Department: Commercial
Location: Sunderland - Customer Support Centre
Compensation: £40,000 / year
Description
We're looking for an experienced and commercially driven Online Furniture Buyer to shape and deliver a profitable, customer-focused furniture range for the UK online market.
This is a key role within our Commercial Team, responsible for building a compelling range that drives sales, margin, and brand growth — ensuring the right products are sourced, costed, ranged, and delivered at the right time and quality.
What's the opportunity?
As Online Furniture Buyer, you will own and develop a profitable, commercially compelling online furniture range that:
Meets customer needs and expectations
Supports our brand and price architecture
Delivers sustainable sales, volume, and margin growth
The role balances commercial judgement, supplier management, trend awareness, and financial discipline to ensure consistent performance and long-term category growth.
This role is based in our Customer Support Centre but will require travel to support operational needs.
What does the role involve?
Product Range & Buying Strategy
Develop and deliver a balanced, commercial online furniture range aligned to customer needs and demands, brand and price strategy
Own the online category from concept through to launch and lifecycle management
Monitor range performance and take corrective action where required
Commercial Performance
Deliver agreed margin, sales, and stock targets for the online category
Ensure pricing is competitive, sustainable, and aligned to strategy
Support promotional planning while protecting long-term profitability
Supplier Management
Build strong, professional relationships with key suppliers
Lead negotiations on lead times and quality standard
Manage supplier performance, addressing issues
Identify and on-board new suppliers where required
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Work closely with Merchandising to align buy quantities, stock flow, and availability
Partner with the Quality team to ensure products meet required standards
Support Marketing
Act as a commercial point of reference for the category
Who are we looking for?
Proven experience as a Buyer or Assistant Buyer within furniture, home, or durable goods retail
Strong understanding of furniture construction, materials, and finishes (e.g. frames, upholstery, foams, fabrics, leathers)
Ability to manage Lead times, manufacturing constraints, and supply-chain risk (including offshore sourcing)
Retail margin structures, pricing architecture, and promotional mechanics
Experience managing supplier negotiations
Strong commercial numeracy including margin, intake margin, mark-up, stock, sell-through
Experience working cross-functionally with other key stakeholders in the business – Merchandising, Quality, Digital, Marketing, Retail
The ability to work in a fast-paced environment and multi-task as required to meet schedules in a changing environment
Maintain a strong customer-focus
What's in it for you?
33 days holidays including bank holidays
Employee benefits platform – access to 100s of high street discounts and more – holiday discounts, gym discounts, cinema discounts, e-vouchers, cashback and more
Colleague Discount
Career progression
Long service awards
Enhanced Maternity, Paternity and Adoption Leave
Access to our dedicated Employee Assistance Programme – to give you free access to advice and information on a range of topics
Virtual GP – Access to a GP service 24/7
Salary finance scheme
Pension Scheme
Death in Service
Life assurance