Buyer - The North Face ANZ

Job Overview

This role is responsible for developing seasonal purchasing plans for the Australia-New Zealand (ANZ) Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) channel, aligning buying activities with financial objectives. The buyer works closely with merchandising, sales, and planning teams to ensure the assortment strategy is executed and the buying plan supports overall product and market goals.

Key Responsibilities

• Conduct demand forecasting by style and color across go-to-market milestones, managing forecast accuracy end-to-end.
• Coordinate open-to-buy (OTB) planning with the TA Planning team, incorporating sales projections and inventory assumptions.
• Collaborate with Merchandising to align buying decisions with assortment strategies and growth targets.
• Solely manage DTC buy planning, determining purchase quantities for 800-1000 SKUs per season across categories and territories, ensuring alignment with budgets and sales goals.
• Lead early and main buying activities, participate in consensus meetings for top-up and drop decisions.
• Optimize channel size curves and recommend adjustments.
• Consolidate DTC and wholesale orders with accurate system data uploads.
• Align launch timings with merchandising and manage product delivery to balance inventory and demand seasonality.
• During the season, support sales analysis to identify successful and underperforming products, offering actionable insights.
• Assist in daily sales tracking and target uploads via Tableau tools.
• Work with planning teams on markdowns, promotions, and exit strategies to preserve profitability and premium brand execution.
• Partner with inventory management to monitor free-to-sell stock, conduct rolling reviews, and participate in clearance initiatives to meet year-end targets.

Experience and Skills

• Understanding of outdoor retail and The North Face brand.
• Experience within the ANZ retail and product markets.
• Knowledge of profit & loss management.
• Insight into customer behaviors and apparel retail trends.
• Strong organizational, problem-solving, decision-making, and communication skills.
• Ability to collaborate effectively across multiple teams and levels of seniority.
• Flexibility to adapt to evolving business demands.
• Coaching and team development capabilities.

Qualifications

A minimum bachelor's degree is required along with 3 to 5 years of experience or more in the retail industry.