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Retail buyers choose products for shops to sell, like clothing, toys, electrical goods and food.
You could work: evenings; attending events or appointments
As a retail buyer, you couldattend trade fairs to find new products; negotiate prices, orders and delivery dates; manage product quality; obtain and analyse customer feedback; forecast trends based on consumer data; present collections to senior managers; track sales figures, manage stock levels and keep to budgets; check and react to competitor activities; adapt quickly to meet changing consumer behaviour and trends
You could work in an office or at a store.
You can get into this job through:
You can do a degree before joining a retail company graduate scheme. Employers recruit from a range of degree subjects.
Relevant subjects include:
You could choose a course that includes a year's work placement to get relevant experience alongside your qualification. Or you could gain experience from a part-time job or a summer internship.
Your university careers service can help you to find part-time roles, placements and internships.
You'll usually need:
You could do a course at college to get some of the skills needed to work in retail.
Useful subjects include:
A course may help you to get your first job. You could then move into buying as your experience grows.
The following apprenticeships are relevant to this role.
On the retail side:
On the buying side, you could apply to do an Assistant Buyer and Assistant Merchandiser Level 6 Degree Apprenticeship.
You'll usually need:
You can start as an assistant buyer and go on to become a junior buyer and work your way up. To go straight into a buying role, you'll usually need a qualification in retail or business.
It's possible to get experience in retail on the shop-floor, in visual merchandising, or as an admin assistant in a buyer's office. You can then spend time learning, training and getting qualifications on the job.
Some companies in fashion retail offer training schemes specifically for buyers. These tend to be aimed at graduates. Other types of retailers offer general store management training schemes with the option to specialise in buying later on.
You can also take procurement and supply qualifications through the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply.
Further information
You can find out more about becoming a clothing retail buyer from the Fashion Retail Academy.
With experience and training you could become a senior buyer, buying controller or head of buying. You could also move into product management, marketing or merchandising.