Buying Admin Assistant

Job description / Role

About us

As a leader in luxury retail in the Middle East, Al Tayer Group's retail division, Al Tayer Insignia, hosts a portfolio of some of the world's best luxury brands in the fashion, jewellery, home, and department store categories. Complementing its position in luxury retail, Al Tayer Insignia has also built new frontiers in lifestyle retail, representing leading brands in the beauty, home, fashion, and hospitality sectors. Our brands include Bloomingdales, Harvey Nichols, Armani, and newly added Gymshark and The White Company, to name just a few!

About the role

The Buying Administration Assistant will support the luxury brands buying team by providing administrative support and contributing to the buying process. This will be a key role to support the buying team drive the performance against sales and margin targets, maximizing in-season opportunities and affecting future inventory.

What you'll be doing

Functional roles and responsibilities

• Generally support the buying department team in their daily and weekly tasks
• Run periodic reports to share with stores and buyers
• Support with the creation of product look books and seasonal trend presentations
• Run competitor price analysis, shopping reports, and benchmarking
• Support in validating buy data for marketing team
• Support buyers completing sizing during market
• Review sales and propose replenishment re-orders for license products
• Ensure products are being uploaded by digital channels upon delivery, monitoring the accuracy of copy, product descriptions, etc.
• Support in organizing seasonal product training for stores, ensuring stock fulfilment
• Ensure all necessary records, master files, and databases are maintained accurately and updated in a timely manner
• Support with the creation of enrichment files for PO raising (including UDAs, HS codes, COO, etc.)
• Maintain the product hierarchy; ensuring product data is accurate and consistent
• Monitor the product flow for digital channels, solving digital rejections for missing information
• Check supplier order confirmation details received are correct; support the buyers to resolve any queries with the supplier and buying in a timely fashion
• Communicate with brands for ready stock and pick up/delivery acceptance
• Support delivery process through coordination between buyers and planning
• Support buyers to manage end of delivery window strategy (delay discount, request for cancellation, etc.)
• Manage return to vendor requests (RTVs), ensuring effective communication to suppliers
• Customer complaints and damaged products handling (brick and mortar, digital channel, and warehouse)
• Store related inquiries and technical advice on product damages

Department specific

• Run weekly reports such as trade dashboard, seasonal sell-through, best sellers, slow movers, etc.
• Analyze the never out of stock list provided by buyers, ensuring stores are well covered and propose reorders, taking into consideration production and delivery lead time

Before market

• Prepare seasonal buying analysis
• Ensure all needed assets are timely provided by the brand and saved in shared folder
• Prepare a clean version of the buying files, ensuring sizing analysis is updated

During market

• Support buyers to prepare working files from wishlists
• Help buyers in sizing
• Update files for cancellations and change of codes
• Cooperate with buyers to prepare approvals presentation

Post market

• Support buyer in order confirmation check and updating the relevant buy tools
• Ensure enrichment files are prepared timely for PO loading, being active point of contact with the brand to solve any issue with the order confirmation
• Ensure to attend store visits periodically, collecting feedback and organizing them on a weekly basis
• Have a strong working knowledge of business KPIs to act as buying representative for trade meetings during buying periods
• Be able to attend cross-functional meetings during buyer's absence; be confident to contribute, ensuring business attitude
• Prepare supplier analysis reports to be sent on a monthly basis
• Be the main point of contact for all special customer requests, actively communicating with the brand for feasibility and follow up on the full delivery process

About you

• Minimum 2 years of buying merchandise and planning experience in luxury retail
• Strong understanding of merchandising financials
• Advanced computer skills in Excel and MS Office
• Numerate with strong analytical skills and financial acumen
• Excellent communication, organizational, and problem-solving skills
• Aptitude to function within deadlines, while working both independently and as part of a team
• Ability to recognize, analyse, and quantify market trends
• Able to successfully manage and execute priorities in a timely manner within a fast-paced, high-growth environment
• Demonstrate ability to build and foster productive working relationships with cross-functional teams and vendors
• Product and brand orientation with good knowledge of fashion industry and benchmarks
• Stakeholder management skills to build and maintain collaborative relationships with internal and external stakeholders and counterparts
• Commercial skills with the ability to identify opportunities and potential business risks

About the Company

Established in 1979, Al Tayer Group is a privately-held, diversified company with operations in 12 countries in the Middle East and beyond. With over 7,800 employees from 95 different nationalities, the Group has its headquarters in Dubai, UAE.

Al Tayer Group operates leading, quality-focused businesses in automobile sales and service, luxury and lifestyle retail, perfumes and cosmetics distribution, engineering as well as interiors contracting. The Groups portfolio includes several of the worlds leading brands such as Armani, Bvlgari, Banana Republic, Ford, Ferrari, Gucci, Gap, Harvey Nichols and Maserati. The Group operates over 180 stores across multiple markets in the Middle East. In addition, Al Tayer Group has investments in commercial real estate, contracting, supply chain management, precision tools manufacturing and travel agency services.