The Status And Responsibilities Of Clothing Buyer In Clothing Enterprises

clothing Buyer It is based on the basic purpose of gaining profits and meeting the needs of consumers. It is familiar with the clothing market sales, understands design, understands production, can react quickly according to market and fashion trends, formulate scientific procurement plan, select and organize goods from clothing manufacturers or clothing wholesalers, and then sell them to clothing retailers, so as to maximize profits and brand development of clothing experts or expert groups.

Buyers need to have a good ability to explore and understand fashion. Usually buyers will prepare for next season's products in advance for half a year or even longer. So buyers must understand the trend of fashion and prepare for selling the new season products. At the same time, we should also analyze the sales data of previous years and the market, find out the laws of the existence of best sellers and unsalable goods, and propose reservations or amendments. In the process of product listing, buyers should communicate with display personnel and salesmen to promote sales, so as to achieve good digestion of inventory.

Buyer classification

At present, the existence of buyers in the domestic market is mainly based on the nature of their services. retail Buyers and brand buyers are two kinds.

Retail buyer - shop buyer / agent buyer

Shop buyers are mainly trained from shop managers or salesmen, who are only responsible for their own brands. Stock purchase And coordinate retail, marketing and visual merchandising. Because of the high cost of single store buyers, this mode of operation is only suitable for luxury brands. However, many excellent shop managers and salesmen in China have also played the role of buyers. For example, in recent years, the shopkeeper often has to go to foreign fashion cities to collect some new clothes that suit their store location.

Buying agents often run one or more brands, all of which are brand products that have been designed. Buyers do not organize production, nor are they responsible for product development, but buy orders from brand headquarters. At this point, the buyer's work mainly includes group goods, merchandise management and sales tracking, and sometimes marketing, shop display and so on. For example, Metersbonwe's annual orders in Shanghai headquarters will be invited to participate, through on-site physical reference and combined with the SAP ordering system, to achieve the order.

There are two kinds of buyers in department stores and supermarkets. One is to buy a mature brand for a department store or a supermarket, and a buyer of buyout business. Its main job is to communicate with various brands of manufacturers or agents, decide what brand to buy, buy what kind of goods, buy and so on, and they do not need to know the design and development of products. The other is buying goods for department stores or supermarket brands. This kind of buyer is similar to the brand buyer, but should take into account the functions of product development, commodity planning and clothing purchasing. For example, Huarun Wanjia supermarket's own brand clothing "Victor&Victoria" and WAL-MART launched the main middle class brand new clothing brand "Metro7".

Brand buyer

Buyers who directly or indirectly control the production process and retail system are called brand buyers. Nowadays, the brands in the domestic market can be classified into two types: supply type and direct type.

Supply brands rely mainly on agents to develop regional markets. Brand enterprises run factories' production and processing links, or order processing outside. Most brands in China rely on this form to develop. In such enterprises, because the right of ordering is in the hands of agents, the responsibility of brand buyers is limited to commodity planning, style development and organization production. The buyer needs to coordinate the work of all departments in the company, including sales, marketing, logistics, and external needs to coordinate the processing and production of garment factories or traders.

Brand buyers of direct Brand Company

Direct brand is the brand that is directly controlled by the brand enterprises themselves, and does not depend on agents or franchisees to expand the market. Nowadays, white-collar workers, YOUNGOR and so on are all enterprises of this type. In this kind of enterprise, brand buyers should not only have the functions in the supply brand, but also an important task to monitor sales data with the sales department and make quick response to maximize sales and minimize inventory. In this mode of operation, buyers should not only have the function of product development, but also need to take account of the late sales coordination.

Relationship between brand buyers and other sectors

The buyer will regularly communicate with colleagues in other departments of the company, because the successful R & D and sales of a clothing series are the result of team cooperation, and experts from various fields should participate in it. The frequency of contact between buyers and departments is not the same.

Relationship between buyer and production purchasing department

Although buyers and purchasers have the function of purchasing, procurement is often only at the level of execution, but buyers have the functions of management and operation. Moreover, the purchase of domestic garment enterprises is mostly the purchase of raw and auxiliary materials, and buyers are aimed at ready-made garments, and must purchase on the basis of market demand and commodity planning. Buyers follow up production and procurement, supervise and guide production purchasing process, and production procurement also gives suppliers and price information back to buyers so as to provide buyers with more comprehensive clothing procurement.

