Buying Manager, Luxury

Ref#: W180624

Department: Merchandising & Planning

City: New York

State/Province: New York

Location: United States

Pay Range: $65,000 - $129,225 annually; actual pay is dependent on experience and geographic location

Company Description

Ralph Lauren Corporation (NYSE:RL) is a global leader in the design, marketing and distribution of premium lifestyle products in five categories: apparel, accessories, home, fragrances, and hospitality. For more than 50 years, Ralph Lauren's reputation and distinctive image have been consistently developed across an expanding number of products, brands and international markets. The Company's brand names, which include Ralph Lauren, Ralph Lauren Collection, Ralph Lauren Purple Label, Polo Ralph Lauren, Double RL, Lauren Ralph Lauren, Polo Ralph Lauren Children, Chaps, among others, constitute one of the world's most widely recognized families of consumer brands.

At Ralph Lauren, we unite and inspire the communities within our company as well as those in which we serve by amplifying voices and perspectives to create a culture of belonging, ensuring inclusion, and fairness for all. We foster a culture of inclusion through: Talent, Education & Communication, Employee Groups and Celebration.

Position Overview

Maximize sales and profitability of product line through strategic product selection that supports the customer experience. Manage execution and in season performance of assortments through the establishment of strong partnerships with cross functional teams as well as trend/business analysis. Partner with Brand Team and regional partners to drive comprehensive strategy. Overall support of company's long-range goals and divisional strategies/initiatives.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

Execute Product Strategy:

• Formulate and profitably execute the selection, procurement, and promotion of merchandise.
• Deliver compelling product assortment: Travel quarterly to Milan to assort the line, review product assortments with Buying Lead to ensure seasonal strategies are achieved, determine curated door assortments.
• Develop & implement product strategies that tie to financial plans and customer experience.
• Make relevant product recommendations based on demonstrated knowledge of customer, marketplace, and historical trends.
• Ensure product is balanced by price point, fashion degree, and lifestyle/consumer archetype, as well as meets climate needs while protecting brand vision.
• Complete current and historical analysis to support recommendations and decisions at the style/color level.
• Present at all business and assortment meetings and influence decisions.
• Partner with Merchandise Planning, Global Brand Planning, Brand Merchandising, Brand Image, and RLE partners weekly and monthly to implement strategic changes in the business to improve profitability and productivity.
• Score Card seasonal needs and lead global commonality discussions to allow the brand show up consistently at its various points of distribution.
• Support and recommend key look, marketing look, runway items.
• Partner with Brand Image to ensure alignment with product and customer experience strategies in stores and online.
• Identify growth, maintain, and down trending businesses with objective of improving productivity of total.
• Partner with planning to assess risk/opportunity to retail sales and gross margin.
• Review and communicate deadlines, as well as ensure accuracy of outputs from direct report(s).
• Regularly visit stores as well as competition in key markets to stay abreast of market trends and apply learnings to current and future assortments.

Developing Talent:

• Lead by example; engage and inspire team.
• Develop direct report(s) and promote an environment that fosters respect for the ideas of others and supports ongoing collaboration to execute business strategies.
• Provide coaching and feedback on a consistent basis to direct reports.
• Build and manage succession planning for each direct report.
• Manage daily priorities, performance, and work product of all direct reports.

Building Relationships:

• Partner with Brand Merchandising to ensure business needs are met.
• Partner with Lead to ensure strategies align with divisional and customer experience strategies.
• Establish and grow a strong level of communication and partnership with business partners in and outside of immediate cross functional team (RLS, RLE, Brand Image, Merchandise Planning, Allocations).

Experience, Skills, and Knowledge

• Ability to direct and manage multiple activities
• Understanding of different system capabilities
• High level of accuracy, detail orientation and organization skills
• Strong presentation & communication skills; both written and verbal
• Ability to complete current & historical analysis (change to attributing) of the business to support recommendations and decisions. (color/style level)
• Creative, assertive, and solution-oriented
• Clear grasp of the product lifecycle
• Customer, marketplace & product expert
• Strong leadership and team building skills including the ability to motivate, negotiate and influence effectively across departments & divisions
• Develop strong relationships throughout the organization
• Need to travel internationally quarterly as well as frequent store visits
• Understanding of tailored clothing is a plus