Buyer, DTC Merchandiser

Who We Are:

Kontoor Brands, Inc. (KTB) is the parent company of Wrangler®, Lee® and Rock & Republic®, with owned manufacturing facilities in Mexico and Nicaragua. Kontoor also owns and operates over 140 retail stores across the globe. Our global company employs more than 15,000 people in 65 countries, with world headquarters in Greensboro, North Carolina, and regional headquarters in Geneva and Hong Kong.

Job Posting:

E-commerce Merchandiser/Buyer

Job Summary

• Assortment strategy: Lead assortment strategy for assigned categories in collaboration with Brand Merchandising and Cross-Functional teams (Licensing, Marketing, Design) as applicable.  Develop data-based recommendations regarding assortment including style, color, size and segment to ensure that the specific needs of the business are met.  Strategize with Marketing team on brand marketing spend to inform inventory investment.
• Responsible for product selection and creation of purchase orders focusing on order accuracy.  Conduct timely follow ups on purchase orders and inventory delivery schedules on a continual basis.
• Pricing strategy: Work with Merchandising and Business Unit leaders to create and execute a pricing/promotional strategy to maximize revenue while maintaining margin.  Keep informed of pending price increases, new products, cancelled products, and products that will become obsolete, taking the appropriate actions necessary to optimize opportunities and minimize inventory risks.
• Manage promotional calendar, analyze performance, and adjust timing as needed.
• Product sales analysis: Analyze sales trends and inventory levels and report out weekly on assigned categories.  Work with forecasting, operations and customer service to ensure that proper inventory levels are met to avoid out-of-stocks and excess inventory on hand.
• Inventory/Guidance: Develop topline sales and product inventory plans.  Analyze and recap sales results to plan to provide guidance/education to the overall business and to adjust forecasts up or down as needed to reduce surplus or drive incremental sales.
• Maintains excellent partnerships with external vendors and internal cross functional teams.  Collaborates with business partners such as Supply Chain, Customer Service and DC to determine the appropriate timing of initial and replenishment deliveries.  Elevate awareness of key launches with internal team and troubleshoot potential delays.
• Reviews seasonal and replenishment assortments with Ecom Merchandising and Marketing to brief on product stories, launches and key focus.  Align promotional strategies for consistency and clarity of messaging.
• Partners with Ecom Merchandising team to review site metrics and online merchandising insights to improve product performance. Collaborate to confirm timely product optimization on site; new product being turned on and discontinued product.
• Coach, develop and mentor Associate/Assistant Buyers on team.
• Balances overall DTC inventories for the company through tracking of product deliveries and timing the delivery of initial and replenishment distributions to achieve the highest return on investment. Communicates delivery updates to internal teams with recommended assortment changes if needed.
• Plans and executes markdown strategies through reviewing sales results, researching sales and inventory by class each month and draws conclusions about business trends to ensure greatest margin potential for our business.
• Engages in seasonal line reviews and applies current selling and trend knowledge to support future buying strategy. Ensures that ecommerce teams have sales collateral, pricing, and merchandising information in a timely manner to execute plans seamlessly.
• For monthly and quarterly business reviews, provide review of business performance vs. plan and review performance of seasonal products to identify opportunities and risk. 
• Prepare and present reports and analysis needed for all financial recaps and reviews including test results.

Skills for Success:

• Years of Related Professional Experience: 5+ years of prior experience in a buying, planning and assortment strategy capacity.

Education

• Bachelor’s Degree (BA) or equivalent from four-year college or university; or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Extensive PC skills (MS Office programs, inclusive of presentation skills via Power Point and analytical skills via Excel).  Advanced in Excel and in manipulating data with advanced formulas and functions.
• Strong financial and quantitative analysis acumen; Mastery of all components of retail math.
• Ability to lead, coach and develop staff to improve performance and achieve