Retail Buying

Buying for retail is a demanding and challenging job that requires a creative flair, a strong awareness of fashion trends, life trends as well as good interpersonal and team working skills. Buyers and merchandisers have to ensure that the right merchandise is being sent to the right stores, at the right time, in the right quantities. This takes a blend of forward planning and rapid response to consumer demands. In combination with the other areas of the business, success comes from maximizing profit, which is achieved through anticipating customer needs and responding rapidly to immediate issues. It involves complex data analysis, liaison with the stores operation teams and balancing store stock levels. To succeed as a professional buyer, you will need strong analytical and numerical skills, an interest and understanding of consumer demands and strong commercial awareness. You also need to have an ability to understand and prioritize issues quickly and efficiently. Progression into the Merchandising function also involves the ability to manage change. The better equipped you are in your buying function the better you will be able to adapt to these changes. The best change of all is to graduate from a good buyer to an outstanding one! To handle the complexity of data and to enable you to contribute effectively in the critical role of a buyer, you need the right skill-sets and a right mind-set. Both of which can be learned in The Art of Retail Buying. This easy to read guide is written in a concise & pictorial style with colorful images that enables you to follow step-by-step each function of a buyer. The Art of Retail Buying will inspire you, motivate you and encourage you towards merchandising excellence!

This comprehensive work provides students with the skills and savvy needed to become successful buyers in any area of retail. Its simple and straightforward approach presents step-by-step instructions for typical buying tasks, such as identifying and understanding potential customers, creating a six-month merchandising plan, and developing sales forecasts. This fifth edition contains up-to-date coverage of important retailing trends and technological advances, including social responsibility, sustainability, fast fashion, and the use of new media and social networking.

Retail Buying, Seventh Edition integrates math concepts throughout the text to guide students through typical buying tasks, from identifying potential customers, to creating a six-month merchandising plan, to developing sales forecasts. Updated with examples and trends from across the world, this book will keep readers informed on how the retailing industry is adapting to changes like an increased focus on sustainability, the growth of digital retailing, and impacts from the coronavirus pandemic. Practice problems and updated information tables further help students to analyze and interpret data across relevant subjects like global buying and sourcing, omnichannel retailing, and social media. New to this Edition: -Updated coverage of the coronavirus pandemic and the expanding usage of social media and mobile technologies -Increased emphasis on product sustainability and changing consumer behavior -New and updated Trendwatch and Snapshot features Instructor Resources -The Instructor's Guide provides suggestions for planning the course and using the text in the classroom, including sample syllabi, in-class activities, and teaching ideas -The Test Bank includes sample test questions for each chapter -PowerPoint® presentations include images from the book and provide a framework for lecture and discussion STUDIO Features Include: -Study smarter with self-assessment quizzes featuring scored results and personalized study tips -Review concepts with flashcards of essential vocabulary and basic retail math formulas -Practice your skills with downloadable Excel spreadsheets to complete the end-of-chapter Spreadsheet Skills exercises -Enhance your knowledge with printable worksheets featuring step-by-step solutions to common retail buying math problems -Watch videos related to chapter concepts

Mathematics for Retail Buying, Ninth Edition, introduces merchandising and retailing students to the most important concepts in retail math through step-by-step examples with practice problems and solutions. Coverage begins with the skeletal profit and loss statement, and moves through retail pricing and repricing of merchandise, markups, markdowns, the retail method of inventory, six-month, and assortment planning. This new edition introduces a practical approach that incorporates actual retail scenarios and concepts that are relevant to the fashion industry today. There is also a focus on mathematical factors that affects the gross margin and profitability, key to the success of any merchandise buyer or planner. New to this Edition · Updated mathematical practice problems with selected answers in the back of the book for review · Updated case studies reflect realistic and practical merchandising situations · Thoroughly updated and revised text to reflect most common practices in the field Mathematics for Retail Buying STUDIO -Study smarter with self-quizzes featuring scored results and personalized study tips -Review concepts with flashcards of terms and definitions and key formulas -Practice your skills by computing Practice Problems from the text, available digitally with formulas embedded in the Excel spreadsheets -Enhance your knowledge with additional real-world case studies and activities for each chapter

