From the Retailer's Mind: 5 Questions With Fashion Buyers

I’ve always been curious as to what goes on in the mind of a fashion buyer and what goes into buying for a brand. Sometimes some collections seem tailor made to a certain style, while others seem to have a bit for everyone. The fashion buyer seems like the ultimate glamorous job in fashion, so when I got the opportunity to pick the brains of the buyers at Simply Be at their headquarters in Manchester, I was thrilled.

Check out the interview below.

WHAT GOES INTO A BUY AND HOW DOES THE PROCESS WORK?

SB Buyers: A buy starts months and months before it gets onto the website and in the stores. It involves planning and keeping a close eye on what the trends are going to be for that season and knowing who your customer is. Then you have to source fabrics and factories, then wait for the order to arrive. Then you shoot it on the models and finally it lands on the shelves. It’s a longer process than people might imagine.

HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHETHER TO DO PRODUCTION LOCALLY OR ABROAD?

SB BUYERS: It may be cheaper to go further out, like somewhere in Asia, but it also takes much longer for production. When you produce locally, it’s more expensive, but the order may not take nearly as long. Sometimes you end up with a mix for one season, where you do some orders locally and they arrive earlier and some further out that take longer to reach the stores.

IF YOU TEST OUT A POPULAR TREND BUT IT DOESN’T DO WELL, DO YOU GIVE IT A CHANCE TO COME BACK?

SB BUYER: For the most part, here at our stores, no we don’t. It’s rare that if an item doesn’t sell at all that we are going to bring it back. We want to keep our customer happy and keep her updated with the most current and popular styles.

DO YOU HAVE A SEPARATE BUYER FOR EACH REGION? DOES THE SAME PERSON BUY FOR THE UK CUSTOMER AS THE US?

SB BUYERS: We have separate merchandising teams, web and social media teams for the US and UK. We usually buy the same items for both customers, although the American fashionista and the British fashionista do have minor differences in their tastes.

DO YOU KEEP UP WITH WHAT OTHER STORES ARE DOING?

SB BUYERS: All retailers definitely look at the merchandise, pricing and marketing of their competitors to get an idea of what the market looks like. We are always striving to make sure we offer the best products at the best prices and are offering our customer our products in a way that only we can.