Manager, Full Price Buying

Since its launch in 1993 with a collection of six essential handbags, Kate Spade New York has always been colorful, bold, and optimistic. Today, it is a global lifestyle brand that designs extraordinary things for the everyday, delivering seasonal collections of handbags, ready-to-wear, jewelry, footwear, home décor, and more. Known for its rich heritage and unique brand DNA, Kate Spade New York offers a distinctive point of view and celebrates communities of women around the globe who live their perfectly imperfect lifestyles. 

Kate Spade New York is part of the Tapestry portfolio – a global house of brands committed to stretching what’s possible.

A member of the Tapestry family, we are part of a global house of brands that has unwavering optimism and is committed to being innovative and wholly inclusive. Visit Our People page to learn more about Tapestry's commitment to equity, inclusion, and diversity.

Title: Manager, Full Price Buying
Reports to: Senior Manager, Full Price Buying
Location: Tokyo
 

Primary Purpose: 

Manager of Buying owns an assigned group such as handbag by establishing strategic merchandise plans to achieve category KPI’s: Sales, margin, SKU productivity, WOS, Inventory turn. This position would assort and invest in market relevant Kate Spade product and execute merchandise strategy. While supporting global merchandising strategies, the Buyer would also develop and refine a strategic view on customer segments and behaviors in order to better position the brand and the products in the market. He / She would provide ongoing feedback around merchandise needs to Global.

Key Responsibilities:    

Buying
•    Formulate the buying strategy and lead to execute the buy
•    Partner closely with the Planning functions to review, understand and determine opportunities in future sales and investment plans
•    Collaborate with Planning and Allocations functions on strategies to address product liabilities and develop action plan to liquidate in a timely and profitable manner
•    Effectively use existing resources and tools to monitor business on a regular basis, and report on weekly business trends and implement actions
•    Conduct regular market research on industry trends, competitors, sales and product performance and include insights into strategy i.e. local price management

Cross-functional Collaboration
•    Engage in ongoing communication with Global Merchandising Team on local market needs and trends, that includes but not limited to special products, new store openings and new initiatives
•    Work closely with Allocation team to drive an optimal stock allocation strategy that supports the merchandising plans and drive actions where needed
•    Partner with Marketing to ensure key initiatives or product ideas are supported through the various communication platforms
•    Collaborate with Retail Operations and Logistics to ensure programs, product placements and changes are clearly communicated
•    Partner with VM on monthly floor-sets, product display and window executions to ensure the buying and assortment vision is effectively implemented at each floor-set
•    Work closely with Field Service Training teams to enable quarterly product/new launch training

Education/Qualifications:
•    3-5+ years of Buying and/or Merchandising experience in fashion
•    Experience at luxury goods is a plus
•    Merchandising planning experience is a plus
•    General understanding/interest in fashion trend/industry
•    Business-level skills in both English and Japanese
•    Excellent interpersonal skills
•    Flexible / Comfortable with change & ambiguity
•    Action-oriented
•    Number-oriented, logical thinking
•    Excellent MS (Word and Excel) and Power Point skills

Our Competencies for All Employees

• Courage: Doesn’t hold back anything that needs to be said; provides current, direct, complete, and “actionable” positive and corrective feedback to others; lets people know where they stand; faces up to people problems on any person or situation (not including direct reports) quickly and directly; is not afraid to take negative action when necessary.
• Creativity: Comes up with a lot of new and unique ideas; easily makes connections among previously unrelated notions; tends to be seen as original and value-added in brainstorming settings.
• Customer Focus: Is dedicated to meeting the expectations and requirements of internal and external customers; gets first-hand customer information and uses it for improvements in products and services; acts with customers in mind; establishes and maintains effective relationships with customers and gains their trust and respect.
• Dealing with Ambiguity: Can effectively cope with change; can shift gears comfortably; can decide and act without having the total picture; isn’t upset when things are up in the air; doesn’t have to finish things before moving on; can comfortably handle risk and uncertainty.
• Drive for Results: Can be counted on to exceed goals successfully; is constantly and consistently one of the top performers; very bottom-line oriented; steadfastly pushes self and others for results.
• Interpersonal Savvy: Relates well to all kinds of people, up, down, and sideways, inside and outside the organization; builds appropriate rapport; builds constructive and effective relationships; uses diplomacy and tact; can diffuse even high-tension situations comfortably.
• Learning on the Fly: Learns quickly when facing new problems; a relentless and versatile learner; open to change; analyzes both successes and failures for clues to improvement; experiments and will try anything to find solutions; enjoys the challenge of unfamiliar tasks; quickly grasps the essence and the underlying structure of anything.

Our Competencies for All People Managers

• Strategic Agility: Sees ahead clearly; can anticipate future consequences and trends accurately; has broad knowledge and perspective; is future oriented; can articulately paint credible pictures and visions of possibilities and likelihoods; can create competitive and breakthrough strategies and plans.
• Developing Direct Reports and Others: Provides challenging and stretching tasks and assignments; holds frequent development discussions; is aware of each person's career goals; constructs compelling development plans and executes them; pushes people to accept developmental moves; will take on those who need help and further development; cooperates with the developmental system in the organization; is a people builder.
• Building Effective Teams: Blends people into teams when needed; creates strong morale and spirit in their team; shares wins and successes; fosters open dialogue; lets people finish and be responsible for their work; defines success in terms of the whole team; creates a feeling of belonging in the team.

Kate Spade is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer and we pride ourselves on hiring and developing the best people. All employment decisions (including recruitment, hiring, promotion, compensation, transfer, training, discipline and termination) are based on the applicant's or employee's qualifications as they relate to the requirements of the position under the consideration. These decisions are made without regard to age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic characteristics, race, color, creed, religion, ethnicity, national origin, alienage, citizenship, disability, marital status, military status, pregnancy, or any other legally-recognized protected basis prohibited by applicable law. Visit Kate Spade at www.katespade.com.