Results-oriented professional with 6 years of progressive experience within Buying, Business Development and Wholesale roles, specialising in Marketplace/Concession Management and Brand relationships. 10 years of overall experience in the fashion retail sector for companies such as Selfridges, Thread, Chi Chi London, AllSaints, Lipsy and Next. Instrumental in maintaining and managing brand relationships, improving processes, and building sales analysis across multiple platforms to strengthen decision making and communication across departments. Have been responsible for the performance and relationship management for over 100 brands at one time including the likes of; Ted Baker, Whistles, Maje, The Kooples, Jigsaw, Weekday, AllSaints, Theory and Joseph. As well as the account management of third-party sites such as Zalando, Very, Next, Nordstrom, John Lewis and Very. Skilled in developing and implementing strategic road maps and pipelines across marketplace/concession and wholesale models, working with internal and external teams to launch and promote new brands, ensuring their success. Confident in leading and preparing trade updates for key partners, stakeholders, and senior team members. With the ability to analyse sales data, forecasts, customer insights and stock performance in order to make recommendations, identify opportunities and actions to drive sales and increase profit. Reliable team member with communication and organizational talents with the ability to build productive relations with stakeholders and co-workers. . I am passionate and confident in my ability to deliver results within a Business Development Manager or Buyer level role due to the wide range of useful experience and knowledge I have gained through working in different categories within Womenswear and Homeware, within different business models. Proven expertise in: • Strategic Planning & Analysis • Purchasing & Inventory Control • Pipeline Strategy • Process Improvements • Key Account Management • Supplier Negotiations and Sales Pitching • Product Development • Trend & Competitor Analysis • Critical Path Management • New Vendor Set Ups
Key Responsibilities: • Manage over 100 brand accounts, focusing on strengthening relationships, growth strategies, product selections, commercial opportunities and negotiating terms. • Analyse sales data and market trends to improve forecasting and sales. Providing brands with product feedback and identifying any missed opportunities, mitigating any risks and driving key areas for growth. • Selection and management of the range, balancing creative and commercial goals and ensuring buys are in line with OTB. • Manage and coach two team members, providing effective guidance on learning objectives and progression, whilst also ensuring the smooth running of the critical path, ensuring to maintain schedules and key deadlines. • Considering best sellers, price structure and missed opportunities in conjunction with new trend and product direction, highlighting emerging opportunities at brand and category level. Over 100 brands including; Loewe, Prada, Jil Sander, Rick Owens, Moncler, Toteme, Issey Miyake, Burberry+ more
Key Responsibilities: • Brand partner relationship management across over 100 different brands both under marketplace and wholesale. • Strategically managing and improving the brand pipeline with the aim to increase the size of the womenswear range so that customers with different budgets and style aesthetics all have a great UX, whilst staying in line with Thread’s own commercial strategy. • Sourcing, pitching, negotiating, and closing commercial deals for new marketplace and wholesale brands. • Working closely with onboarding, operations, styling, content, and data scientists to successfully launch brands onto Thread. • Maintaining the trade calendar – key dates, promotions, campaigns, and marketing activity (working closely with Digital Marketing and Merchandising teams) • Liaising with the Core Merchandising teams to potentialise Online performance with stock opportunities and browsing experience Brands Including: Bestseller Brands, Jigsaw, Theory, Weekday, The Outnet, Ted Baker, Whistles and AllSaints. Key Contributions: • Increased the size of the total womenswear range by 165% to a total of 90,000 options live. • Started conversations with over 60 new potential brand partnerships, signed 20 new brands onto Thread. • Implemented new pipeline processes and documentation to increase efficiency and hit rate. • Increased margin by 0.8% over 6 months through negotiating better terms and increasing the size of the wholesale range. • Lead the project with data science and styling to A/B test inclusive sizing UX on Thread from sizes 2 to 32.
Key Responsibilities: • Sourcing new concessions, negotiating terms with new partners and any amendments to initial contracts (Inclusive, but not limited to commission rates, minimum guarantees, shop fit and marketing contributions). • Managing and developing key brand relationships to work with them collaboratively in order to drive sales, and maximise on any marketing or product range opportunities. • Analysing sales data and profitability in order to provide key actions to grow performance, presenting back to key internal stakeholders and through regular performance meeting with brands • Working collaboratively with other departments such as Merchandising, Marketing, Operations, Legal, Digital, using their insights in turn with my own research to determine which brands are performing well, and so make recommendations on where to take our ranges next and to feed into marketing campaigns. Brands Including: Ted Baker, All Saints, Maje, Sandro, Claudie Pierlot, Whistles, Marni, Joseph, Reiss and The Kooples Key Contributions: • Selected the product range for the launch of Womenswear Selfridges Rental range. • Set up of two new Vintage Concessions; Beyond Retro & We Are Cow in various locations and online. • Managed and shaped the changes in sales data and analytics reporting alongside key IT stakeholders, to support concession partnerships and commercial growth • Worked with new and key concessions to improve and broaden their product ranges; through product grade improvements, wider/deeper assortments, sell thru analysis, sustainable and exclusive collections. • Sourced new concessions such as: -Amy Lynn, Chi Chi London and Jenny Yoo • Overall sales lift YoY of +40% through managing growth opportunities.
Responsible for updating and maintaining the database; creating and managing over 20,000 sku’s per season. Assisting the Buyer and Buyers Assistant with range planning, new season launches and key marketing opportunities, making recommendations and ensuring all key dates are met. Key Contributions: • Nominated as a Buying and Merchandising ‘Superuser’, enrolled within a companywide scheme to lead in the efficient management of product launches, ISNOS and product lifecycle. • Managed the creation of new Concession Guidelines sent out to all brands. • Improvement of concessions sales information through updating and analysing documents, implementing new processes to increase efficiency.
Responsible for creating, managing, updating and reviewing Range Plans, Critical Paths, Purchase Orders, OTB, WSSI’s, Delivery Trackers. Product Developments, Markdowns, Margins, Discounts and Trading terms. Selecting product and influencing ranges, raising key areas for product development. Accounts included: House of Fraser, Nordstrom, John Lewis, Evans, Dorothy Perkins, Zalora and Freemans Key Contributions: • Increased sales performance of up to 40% YoY, 270% over Black Friday period and 30% Seasonally. • Conducted a key style development range, generating large orders from various Key Accounts. • Managed the new vendor set up for Nordstrom, Freemans, Myer, Zalora and 8 House of Fraser stores.
Showroom Set Up Critical Path Management Sample Management Delivery Schedule Tracking ISNOS PO Creation Packing List creation and Delivery bookings with Retailers and couriers Accounts included: Asos, Zalando, Nordstrom, John Lewis, Very, Next, Peek & Cloppenberg, The Iconic, House of Fraser, Debenhams, Freemans, About Yo, Al Shayer, Yours Clothing, Amazon, Dorothy Perkins, Evans,