Less is MORE
The Art of Buying
Lonnie Tucker, Founder SG Retail Solutions
The best Specialty Store Buyers across the country are known for their stores’ beauty and their keen eye for exceptional products. Not only are they able to spot the most desirable products in a category or collection, but they can also spot the ideal product at the right price their customers will pay in that category or collection. They know their customers.
What they are not mainly known for is Editing. However, the most talented buyers are actually the best Editors. Each product these super buyers bring to the floor has its own relevance and does not compete with other products in the store. While it may be an integral part of a collection, it stands on its own as attractive to the customer from both a look and price point perspective.
This finely edited approach manifests itself financially as ON budget. It manifests itself on the floor as a beautifully choreographed, focused assortment of the most appealing products in their marketplace with enough depth to fill their customer’s demand yet sell through in a reasonable timeframe. Each time their customers arrive in their store, they see newness, which in turn drives demand/ the need to buy it right now.
FORWARD to FALL – Back to the Basics
Don’t underfund key businesses
Aggressively pursue landing the right amount of stock to begin each month with the right inventory to achieve your sales goals.
Don’t overfund non-performing businesses
We all tend to have designers, collections, or styles we believe in that just don’t hit the mark with our customers. We make miss-buys, and the key is to recognize this earlier than later and not let your cash get tied up in inventory. Make efforts quickly to promote what’s not working and get the product out the door and the money in the bank to fund products that are working.
Watch new receipts closely
Watching new collections, vendors, or styles closely looking at sell-through weekly allows you to react quickly to opportunities or slow-selling products.
Reserve Dollars for Reorders and Off-Price
In classifications with re-orderable core products, look at your historical reorder dollars and reserve the funds monthly for those core buys. Don’t walk business on basics due to no open-to-buy dollars giving your customers the message they need to shop elsewhere if they want to be sure to pick up their size when they need it.
Ask for Discounts on reorders
In a time when hiring and retaining good associates costs more, nothing can be more crucial than IMU. As Fall arrives, remind your buyers not to be too busy to ask for the best price when placing a reorder. As seasons move forward, products left in the warehouse often can be purchased for less than the standard wholesale price. The key is to ask “What’s the best price you can give me” every time.
Have a plan for each category of your business
If you don’t have a plan that gives you an accurate sales forecast, inventory level, stock to sales ratio, and an open-to-buy plan monthly for each category in each location, get one. If you don’t plan it and measure your progress, you can’t achieve your goals.