Relationship between buyer and Design Department

First of all, buyers and designers are not the same, although many domestic designers are undertaking the functions of buyers. The professional position of the buyer is also the managers of the enterprises. They also carry out product development and operation in the market, and at the same time, they must also manage and maintain the terminal market. The designer is mainly responsible for product development and brand positioning, and is not involved in other links.

Secondly, the buyer's grasp of the market is more conducive to make up for the lack of designer's product development. The buyer feedback the style information and market information to the designer, modify the style and technology by the designer, and the designer passes the fashion trend and the brand positioning information to the buyer.

Finally, designers and buyers are actually in the mainstream of manufacturing popularity, and the division of labor among them is different. Clothing enterprises always need buyers, and always need designers.

Relationship between buyer and sales department

The difference between the buyer and the sales department is that the buyer is responsible for organizing the "entry" of the goods, and the sales department is responsible for organizing the "exit" of the goods. In short, "one buy, one sell" constitutes a supply and marketing cycle in the course of business. The sales department is the Department that is closest to the market and understands the market trend. Its sales report provides buyers with information about past best sellers and unsalable goods. Through the analysis of best sellers and unsalable goods, buyers can make more reasonable purchasing plans. It can be said that sales data is the most scientific basis for buyers to purchase goods, which ensures the timely, proper and proper purchase. On the other hand, the buyer will help the sales department to make a sales promotion plan.

Brand buyer's job content and responsibility {page_break}

Brand positioning analysis

Buyers, whether at the beginning of brand creation or relatively stable development period of brand style, need to make detailed analysis of market size, target consumer group and so on, and locate brands in many ways. For example, the international brand ZARA's brand strategy positioning is "affordable fast fashion".

Through the analysis of brand positioning, buyers can basically get information about brand price, consumer characteristics, style and fashion level, so as to refer to the purchase of goods.

Trend prediction

Professional buyers must be keen on fashion and have a keen insight into fashion trends. And the grasp of fashion trends mainly includes colors, fabrics, grades and prices. Taking color as an example, besides the brand's main color, it is necessary to select relevant colors from the next season's popular colors, and the colors between different bands must have continuity, such as light purple to purple, light grey to dark grey and black.

There are many ways to get popular trends, such as fashion magazines, fashion fairs, fashion shows, designers' personal releases, etc. The prediction of epidemic trend is not a simple guess, but a selective analysis and judgement based on the target population and selecting suitable epidemic elements within the acceptable popularity of the target population.

market analysis

Buyers often need to go to competitors' clothing stores to get information about products' prices, fabrics, colors, styles and promotion strategies, and compare their strengths and weaknesses, so as to clarify the position of their products in the market.

In addition, buyers compare their products with competitors' products to see their own missing styles and series, so as to make quick response, purchase such products, or provide product development opinions to designers.

As a qualified buyer, we need to have a clear understanding of the target population of the brand, including the age, income, occupational characteristics, hobbies and habits of the target audience. Buyers' choice of products should be based on the needs of target groups, rather than judging products according to their preferences. Through market research, we can get all kinds of information about target consumer groups.

Make purchase plan

When formulating purchase plans, buyers should take into consideration the above three kinds of preliminary information. When formulating the new season's goods plan, they should follow the principle of "Five Principles", namely, timely, suitable price, suitable store, suitable quantity and proper quality, that is, selecting the right number of correct merchandise at reasonable price at the right time, and selling it in the right place. The purchase plan can not be modified once it is made, and the buyer should adjust accordingly according to the market reaction in the later stage, such as rewriting orders and eliminating bills.

By comparing and analyzing the different responsibilities of different types of buyers, this paper analyzes the relationship and responsibilities of brand buyers in the enterprise and other departments, and determines the status of domestic brand buyers. Although the domestic buyer industry is not yet mature, with the continuous improvement of the management mode of domestic garment enterprises, the introduction of brand buyers will bring new hope for the integration and upgrading of domestic clothing brands. At the same time, it is necessary to combine the retail environment in China with a buyer who is suitable for the development of Chinese brands.