BUYER Location: Fairborn, OH (Corporate Office) Hybrid option available for Columbus, OH applicants—split schedule between Fairborn Corporate Office and Columbus store location. Our Values: At Morris Furniture Company, our values represent our distinctive core beliefs-the Morris way of doing business. Our Mission is “Making Homes Great” and we bring our mission to life through our values of: Professionalism, Quality, Ownership, Collaboration, Integrity and Fun! Purpose: The Buyer will work as a lead member of the Product Team to ensure a strategic approach to purchasing quality in-demand goods to sell in our various showrooms and on the Morris website. The Buyer is responsible for understanding consumer demand for their assigned product category and to select and purchase items that will generate sales and profit for the organization. This position leads cross-functional teams through the implementation of a merchandising strategy which includes creating assortments, developing merchandise presentations, placement in showrooms, executing advertising plans, and control of promotional expenditures and markdowns. General Description of duties: This job description is not intended to be all-inclusive. Employee may perform other related duties to meet the ongoing needs of the organization. • Review product, category, and family performance metrics, patterns, and trends to identify the right assortment to purchase for our showrooms. & online. Analyzes data and other information to be reactive and proactive in setting a course to achieve metrics and manage the full product lifecycle. • Oversee and review vendor chargebacks and service issues with specific vendors. Manage the Return-to-Vendor (RTV) and Buyer-to-Inspect (BTI processes) to ensure all opportunities for improvement and the maximization of vendor chargeback dollars are reviewed and worked in a timely manner. • Reviews sell-through of advertised products to ensure promotions and pricing are successful. • Proactive with market trends, changes in business practices in the assigned markets, new or altered types of materials entering the market, etc. Follow and visit competitor showrooms and websites regularly. Continuously works to set Morris Furniture Company apart from the competition in product, results, and experience. • Develop and maintain cross functional relationships within the organization between marketing, operations, stores, ecommerce team, and visual merchandise managers. • Build vendor relationships to ensure two-way communication and acceptable service levels including negotiating vendor agreements, managing co-op funds or special vendor programs. • Work with vendors to negotiate prices and arrange for special purchase options. • Communicate with vendors to obtain product or service information, such as price, availability, and delivery schedule. Encourage vendors to establish product catalog feeds with our systems or to provide rich product data and images for all core or new products. • Manage pricing, inventory, and select items for advertisements. • Coordinate and engage with vendor training when necessary. • Review and approve all price tags and follow-up on all pricing changes, including the creation of promotional codes. • Attend meetings and run specialized reports as required. • Visit stores to review product changes and conduct sales product training. • Meet regularly with the ecommerce team to ensure there is proper execution of products on the website. • Assist with unpacking, assembling, and moving product as needed aligned with position responsibilities, and to support store visuals/operations, and retail showrooms. • Communicate clear and engaging product information and changes to Sales, Marketing and Advertising to ensure successful roll out. • Regularly visit company showrooms during high-traffic promotional events as well as during off-peak periods to engage with sales professionals, managers, and customers. Conduct product training sessions, and review and optimize signage, pricing tags, and visual merchandising standards to ensure consistency and effectiveness. • Meet margin, turn, and Gross Margin Return on Investment (GMROI) standards. • Experience managing domestic and international purchasing, landed cost analysis, freight optimization, and logistics coordination. • Collaborate with Ecommerce to expand the product assortment and address gaps in our current offerings. • Conduct site audits at the start of each new promotion to ensure featured items are accurately presented, pricing is correct, and promotional content effectively represents the products. • Strong trend and design sense with the ability to translate emerging styles into curated assortments that resonate with customers. • May be responsible for training and developing direct reports. Qualifications: • An appetite for exceeding expectations and creating wow within the business. • Hunger for understanding and promoting the organization's retail strategy. • Excellent written and verbal communication skills. • Strong leadership and interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence and motivate others. • Manage and assist with multiple, on-going, and high priority assignments at the same time. • Ability to work collaboratively and adapt within a dynamic team environment. • Excellent organizational skills with a starter finisher mentality with meticulous attention to detail. • Strong decision-making and problem-solving skills. • Skilled in utilizing data & technology to drive business performance and organizational efficiency. Requirements: • Bachelor’s degree in business, finance, marketing, merchandising, design or related field or equivalent combination of education and experience. • 5+ years of previous retail experience preferred; a minimum of 4+ years’ visual merchandising experience preferred. • Preferred background working in platforms such as specialty stores and big box retail to ensure a strong understanding of procedures, deadlines, efficacy and speed. • Strong fashion/design sense and taste level. • Experience using Microsoft, ERP, Operations and/or Merchandising Software systems. • Ability to travel to retail locations up to 75% of the time. Attend trade shows and market events to source new products and build relationships with vendors. Work Requirements: The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to stand, sit, bend, twist, crouch, crawl, climb, use hands to finger, talk and hear. Specific visual abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision and the ability to adjust focus. Employee is occasionally required to lift, push, pull and/or move up to 100 pounds. This job description is not a comprehensive listing of activities, duties, or responsibilities that are required of the employees.