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Head of merchandise buying skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical head of merchandise buying skills. We ranked the top skills for heads of merchandise buying based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 25.2% of head of merchandise buying resumes contained customer service as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a head of merchandise buying needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 head of merchandise buying skills for your resume and career

1. 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 heads of merchandise buying use customer service:

Supervised and performed merchandising displays, product availability, daily price accountability and customer service.
Increased sales with excellent customer service levels and developed relationships with regular customers.

2. Gross Margin

Here's how heads of merchandise buying use gross margin:

Evaluated on sales and gross margins for the chain.

3. 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 heads of merchandise buying use product development:

Created an infrastructure to manage the sourcing and buying to all aspects of product development, production, quality and compliance.
Traveled extensively to India as company liaison for product development, sourcing, costing and production.

4. Store Management

Here's how heads of merchandise buying use store management:

Worked independently and autonomously with store management under the supervision of International manager located in Great Britain.
Keep track of inventory, worked with store management, all resets completed by feline...

5. Inventory Management

Here's how heads of merchandise buying use inventory management:

Supervised and maintained accurate up-to-date inventory management and control systems to support demand and acceptable inventory turn ratio.
Established weekly inventory review process facilitated by home grown inventory management tools and reporting.

6. Inventory Control

Here's how heads of merchandise buying use inventory control:

Automated inventory control and ordering system in preparation for ERP conversion.
Coordinate such withdrawals with the warehouse for proper inventory control and pricing.

7. Sales Floor

The sales floor is the area in a company or a business that is specified for retail activities or is designated as the selling area of the shop. A car showroom can be considered a sales floor, as it has cars in its display which are to be sold. A sales floor is generally crowded with sales assistants who are there to help you out while you can search and check out the products. Generally a sales floor has free access to the public and they can observe, view and get information about the product that is being sold.

Here's how heads of merchandise buying use sales floor:

Developed sales strategies and trained professional staff on overall sales habits and appearance of the sales floor.
Managed surplus inventory, sales floor organization and cleanliness.

8. 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 heads of merchandise buying use pos:

Maintain a custom database to keep track of open cleaning and rework POs that are not reflected in MRP or PROPS.
Created cross-functional POS Team consisting of divisional sales representatives to discuss and evaluate the future development of point-of-sale.

9. Sales Data

Sales data is usually statistics/ information about the performance of your sales team and key trends around your pipeline/ current customers. This data helps with forecasting and also understanding areas for improvement.

Here's how heads of merchandise buying use sales data:

Analyzed pricing and margins, sales data, inventory levels, and purchasing for over 1,500 items seasonally.
Analyze merchandise and sales data.

10. Trade Shows

Here's how heads of merchandise buying use trade shows:

Organized several promotionalevents both in the store and at trade shows.
Developed marketing strategies including participation in trade shows and high visibility at local special events to establish a solid client base

11. Product Selection

Here's how heads of merchandise buying use product selection:

Participated with Paramount Parks corporate buying office in product selection and purchasing of licensed character merchandise and import product programs.
Assisted in product selection and placement for promotional advertising.

12. OTB

Here's how heads of merchandise buying use otb:

Interpreted, analyzed and responded to all reports including: OTB, selling reports and seasonal plans.
Prepared the merchandise assortment plan for the company, managed the OTB and purchased the merchandise.

13. Product Placement

Here's how heads of merchandise buying use product placement:

Determined all product placement, product assortment, and budget allocations within departments.
Planned and executed the layout of fixtures and product placement within that department.

14. Retail Store

Here's how heads of merchandise buying use retail store:

Head buyer for hardware store, determining overall direction of retail store.
Handle inventory and ordering new products Manage a retail store Pack and ship all online orders

15. Photo Shoots

A photoshoot is a series of photographs that a photographer takes of someone, usually of a model or a famous person, to be used in a newspaper or a magazine. The goal of a photoshoot is to achieve a predetermined visual objective. Later, these images can be used for editing or post-production..

Here's how heads of merchandise buying use photo shoots:

Produced a call sheet for all on location photo shoots.
Provide costuming for fashion shows and celebrity photo shoots.

What skills help Heads Of Merchandise Buying find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

List of head of merchandise buying skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a head of merchandise buying resume and required skills for a head of merchandise buying to have include:

Customer Service
Gross Margin
Product Development
Store Management
Inventory Management
Inventory Control

Sales Floor
POS
Sales Data
Trade Shows
Product Selection
OTB

Product Placement
Retail Store
Photo Shoots
Product Knowledge
Retail Sales

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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