If you love fashion and everything connected with it, think about a career in the fashion industry, then perhaps the profession of buyer will be the most suitable for you. This specialty is suitable for versatile individuals with high-quality academic education, combining creativity with deep analytical work. The result will not be long in coming: this profession is very popular and promising.
Fashion Procurement Profession
Bayer provides companies with a stable profit, and therefore worth its weight in gold. Qualified buyers have an aesthetic taste, analytical thinking and the basics of doing business. The fashionable profession has many advantages and is suitable for those who do not want to vegetate in the office and live on a schedule.
Bayer is a buyer of fashionable clothes: he carries out analytical work, is on the same wavelength with customers, knows what thing will be in demand. Not only shops are listening to his opinion, but also designers when developing new collections. The specialty appeared several decades ago in Europe.
Bayer stylist | Art buyer | Media buyer |
His main task is to choose an assortment for the store: not only harmonious, but also generating revenue. He understands the current level of demand, knows everything about trends in the fashion world, carefully monitors the latest shows. | He works in the field of advertising: collaborates with photographers, draws up technical tasks for them, organizes and supervises their work. | His activity is related to the purchase of advertising space: he owns information about all discounts, promotions, controls the conclusion of the contract and its implementation, compliance with the conditions and terms. |
Being a good buyer is not easy: consumer demand is constantly changing, it is difficult to track fashion trends. In addition to identifying trends and studying the target audience, buyers are engaged in the search for the most profitable offers, evaluate suppliers and enter into contracts with them. The expert's tasks include maintaining professional relations, searching for new suppliers, constant communication with colleagues, rotation in different circles, trips around the country and abroad. Good taste and love for the fashion industry is not enough: you need mathematical thinking, knowledge of information technology, no less important skill will be sociability and resistance to stress.
Information about the profession:
Duties | Skills | Requirements |
Analysis of fashion trends, past and new collections of clothes | Demand analysis and forecasting | Higher education |
Formation of seasonal collections | Sales planning | Spoken and written English, Italian or Chinese |
Study of the target audience, knowledge of its preferences and desires | Pricing | Experience in purchasing goods from the fashion industry |
Product ranking | Analysis of sales statistics | Experience with companies from Europe and Asia |
Assortment Search | Sociability | PC knowledge |
Negotiating with buyers | Intuition | Ownership of electronic services |
Conclusion of contracts | Great taste | Market knowledge |
Coordination of designs for sewing |
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Pricing |
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Sales planning |
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What are the prospects and salary of a buyer?
Good qualified specialists have excellent career prospects: buyers can grow up to company executives or becomefashioncritics, which designers and fashion houses will listen to. To become a pro, you need a good education in a specialty that will increase the chances of finding a job several times.
In Europe, the top buyers earn up to 200 thousand dollars a year.
In addition to prestige and high wages, you will get an interesting and eventful life: the activity of a buyer involves visiting private showrooms and shows, numerous acquaintances, traveling around the world.
Where to get education in fashion purchases?
Domestic universities do not yet have programs in this specialty - in order to receive a specialized education, you must go abroad. In Europe, the activity of a buyer is an important link in the implementation of the company’s activities, therefore leading European universities offer high-quality, detailed programs that will allow students to successfully implement their profession.
In leading European universities, you can get specialized education in procurement through the programs Buying and Merchandising, Fashion business andBrand management. In prestigious universities in Europe, you can find different programs - short-term courses in the summer, long-term programs such as undergraduate and graduate programs. The leading countries for the study of fashion are the UK, France, Italy. In these countries, popular higher education institutions with a narrow focus are located: London College of Fashion, Istituto Marangoni,Polimoda International Institute.
Popular programs:
- Purchase of Fashion Collections Summer Course at Istituto Marangoni
- Summer Fashion Buying Course at Polimoda International Institute
- Master's Course in Fashion Buying at Istituto Marangoni
- Master's Course in Fashion Buying & Product Management at Polimoda International Institute
- Graduate program “Fashion Buying & Merchandising” at Istituto Marangoni.
Interesting facts about the profession
- Bonuses
Analysts can buy clothes at very good discounts - they take clothes from the new collections for “tasting” in order to understand whether it will be in demand. You will learn the business side of the industry, will play a significant role in bringing new trends to the consumer.
- Collaborations
This work may seem like a one-man show, but it is not entirely true. Buyers in large companies are members of large teams involved in merchandising; in smaller companies, buyers work in the marketing department. Together with marketers, the expert is constantly looking for the answer to the question: “What can we offer the buyer, which is not on the market?”.
- Professionalism
It is necessary to find a balance between science and art: at the same time, a buyer needs a technical mentality and a developed aesthetic taste. Creativity, self-confidence are no less important. Creative people work in this industry, each with their own point of view, therefore it is important to become an expert.
- Lifestyle
Those who don’t like the monotony and are easy on the rise will like this job: analysts have an irregular schedule, with frequent business trips, work in the evenings. The expert must always be in touch and be prepared for unforeseen situations.
