Assistant Buyer - Home Category

Experience - Minimum 2 Years for Buying experience.

Role Overview The Assistant Buyer – Soft Furnishing will support the Buyer in range planning, product development, sourcing, vendor management, market research, costing, and commercial performance. The role will work closely with cross-functional teams and vendors to ensure the right product assortment, quality, pricing, and timely delivery.

Key Responsibilities:

- Product Development & Range Planning
- Assist the Buyer in product development, product presentations, packaging, and promotional planning.
- Support range planning and assortment building in line with seasonal and category strategies.
- Review and adjust seasonal and weekly plans based on business performance, market trends, and requirements.
- Support the Buyer in achieving budget, sales, and margin targets.
- Market & Competitor Research
- Conduct regular market and competitor research to track emerging trends, pricing, MRP, quality benchmarks, product innovations, and recent product opportunities.
- Identify market gaps and opportunities to strengthen the soft furnishing range.
- Vendor Identification, Development & Commercial Management
- Identify, evaluate, and develop new vendors and sourcing opportunities.
- Support the vendor onboarding process and maintain strong vendor relationships.
- Support negotiations with vendors to achieve competitive costs and healthy margins.
- Assist in tracking and recovering vendor-related financial claims, including performance penalties, markdowns, and promotional contributions.
- Sample & Product Development Tracking




- Coordinate with vendors to ensure samples are developed and delivered within agreed timelines.
- Track sample status and follow up with vendors to ensure timely completion of product development milestones.
- Quality Management
- Work closely with QA/QC teams to establish and maintain quality standards for merchandise.
- Coordinate with vendors to address quality issues and ensure products meet defined standards.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Work closely with Marketing, Product Design, Visual Merchandising, Merchandising, and other relevant teams to align product development and promotions with seasonal themes and product launches.
- Ensure timely communication of product information, features, and key benefits to the front-end/store teams.
- Stock & Commercial Performance
- Work closely with the Merchandising team on stock management, style options, quantities, promotions, and markdowns.
- Monitor product performance and support corrective actions to optimize sales, stock, and margins.
- Costing & Commercial Management
- Support negotiations with vendors to achieve competitive costs and healthy margins.
- Assist in tracking and recovering vendor-related financial claims, including performance penalties, markdowns, and promotional contributions.

- Top KPI’s (Ideally Measurable) for this role are
- Design and coordinates understating.
- Strong understanding of soft furnishing products, sourcing, and retail trends
- Market and competitor analysis
- Product development and range planning
- Vendor management and sample tracking.
- Good understanding of costing, margins, MRP, and inventory
- Strong coordination and follow-up skills
- Cross-functional collaboration
- Good communication and presentation skills

📌 Assistant Buyer (Mumbai)
🏢 Shoppers Stop
📍 Mumbai