Join to apply for the Assistant Buyer role at River Island
Location: Head Office, Chelsea House, London, United Kingdom
Description
The Buying team at River Island play a key role in realising the commercial opportunities created by our unique designs across all of our channels. This is achieved through effective range planning, awareness of key commercial data and customer trends, excellent supplier relations and internal networks, and execution of the Buying Strategy to deliver sales and profit plans. The Assistant Buyer supports the Buyer with trading, booking, fitting, range building, negotiation and supplier management, whilst ensuring the BAA team manages the critical path smoothly.
Key Accountabilities
* Support weekly trading reviews, updating and providing information to the Buying team as needed
* Ensure orders and invoices are accurately and efficiently processed by the BAAs, and new suppliers are onboarded
* Effective sample management, including labelling, working with suppliers (including Home Production where relevant), maintaining the development tracker and ensuring the correct samples are available to support meetings
* Supporting in fit meetings ensuring BAA has prepped accordingly and inputting in the session, deputising in fits where appropriate
* Co-ordinating labelling and ticketing to a high standard
* Monitor and review Critical Path, responding to escalations of risks to reduce delays, and maintaining awareness of current lead times
* Assist Buyer with cost negotiations and range building
* Through knowledge of competitors, key market trends, customers and channels, produce comps with recommendations, identifying opportunities and raising to Buyer
* Build a foundational understanding of sustainability and how it impacts the Buying choices that are made
* Build a foundational understanding of compliance considerations and impact to the critical path management
* Seek opportunities to present in trade and department meetings
* Respond to ethical trading practices and maintain ethical partnerships with suppliers
* Manage the workload of the BAA with an understanding of performance and escalate to Buyer where support is needed
* Set direction and objectives for the BAA with timely feedback and support
* Work cross-functionally with Core Merchandising team and other internal teams (Ecommerce, Wholesale, Visual Merchandising)
Key experience required
* Previous experience as an Assistant Buyer
* Experience in an omni-channel business is highly desirable
* Womenswear or Girlswear experience is preferable
* Experienced negotiator
* Product development with designer
* Experience of deputising for buyer in meetings/presentations to senior management
* Trade expertise: trading best sellers to drive performance
* Strong WW & KW market awareness
* Managing a BAA
Job role competencies
* Very good verbal and numerical reasoning skills
* Intermediate MS Office skills
* Computer literate and ability to learn new systems quickly
* Highly organised and proactive, good prioritisation skills
* Collaborative, with strong communication and interpersonal skills
* Very good commercial and market awareness
* Disciplined and conscientious, results oriented
* Resilient and adaptable with the ability to multitask
* Curious, continuous learning mindset
* Coaching, mentoring mindset
* Ability to present own views and assert own views
* Takes initiative
* Good presentation skills
* A keen interest in Product and the River Island brand is a must
About Us
We’re a much-loved brand with an exciting future. Our Islanders are a diverse bunch of bright, talented people who love working together – and are proud of the work they do. Progression here can take you in all kinds of directions. This is what a career at River Island is like. And this is where yours starts. This role is based at our Head Office in West London.
What we can offer you
* Generous 50% staff discount and staff shop on site
* Discounts, benefits, financial advice, wellbeing solutions and more through Reward Gateway
* Free onsite gym, subsidised restaurant & cafe, and various social events
* Support for family needs and a partnership with Retail Trust for Islanders
* Flexible working options, on top of payday and summer early finish Fridays
* Give as you earn scheme with a matched funding
* Upskilling through on-the-job training and qualifications, with succession planning
* Generous bonus scheme and private pension plan
* 25 days paid holiday, with option to purchase additional days
Keeping You Safe
River Island is committed to safeguarding all employees and will fulfil our obligation under the Prevent duty. We promote British Values and welcome applications from all backgrounds. We will consider flexible working requests where possible. For more on our interview process, check our hiring process below.
Seniorities
* Associate
Employment type
* Full-time
Job function
* Purchasing and Supply Chain
Industries
* Retail
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