excess stock.
- • Drive cost and margin improvement through assortment optimization and supplier negotiations.
Related specializations
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Tasks & skills:
O*NET occupational data (work activities, skills, knowledge).
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This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
