Becoming A Buyers Admin Assisant

Hi Lilys,

So I have been working at Sainsbury’s Head Office for 11 months now as a Buyers Admin Assistant. My first few months working here I was on Toddler Boys, then I moved over to Children’s Essentials. My product area is nightwear, hosiery and socks for boys and girls.  I love the product on this department, we work with different licensors such as Disney and work with so many different characters such as Moshi Monster, Angry Birds, Peppa Pig. The product we produce is fun, cute with a bit of fashion.

For anyone interested in going down the clothing buying route, I started off with going to university studying Fashion Buying at Manchester Metropolitan University. When finding a job or work placement companies prefer if you have had a fashion related degree. I must say however that the course does not prepare you very well for the real world of buying. Its important to have an eye for colour, understand print techniques, how to negotiate, understand the critical path, understanding of yarns and fabrics and their properties. Most of this I have learnt whilst working (however it would have been good to learn this at uni).

My day to day role:

·         It is really important for the buyers admin to manage the critical path and hold critical path meetings. This means asking the suppliers to send you weekly critical paths and you need to check the dates so that each stage is looking on time and if something doesn’t look right or something is running late then you need to bring it up with the supplier and let the team know.

·         To review submissions i.e. strike offs of prints, trims, lab dips, bulk fabrics and send comments of approvals/rejections to suppliers.

·         Raising contracts

·         Sample management

·         Imputing information to the range plan

·         Conducting regular comp shops, either checking online or store visiting. Checking if competitors are doing anything different or new, check prices and how they compare to your own prices

·         Prepare for meetings such as range plan meeting, selection meetings, trade meetings on a Monday morning, press meetings.

·         Supporting the Buyer and Buyers Assistant on a day to day basis

·         Answering queries from suppliers, visual merchandising, merchandising and other colleagues from other departments

The route to become a buyer starts with a Buyers Administrator Assistant (BAA), some companies have different levels of BAAs such as Senior BAA, then Assistant Buyer, Junior Buyer and then a Buyer. If you are really driven then you could be a Buying Mangager/Director.

My advice on key skills:

·         You need to be really driven

·         Understand your customer

·         Be organised

·         Know what your competitors are doing

·         Be hardworking

·         You need to have commercial awareness

Good luck! Hope you find the buying role you love.

Love LilyLish x