What does an assistant merchandise buyer do?
Assistant merchandise buyers are skilled employees who are responsible for assisting other buyers and managers in purchasing products and maintaining the inventory of their store. These buyers must maintain positive relationships with vendors so that they can negotiate product specifications and prices of merchandise. They must prepare budgets and purchase orders so that they can purchase items and ensure on-time delivery of goods. Assistant merchandise buyers must also perform forecasts on their purchasing trends while compiling reports on the performance and statistics of their existing products.
Assistant merchandise buyer responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real assistant merchandise buyer resumes:
- Manage open-to-buy to ensure continual flow of merchandise to stores and warehouses with careful attention to advertise events and promotions.
- Partner with site merchandiser to execute sales and POS events.
- Work closely with the logistics department and internal warehouse to coordinate just in time deliveries and maintain daily inventory reconciliation.
- Verify store numbers, vendor files, UPCS, descriptions and size information against AS400 information.
Assistant merchandise buyer skills and personality traits
We calculated that 9% of Assistant Merchandise Buyers are proficient in Apparel, Kids, and Purchase Orders.
We break down the percentage of Assistant Merchandise Buyers that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Apparel, 9%
Placed buys and worked closely with International office on changes or updates for men's and women's apparel.
- Kids, 6%
Facilitated DC4K (Divorce Care for Kids) of parents who are separated or divorced.
- Purchase Orders, 6%
Created Purchase orders for product and coordinated distribution for various vendor partners/manufacturers.
- Math, 6%
Demonstrate proficiency of retail math skills by identifying potential data discrepancies and challenging logic of calculation.
- Historical Data, 5%
Implement assortment changes according to historical data and forecasted seasonal design trends.
- Promotional Strategies, 4%
Created promotional strategies for all jewelry brands based on sales, new names, metric reporting and the target demographic.
"apparel," "kids," and "purchase orders" are among the most common skills that assistant merchandise buyers use at work. You can find even more assistant merchandise buyer responsibilities below, including:
The three companies that hire the most assistant merchandise buyers are:
- Hudson Group
20 assistant merchandise buyers jobs
- Sysco3 assistant merchandise buyers jobs
- Gap Inc.3 assistant merchandise buyers jobs
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Compare different assistant merchandise buyers
Assistant merchandise buyer vs. Purveyor
A buyer's duties include product sourcing and comparing resources for the best product range that would suit the specific needs of the business. Buyers must have excellent communication and negotiation skills to evaluate items that most likely benefit the customer and improve the sales of daily operations with cost-efficient products. They also conduct extensive research for market and price trends while considering the highest quality standards. Buyers should also possess strong analytical skills to create purchase orders and statistical analysis.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, assistant merchandise buyer responsibilities require skills like "apparel," "kids," "purchase orders," and "math." Meanwhile a typical purveyor has skills in areas such as "food products," "hand inventory," "placement process," and "computer system." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
The education levels that purveyors earn slightly differ from assistant merchandise buyers. In particular, purveyors are 4.5% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than an assistant merchandise buyer. Additionally, they're 0.2% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Assistant merchandise buyer vs. Buyer
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, assistant merchandise buyer responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "apparel," "kids," "math," and "historical data." Meanwhile, a buyer has duties that require skills in areas such as "customer service," "logistics," "supplier performance," and "mrp." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
Buyers earn a higher average salary than assistant merchandise buyers. But buyers earn the highest pay in the automotive industry, with an average salary of $59,735. Additionally, assistant merchandise buyers earn the highest salaries in the retail with average pay of $44,678 annually.buyers earn similar levels of education than assistant merchandise buyers in general. They're 2.1% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Assistant merchandise buyer vs. Gold buyer
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, an assistant merchandise buyer is likely to be skilled in "apparel," "kids," "purchase orders," and "math," while a typical gold buyer is skilled in "customer service," "store operations," "various testing," and "word processing software."
When it comes to education, gold buyers tend to earn similar degree levels compared to assistant merchandise buyers. In fact, they're 2.9% less likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.2% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Assistant merchandise buyer vs. Wholesale and retail merchant
Even though a few skill sets overlap between assistant merchandise buyers and wholesale and retail merchants, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, an assistant merchandise buyer might have more use for skills like "kids," "purchase orders," "math," and "historical data." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of wholesale and retail merchants require skills like "bottom line," "customer service," "retail sales," and "client satisfaction. "
In general, wholesale and retail merchants hold similar degree levels compared to assistant merchandise buyers. Wholesale and retail merchants are 0.6% more likely to earn their Master's Degree and 0.2% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Types of assistant merchandise buyer
Updated January 8, 2025
