Senior Merchant - Sweaters & Tops - Forever 21

Under the general direction of the Buying Manager or DMM, the Senior Merchant will be responsible for developing, executing, and communicating a financially sound product strategy for procuring merchandise assortments that will be representative of the brand. The Sr. Merchant will work to create the appropriate merchandise mix based on emerging market trends, along with meeting the assortment strategies established by management.

• Create and execute a merchandise assortment plan that supports the financial, merchandising, and marketing objectives set by senior management
• Participate in weekly open-to-buy meetings with Planning & Allocation and provide technical feedback and analysis to ensure the department achieves financial targets for turn and sell-through goals
• Create a financially sound product strategy for creating an assortment that targets a wide consumer range
• Negotiate product quality, purchase quantity, landed cost, and delivery with vendors
• Procure samples from vendors and in-house designers for style out reviews
• Partner with the Planning department to create Stock-Keeping Unit (SKU) plans that adhere to the company’s financial strategies in order to have an efficient assortment plan
• Determine and maintain the Initial Mark-up per category ensuring that the assortments comply with mark-up and retail cost matrix goals established by Management
• Coordinate with cross-functional partners such as Production, Design, and Trend &Print in order to make sure designs are adoptable, costs are measured, and concepts are clearly defined
• Train, develop, and mentor the Assistant Merchant, Associate Merchant and /or Merchant to ensure that financial and product goals are met.

• Must have a BFA or related degree
• Must have at least 5-7 years of buying experience in a specialty retail environment
• Proven track record of success as an Apparel or Non Apparel buyer
• Must possess the ability to understand and act upon financial retail indicators such as sales, gross margin, inventory productivity, sell-through and turn
• Must be able to effectively communicate with Management and subordinates
• Must exhibit strong leadership and management capabilities
• Proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint required