Assistant Vendor Manager

Assistant Buyer/Vendor Manager – Range Expansion

Currys London Campus at Waterloo
Fixed Term Contract - 12 Months
Full Time
Grade 3

At Currys we’re united by one passion: to help everyone enjoy amazing technology. As the UK’s best-known retailer of tech, we’re proud of the service our customers receive – and it’s all down to our team of 25,000 caring and committed colleagues. Working as one team, we learn and grow together, celebrating the big and small moments that make every day amazing.

Positioned within the commercial team, you will be right in the centre of a fast-paced team, working hand in hand with the operations and go-to-market teams and building strong relationships with our supplier partners. You will select and negotiate product ranges and pricing, all terms and conditions, and all investments in our business and its activity. You are accountable for ensuring cost pricing and promotions that allow us to remain competitive for customers while maximising margin and sales and securing adequate differentiation against competitors.

You will need to have great relationship building skills, working closely with our brands and vendors, the go to market team and use your influencing skills to secure support to drive the range extension (dropship) business forward.

You will be responsible for products sitting within an extended range/drop ship category, a willingness to learn the product category and market trends is essential.

You will be responsible for supporting operations within dropship to ensure customer satisfaction and in line with the business priorities and NPS. As assistant category buyer you will be expected to work with the wider team, ensuring we have capable and committed colleagues and form a one business mentality.

You will be responsible for supporting operations within dropship to ensure customer satisfaction and in line with the business priorities and NPS. As an Assistant Buyer/Vendor Manager you will be expected to work with the wider team, ensuring we have capable and committed colleagues and form a one business mentality.

Key Responsibilities:

• Managing your category supplier relationships in line with our overall commercial supplier strategy and the category strategy
• Harness credible relationships with your suppliers and develop a sourcing strategy to both bring customers the best ranges and support the core category strategy, supported with availability and marketing roadmap
• Work with suppliers to develop a strong understanding of the future technology roadmap, enabling the category to adequately plan for likely changes in customer trends and demand
• Negotiating product ranges – cost pricing, additional terms, exclusivity, distribution, stock availability with distributors
• Negotiating additional fixed and variable financial terms related to ranging, activity and performance
• Negotiating promotional funding support to drive sales while maintaining margin in line with financial objectives
• Securing adequate product and promotional differentiation from competitors to support market share growth objectives
• Pricing the product range in line with agreed category CPI targets
• Working with the returns team to ensure adequate supplier returns agreements are in place contractually to both meet customer service requirements and minimise cost exposure after sale
• Uses customer and market data provided by the go to market team to ensure correct ranges and promotional plans are in place to drive customers for life
• Remedy all supplier issues relating to cost price, product, stock, and other quieries

Required Skills & Experience:

• Buying experience working within an FMCG/Fashion or Hard Goods fast-paced retailer
• Negotiation skills and ability to manage all supplier partnerships
• Good judgment and strong decision-making skills to enable the right actions for the category
• Excellent numerical and analytical skills to review data and provide recommendations/actions plans to drive sales, profit and cash
• Good planning, organisational and multitasking skills
• Excellent inter-personal and communication skills, capable of presenting to senior stakeholders as well as working cross functionally to achieve the desired results
• Customer champion with excellent commercial awareness and understanding of customer needs
• Good working knowledge of SharePoint, Teams, Excel, Word and PowerPoint as well as MS Office workflow tools
• Experience of working to deadlines and managing critical paths
• Good presentation and speaking skills
• Monitor internal controls and make recommendations as needed
• Dropship Management and knowledge with high SKU volume (preferred, not essential)

Why join us:

We know our people are the secret to our success. That's why we're always looking for ways to reward great work. You'll find a host of benefits designed to work for you, including:

• 25 days annual leave plus bank holiday entitlement
• Life Assurance
• Staff discounts and offers
• Hybrid Working (with an expectation to meet in person 2-4 times per month)

Join our team and we'll be with you every step of the way, helping you develop the career you want with new opportunities, on-going training and skills for life.

Not only can you shape your own future, but you can help take charge of ours too. As the biggest recycler and repairer of tech in the UK, we’re in a position to make a real impact on people and the planet.

Every voice has a space at our table and we're committed to making inclusion and diversity part of everything we do, including how we strengthen our workforce. We want to make sure you have a fair opportunity to show us your talents during our application process, so if you need any additional assistance with your application please email [email protected] and we'll do our best to help.