Our Recruitment Consultant Sarah recruits across Retail Head Office and Supply Chain and always gets questions from jobseekers about careers in Buying. In this video, she breaks down the difference between Buying, Purchasing and Procurement and the skills employers look for when recruiting each.
Buying is a highly competitive industry, meaning it’s crucial to ace the interview for the position you are going for. Excel’s Sarah Hurley takes the most common interview questions and how to tackle them.
Due to the size of the retail market in Ireland, there are limited Buying opportunities. Therefore, if you secure an interview, it is important that you build a strong case in order to land the job. Buyers hold a unique skill set so you will need to demonstrate this and relevant experience by giving your personal professional examples when answering their questions.
To answer this question successfully, you will start off by giving the interviewer an overview of your department, what you buy and what that involves. Be prepared with your facts and figures and use this question as an opportunity to highlight any successes you and your team have had such as increased sales, increased sell-through rates or improved margins etc. You don’t have to talk actual sales figures but do give percentages if possible, ‘We traded up 5% on plan and reduced mark down by 8% year on year’.
The interviewer is looking for you to think commercially and critically, and to see that you’ve done your homework. Use your insights into the brand and their competitors to spot any gaps or missed opportunities within the range and explain your reasoning. Make informed suggestions by visiting stores beforehand and/or critiquing the range online and make reference to current trends, what competitors are doing, and what is happening in the wider market.
This question is to test your understanding of the retail market and where the business sits within this. Consider their customer, and what makes them shop with them over elsewhere. What does the business do better and worse than their competitors? Please keep criticism to a minimum and also be able to explain your thought process with actual examples. For any retail buying job, prepare by researching the market, who the big players are, any recent news (like an acquisition or merger), whose market share is increasing, whose is decreasing, etc. Ensure you discuss competitors operating within the same space and with the same customer base and aesthetic as the company you’re interviewing with. For example, if you are interviewing with Dunnes Stores, you will always talk about a business like Tesco as their direct competitor.
A major part of any buying job is daily negotiation. Use real-life examples and demonstrate your ability to get the best commercial results for the business, while still maintaining a positive relationship with stakeholders inside and out of the business.
Sarah Hurley oversees Head office and Buying roles. Below, Sarah takes us through how she got into recruitment.
What titles did you hold while working in Retail?
Trainee Buyer, Assistant Buyer, Senior Assistant Buyer, Junior Buyer.
How does it compare going from working in Retail to a Recruitment environment?
Coming from a buying perspective it’s not as fast paced and probably more service focused.
What was your favourite part about working in retail?
Developing product and analysing sales performance were my favourite.
What is your favourite aspect of working in Recruitment?
Keeping candidates and clients mutually happy.
Are you seeing any difference in applications over the last 12 months?
Perhaps more Ecommerce candidates are applying and also more Ecommerce jobs are being registered with us.
What do you favour most when a CV comes into your inbox? What must haves does a candidate need in order to be considered?
Keep it simple/ My ideal CV has a short personal profile that sums the candidate up and describes main objective for their career, followed by career summary, education, IT skills (computer programs and systems you can use well) and then any relevant interests. CV’s on Word are preferred as PDF’s can often at time be difficult to format if we need to.
What has been your most favoured candidate placement and why?
One candidate we worked with wanted to get into a trainee merchandiser role. She had great experience but was struggling with nerves at interview and her relevant skills and knowledge weren’t getting across. We spent time with her going through her CV, practising interview questions and any potential difficulties she might come across. Long story short – she got the job and we’re all delighted for her!
A young sales assistant aspires to be a Retail/Area Manager – Buyer/Senior Buyer. Describe what they should do in 4 sentences?
If the company they work for has a head office here in Ireland then it would make sense to see if they offer any entry level buying or merchandising schemes depending on which function you wish to get into. For any head office roles, it is pretty imperative to gain some office experience so you can brush up on your IT skills and work in a fast paced environment.
