Buying Admin Assistant
Putting the M&S customer at the heart of every purchase
Our buying team is always thinking about the customer. With every purchase, we intend to make it the most popular, profitable item of its kind. As a Buying Admin Assistant, you’ll be future-focused, helping the Buyer and Assistant Buyer understand who our customers are and what they’re looking for with every changing season.
If you can manage the critical path and use your undeniable organisational skills to pre-empt the needs of your buying colleagues, it will have a big impact on your future – and ours.
It’s no small feat putting together our global selection of Clothing & Home and Beauty products, it takes an eye for product. Wherever you specialise, you’ll have plenty of data to dig deeper into why our products sell, and opportunity to harness your creativity, learning about our price architecture, designs, colour balance and even the shape of our range. You’ll talk to, and team up with, people from merchandising through to marketing, PR and e-commerce. Every day is different, and a chance to gain a reputation for adding some serious growth to the business. If you have the drive to help us find those one-of-a-kind products, so we can surprise and delight our customers just when they thought M&S couldn’t get any better, you’ll rise fast in our buying team.
In-Store FAQsSuccess Profile
Analytical
Strategic
Results-Driven
Team Player
Career Path
Buying Admin Assistant Entry (Level 1&2)
Assistant Buyer Entry (Level 1,2&3)
Junior Buyer
Head of Buying
Buying Lead
Buyer Entry (Level 1&2)
Why I work in Buying Admin
M&S is a buzzing environment with the people, the product, and the process at the core of everything we do. Responsible for owning the end-to-end product life cycle, you need to be proactive, highly organised with great communication skills and the ability to work well under pressure. Part of an inclusive team, expressing your ideas, demonstrating creativity and commercial awareness, whilst also being able to constructively challenge will ensure that we are number one for style, quality and value on the high street for the mainstream consumer.
Constantia, Buying Admin Assistant
Buying Admin Assistant
Key accountabilities and measures
- Support the Buyer & Assistant Buyer by developing a clear understanding of M&S’ customer, ensuring the segments and demographics needs are understood and put at the heart of the product offer developed
- Support the Buyer & Assistant Buyer working with Design to interpret and adapt to market trends and direction, ensuring that the conceptual range developed is differentiating and targeted to the needs of the customer through compiling and presenting competitor shops.
- Contribute as an active member of the Buying team to work within a commercially focussed culture
- To support the Assistant Buyer with the co-ordination and development of product Tech Packs to ensure they are delivered complete and on time to minimise sampling lead times
- To work with the Buyer & Assistant Buyer to ensure the departmental critical path is met, providing support to the buying and product development process and contributing to the management of the production critical path
- Manage the sample and product management process on a daily basis and ensuring that the floor / product rooms are tidy and compliant with H&S requirements
- Work in collaboration with Sourcing Offices globally to help develop appropriate supply routes enabling the Department to react to trade.
- To support the Assistant Buyer with the co-ordination and preparation for range for sign off and systemic elements of the buying process, ensuring the timely completion of the relevant systemic approvals and processes
- Work with the Assistant Buyer to analyse historical sales in line with trends and design direction to manage product mix parameters including price architecture, colour balance, shape and margin to deliver a highly commercial and balanced range
- To liaise with press, marketing, retail, ecom, international and other external functions to support business priorities
- To support the Buyer & Assistant Buyer with the development and sourcing of packaging
Key skills
- Either Buying experience with a major retailer or alternatively experience within a retail environment
- Passion for products and desire to learn about the brand and customer
- Highly organised with attention to detail when performing tasks, ability to anticipate and manage problems, with an ability to prioritise and escalate where necessary
- Systems experience or a clear demonstration of the ability to learn to use systems quickly
- Good communication skills; communicating clearly using phone, email, VC etc.
- Knowledge of, or strong desire to learn about the end to end Buying process to take responsibility for Critical Path Management
- Proactive in agreeing to take workload away from assistant buyer where appropriate
- A digital and global mind-set that supports the growth of international and online business
Key relationships and stakeholders
- Head of Buying
- Buying Lead, Buyers, Assistant Buyers & Buying Admin Assistants
- Technical
- Sourcing Offices
- Merchandising
- Design
Secondary relationships and stakeholders
- Ecom
- Press
- Marketing
- Packaging
- International
- Retail
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