This best-selling textbook meets the needs of students who will be directly or indirectly involved in the activities of merchandising and buying at the retail level. Mathematics for Retail Buying explains the essential concepts, practices, procedures, calculations, and interpretations of figures that relate to producing profitable retail buying and selling operations. Now in its seventh edition, the text has been reorganized and expanded to provide real world examples that reflect current industry practices and trends. A companion CD-ROM, now containing all practice problems from the text, allows hands-on practice computing retail buying functions and setting up formulas in spreadsheet format. PLEASE NOTE: Purchasing or renting this ISBN does not include access to the STUDIO resources that accompany this text. To receive free access to the STUDIO content with new copies of this book, please refer to the book + STUDIO access card bundle ISBN 9781501395314. STUDIO Instant Access can also be purchased or rented separately on BloomsburyFashionCentral.com.

This text represents a specialist text resource for students of retail management or marketing courses and modules, providing the reader with the opportunity to acquire a deeper knowledge of a key area of retailing management.

"The end objective of buying and merchandising is to achieve sales and gross margin objectives through effective merchandise management of a department or group of departments." —from Management of Retail Buying, Third Edition There is more to retail buying than simply forecasting consumer demand. The successful buyer employs a complex constellation of skill, art, and careful study to plan and manage the flow of merchandise from the wholesaler or marketer to the consumer. This book contains the combined wisdom, knowledge, and hard-won savvy of three of the world's foremost authorities on managing retail buying, each of whom brought a lifetime of experience to the creation of this third edition of the most important book in every retail buyer's library. This comprehensive volume covers every aspect of retail buying, from targeting desired consumers and purchasing goods tailored to their tastes and needs, to negotiating with vendors, managing inventory, and using computers to expedite the buying process. Management of Retail Buying is organized into three parts: The Buying Process, Planning and Managing Merchandise Assortments, and Where and How to Buy. Part I features an overview of the buyer's milieu; a look at how the buying process can be organized and controlled; and in-depth descriptions of the several types of buying groups, how they function, and their similarities and differences. Part II focuses on the keys to understanding the consumer, forecasting demand, and using that forecast as a basis for selecting merchandise. Because retailers of staple goods face a very different set of objectives and problems from retailers of fashion and seasonal merchandise, separate chapters are devoted to planning and control of assortments in these different types of establishments. The book's final section examines the world of suppliers, vendors, price negotiations, order placement, special services from vendors, and actual acquisition of the merchandise. The authors provide authoritative and timeless advice on competitive strategies and tactics, foreign buying, controlling the logistical factors that lie between the purchase of goods and their delivery to the point of sale, and much more. Whether you're a seasoned retail veteran or a student or novice hoping to make retailing your life's work, Management of Retail Buying, Third Edition is destined to become the most highly prized volume on your bookshelf. The standard text/reference for retail buying and merchandising is now revised, expanded, and updated for the 1990s and beyond . . . This Third Edition of one of the classics in retailing literature combines the timeless wisdom of three of the industry's giants with a detailed examination of the current state of the retailer's art. It provides comprehensive coverage of every aspect of retail buying and how to manage the buying process in order to maximize profits and minimize losses. It also offers in-depth discussions of the numerous skills and techniques needed to succeed as a buyer or merchandise manager in today's competitive retail environment, including: Organizing and controlling the buying process Understanding consumer demographics and psychographics Identifying consumer trends and forecasting demand Analyzing and interpreting sales records Planning and control of merchandise assortments Using computers to increase competitiveness Shopping vendor lines and negotiating prices and services And much more

This edition offers more detailed cases and strategies for dealing with varying economic conditions as well as the theoretical and practical background required for successful purchasing. It provides the basic information new buyers need to accurately forecast and fulfill their merchandise requirements. irements.