Retail Buying

You see the same order from the other side of the table: how a retailer builds a range, and what they are actually optimising.

After this track you can

You can build a range with a margin target on it, negotiate as the buyer rather than against one, and explain why a retailer will refuse an order that looks perfectly good from the factory.

6 courses · 12 h

16.1How Retail Actually Makes MoneyFoundation3 lessons · 1 h 50 minYou follow one coat and one autumn range from a factory's quotation to what the retailer keeps. You separate the intake margin a buyer quotes from the margin the business really gets. You price the three ways a planned margin leaves. And you see why a genuinely excellent price for a bigger quantity was the wrong order.
16.2Range Architecture and Assortment PlanningPractitioner3 lessons · 2 h 20 minYou build one womenswear range from an empty page to a signature. You learn the role every line plays, the price ladder and the gaps that matter, and the depth floor under an option count. You meet a mix that misses a margin no single line missed. And you run the season review that says what to repeat and what to kill.
16.3The Retail Critical PathPractitioner3 lessons · 2 hYou follow one retail season backwards from the day a customer can buy it. You split 299 days between a buying office, a factory and a distribution chain. You find a seven-day anchor error nobody made, and a fortnightly committee that turned a week's slip into a fortnight. And you price every recovery lever a retailer owns.
16.4Sourcing and Negotiating as a BuyerPractitioner3 lessons · 1 h 50 minYou take one retail buying meeting apart term by term. You convert every clause into dollars a piece, so a cut in price and a giveaway on terms can be read in the same money. Then you build a walk-away from the real cost of moving a style. And you follow one entirely successful price squeeze through the year that repaid it.
16.5Customer, Trend and Competitor AnalysisPractitioner3 lessons · 1 h 50 minYou read one retailer's autumn knitwear range three ways: its own season data, a forecaster's colour call, and a Tuesday spent inside competitors' shops. The best-selling option turns out to be measuring a hole in the price ladder. You turn a trend into a sized commitment with a price on changing your mind. And you weigh a matched competitor price and refuse it.
16.6Private Label and Own-Brand DevelopmentPractitioner3 lessons · 2 h 10 minOne retailer replaces a branded jacket with its own. The margin arithmetic said yes and the cash said no. One brief produced three different products, all of them correct. And a new set of obligations arrives the day your own name goes on the label.

Track exam

12 questions drawn from a larger bank, across the courses in this track, passed at 70%. 3 attempts, then it locks for 7 days. It is worth finishing the courses first.

Sit the track exam