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Assistant buyer skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

5 min read

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical assistant buyer skills. We ranked the top skills for assistant buyers based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 16.0% of assistant buyer resumes contained purchase orders as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills an assistant buyer needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 assistant buyer skills for your resume and career

1. Purchase Orders

Here's how assistant buyers use purchase orders:

Generated and processed purchase orders for procurement of Medical/Surgical supplies, materials and equipment, including stationary and office supplies.
Monitored shipped purchase orders and resolved issues with potentially late orders to ensure timely delivery to Distribution Center.

2. Vendor Relations

Here's how assistant buyers use vendor relations:

Establish positive vendor relationships in order to effectively influence vendors and maintain daily interaction to solve problems and follow-up.
Maintain strong vendor relationships by negotiating prices with manufacturers, wholesalers and shipment options for inventory and specialty products.

3. Customer Service

Customer service is the process of offering assistance to all the current and potential customers -- answering questions, fixing problems, and providing excellent service. The main goal of customer service is to build a strong relationship with the customers so that they keep coming back for more business.

Here's how assistant buyers use customer service:

Served as additional personnel to the MyColder's customer service experience by providing timely and accurate solutions to customer concerns.
Provided customer service and complaint resolution by proposing solutions that best satisfied the company and customer.

4. Math

Here's how assistant buyers use math:

Displayed comprehensive understanding of broadcast functions and media math, software and broadcast research tools.
Developed an understanding of retail math, sales analytics, and collection presentation.

5. Apparel

Apparel is anything worn especially formal clothes; outerwear; garments; attire; raiment worn on an important occasion to protect, wrap, adorn or beautify the body. Apparel also refers to clothing of a specific type that is sold in stores. Product categories include everything from basic items like underwear, badges, jewelry to luxury items. The general classification of clothing is as follows: men's wear, women's wear, children's wear, and others.

Here's how assistant buyers use apparel:

Developed relationships with Asian factories and wholesalers for Private Label and branded apparel and accessories verticals.
Created and analyzed selling reports of top-selling apparel items for company distribution.

6. Open-To-Buy

Open-To-Buy (OTB) is an inventory management system that works in association with a retail business. OTB determines the amount of merchandise a retail store can buy during a stated period. It defines the amount of inventory that is needed to meet customer demand and which you can buy while still ensuring positive cash flow. Open-To-Buy planning is necessary to ensure adequate stock for the business. It is essentially the difference between how much inventory is available and how much inventory is needed to meet customer demand.

Here's how assistant buyers use open-to-buy:

Managed open-to-buy to ensure continual flow of merchandise to stores and warehouses with careful attention to advertised events and promotions.
Analyzed selling based on historical and current performance, include monitoring merchandise, stock analysis and Open-to-Buy reports.

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7. Product Knowledge

Product knowledge is the skill of having better information and knowledge about the product you are selling. Product knowledge is essential for the employees of the companies so they can communicate and inform the customers about the product. Having great product knowledge is essential for a better sales pitch and to give the customer a better and complete idea of the product that will influence him to buy the product eventually.

Here's how assistant buyers use product knowledge:

Participate in developing Standard Operating Procedures and additional product knowledge to support e-commerce business.
Facilitate seasonal product knowledge meetings with General Managers to educate on future product offerings.

8. Gross Margin

Here's how assistant buyers use gross margin:

Performed gross margin analysis on sales to determine the profitability of merchandise and vendor assortments.
Updated daily forecast by department and vendor to project gross margin profitability.

9. Product Selection

Here's how assistant buyers use product selection:

Communicated and supported monthly print and digital marketing strategy from conceptualization, product selection, and approval of final assets.
Supported the catalog product selection process and maintained communication records to ensure pricing and description accuracy for all advertised products.

10. Market Trends

Here's how assistant buyers use market trends:

Responded to customer feedback, market trends and developed action plans that drove category specific growth and increased profitability.
Provide analysis and critique regarding product introduction and deletion based on performance history and market trends.

11. POS

POS is an abbreviation of "Point of Sale" which is the time and place where a customer completes a transaction. It can either be a physical shop that consists of POS terminals or a virtual shop. A POS system helps simplify the retail functions and track important sales data.

Here's how assistant buyers use pos:

Partnered with advertising to execute POS and brand driven events through mailers, email blasts and marketing.
Trained employees on POS system to keep accurate sales, inventory levels, and employee hours.

12. Product Assortment

Here's how assistant buyers use product assortment:

Help coordinate marketing strategies within the business including product assortment of movies and audio-video accessories and national print circular advertisements.
Facilitated projects with product development team within vertical company to develop new product and corrected product assortment in stores.

13. Product Development

Product development is the complete procedure of creating a product from concept until release of the final product. Product development has many stages after which a product is released into the market. Identifying the need, creating the opportunity, conceptualizing a product, and providing a solution, all are different stages of product development.

Here's how assistant buyers use product development:

Contributed to product development, line building/reviewing, and assortment planning efforts; made decisions regarding catalog/direct product lineups.
Communicated with domestic/international vendors regarding cost negotiations, product development, production time lines and delivery issues.

14. Market Research

Market research is a collective effort to collect information related to a consumer's needs and wants. It is a systematic approach that involves recording and analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data. Market research helps a business to identify a target market correctly and identify the gaps in potential consumer's expectations.

Here's how assistant buyers use market research:

Conducted sales analysis and market research on advertising trends and sales generated activity.
Achieved this through continuous market research including competitive shopping.

15. Business Strategies

Here's how assistant buyers use business strategies:

Implemented new business strategies and recommend innovative ideas for future opportunities based on findings.
Identified emerging trends and developed business strategies outlining strengths, weaknesses and opportunities.

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List of assistant buyer skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for an assistant buyer resume and required skills for an assistant buyer to have include:

Purchase Orders
Vendor Relations
Customer Service
Math
Apparel
Open-To-Buy
Product Knowledge
Gross Margin
Product Selection
Market Trends
POS
Product Assortment
Product Development
Market Research
Business Strategies
Payment Terms
Inventory Management

Delivery Dates
Trade Shows
Receipt Flow
E-Commerce
Photo Shoots
Business Trends
Sales Performance
OTB
DMM
IMU
Store Operations
Inventory Control
Distribution Centers
Order Entry
Store Locations
Pricing Strategy
Buying Process

Retail Store
Jewelry
RTV
Sales Data
Promotional Strategies
Sales Floor
Sales Plan
Product Line
Sales Associates
Historical Data
Market Appointments
Sales Trends
Merchandise Assortments
Vendor Negotiations
Merchandise Selection

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

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