Senior Buyer

Lifestyle is a leading retail destination, specialising in Beauty, Fashion, and Home products. Established in 1998, Lifestyle has consistently delivered a distinctive shopping experience, and an extensive selection of brands and products across colour cosmetics, perfumes, personal care, fashion accessories, home essentials, and home fragrance. With its chain of more than 160 retail stores spread across the GCC, coupled with a rapidly growing E-commerce platform, Lifestyle has established itself as an omnichannel destination-of-choice for Beauty and Fashion serving more than 4 million customers every year.

We are looking for a Senior Buyer with extensive experience in Home Living Space buying.

Reports to:

Head of Department, Lifestyle

Direct Reports:
Buyer/Assistant Buyers/Designers/coordinators

Key Interactions:
Retail Operations, Planning, E-commerce, Finance

• Determine Strategies and develop the category, identifying opportunities and build the category on growth pillars
• Align the buying plan to the overall department/ category - business plan and the merchandize strategy as laid down by the Functional head
• Manage the category/ brand management with the objective of maximizing sales and profits
• Help meet the profit targets by ensuring timely procurement of the department/ category Merchandise
• Initiate and follow cost reduction measures through centralized bulk buying and/ or selecting appropriate vendor mix, scanning the environment for benchmarks and constantly improving the purchase process

• Ensure growth in the sales and gross margins for the assigned categories/ brands by driving focus on individual categories/ brands by leading the category
• Plan the buying budget for the category/ brand
• Assist the Functional head in overseeing overall category/ brand plans in the areas of pricing, promotion, assortment and allocation for each category/ brand
• Assist the Functional head in reviewing the performance of category/ brand business plans by using appropriate scorecard for measuring category/ brand performance
• Ensure collaboration between category/ brand managers to leverage efficiencies in procurement, transportation, warehousing and store operations
• Maintain relationships with key vendors who are critical for the long-term success of the business
• Develop an adequate vendor base for the concept through active scouting and negotiation / renegotiation
• Build and maintain relationships with vendors and suppliers and negotiate the best deals with them for procuring merchandise
• Maintain contact with vendors; update list of vendors for bidding purposes; attend product demonstrations, obtain samples and brochures regarding potential products and vendor capabilities and confer with end users
• Identify, evaluate and select appropriate vendor mix to achieve business objectives

• Work with the planning team on demand estimation and ordering based on the buying plan and ensure merchandise is delivered as per the plan based on the agreed service level agreement
• Implement financial and credit services agreement with the vendor that maximize profit and positively contribute to cash flow
• Track the merchandise transportation from supplier to landmark distribution centre and ensure smooth flow of goods
• Follow the reverse logistics guidelines to send the faulty / damaged goods back to the vendor

• Identify and leverage alternate buying opportunities to source products and to ensure that company maintains its competitive edge by constant renegotiation
• Ensure effective communication, collation and follow-up on various product requirements and findings obtained from the sales/store data
• Keep abreast of the latest trends in buying and discuss the same with the Department Head/ Category Manager from time to time to assess realignment of existing processes
• Gather information from Industry trade groups or through trade shows/market visits.
• Perform territory visits (Multiple GCC locations)
• Supervise the merchandise planning process and all other parameters used for merchandise analytics
• Coordinate with Planning team for merchandise requirements by setting sourcing triggers based on actual sales, sales forecasts, company order parameters, inventory checks, forth coming events, replenishment needs etc.
• Discuss, decide and freeze the merchandise plans(pricing, promotion and assortment) and ensure effective in season management
• Review the merchandise plans on a periodic basis to ensure profit is maximized and maintained to reach target levels

• Manage formulation of the quality control process steps and manual.
• Ensure the merchandise procured and received meets the quality standards set by Lifestyle

• Develop talent within the team by providing consistent direction and support to achieve stretch targets and take leadership positions
• Retain and engage the talent employed and build a collaborative and high-performance team
• Enhance team…