Making a Buying Plan
Plans for what you mean to seek out in the market have probably been forming vaguely in your mind for weeks.
In meetings at your store, you and other fashion buyers have discussed the various current and incoming looks with your merchandise manager and fashion coordinator. You have reached a decision among yourselves on the looks your store will feature in the coming season.
Even before that, each time you have read or heard about a new trend, each time you have opened a fashion magazine or talked with a road salesman, you have been thinking of the day when you will be in the market, making your selections.
At least two weeks before you expect to leave the store, you should be working on your detailed buying plan. As with everything else that goes into planning your assortment, you work first in units, and then evaluate your units in dollars.
The dollar figure that you come up with, of course, has to fit in with your Open-to-Buy and the store's financial picture. If it does not, you may have to rework your unit plan.
Point to remember: Some of what you expect to buy will be delivered in future months. Allocate your purchases to the month in which you expect delivery.
Your Unit Plan
In deciding how many units to buy in each classification and price line, you consider essentially the same factors you worked with in drawing up the merchandise budget or plan for the season: fashion, economic conditions, the overall look or looks your store plans to feature, anticipated market conditions.
If you are planning for market openings, when the new season's styles are being presented, a good deal of your buying will be on a sample-test-reorder basis.
This means that you will buy many styles, but each in quantities only sufficient for you to get a reaction from customers and keep you supplied until you can get reorders of the successful numbers.
It also means that you will commit your budget sparingly on this first trip, leaving room for reorders and new styles as the season develops.
If this is a mid-season trip to fill in your stock, you already know the looks and styles that have demonstrated their acceptability to your customers. You will be prepared to commit yourself firmly to styles with the "feeling" your customers want. But even so, you will leave room in your budget for new ideas you may encounter in the market.
Priorities in Planning
It is a great temptation in the market to go overboard on the more exciting developments and forget to provide for the bread-and-butter items that contribute heavily to volume, profit, traffic, and customer satisfaction.
Provide first for basic needs. Every department has certain items or classifications that should be stocked in depth at all times -anything from support hose to cocktail dresses. Give these the first claim on your time and dollars in the market.
Provide for other predictable needs: merchandise to tie in with activities of other departments; strong styles and price lines, trends and looks into which you intend to buy, etc.
Allow for the unexpected. Some small portion of your money should be reserved for exploring new resources and new items and for taking advantage of special opportunities that may develop in the market.
The amount to be reserved for this purpose varies from store to store and from department to department. It is affected by the pace of fashion change, the adequacy of the department's present resources, and many other factors. This is a point to discuss with your merchandise manager. He may prefer that you keep in close touch with him about such matters on your first few market trips. After that, you'll have the feel!
Rounding out the Information
Most stores request on their buying plans information about present stock, actual sales, and expected sales, to show whether your planned purchases make sense.
Such information is invaluable to you in the market. You will be out of touch with your stock, your staff, and your records. You will need the figures on your plan.
Show also on your plan any outstandingly good or poor classifications, styles, prices - even colors, textures, trims, and necklines. If experience at a branch differs from that of your operation as a whole, make a note of this, too. It may indicate a possible overall change of emphasis, once you check the situation out in the market.
Or it may simply be that the branch's community and its inventory needs are different from the other locations you serve and therefore require special attention in buying.
Paving Your Way
While you are waiting for your plan to be approved and your expense money to be released, make plans to economize on time in the market.
Announce your coming and your wants in advance to the key people you expect to see:
- your resident buying office
- your major resources
- magazine editors from whom you might accept credits
- fiber, fabric, leather, or other primary producers from whom you may be able to get information on fashions and resources in your field.
Reaping the Benefits
If you do your planning and paper work conscientiously before you leave your store, you will arrive at the market with all the facts and guides you need. There will be no frantic searching of memory.
All your attention can be focused on the job in hand: exploring the market and evaluating what you can see there.
