Senior Buyer

Ronald J. Kohen

Clark, New Jersey *****

732-***-**** ******@*****.***

SUMMARY

Skilled buyer and manager with experience in marketing sporting goods products, apparel, and equipment. Outstanding merchandising and negotiating skills resulting in gross profit dollar gains. Possesses excellent management skills and ability to coordinate staff to work and achieve desired goals. Strong knowledge of retail math skills, budgets, and procurement functions. Knowledge of how to organize staff and manage workloads effectively. Extensive understanding of planning, overseas buying, operations, and procurement in managing a business of any size. WORK EXPERIENCE

Head of Buying, Modell’s Sporting Goods Online, Inc. 2020-Present

• Responsible for merchandise and vendor selections to maximize sales for relevant products to launch the Modell’s website. Developed brand and retail strategies leading to over $7M in sales with high margins in our first year in business.

• Utilize strong negotiating skills to maximize all vendor allowances to maintain and meet profit goals.

• Successfully launched several items and categories that went viral in the first year in business by constantly searching and testing new products to market with the intent of finding the next viral item.

• Developed marketing strategies for various social media channels, i.e., Facebook, Google, affiliate partners, E-mail, and SMS, to reach existing and new customers. These strategies increased sales and boosted online traffic.

• Lead staff and external agencies on how to implement social media strategies to create strong sales revenue and high profit margins.

• Generated reports through Shopify to review with the purpose of reacting to sales and margin trends.

• Work closely with onboarding companies to ensure vendor and product set ups are done accurately and efficiently.

• Apply sales and forecasting techniques to ensure that all wholesale buys are purchased correctly by sales, size, and color to align with trends.

• Provide accurate information to the customer service team to communicate information to the online shopper about shipping information.

Senior Buyer, Modell’s Sporting Goods 1995-2020

• Develop assortment plans for team sports, sports accessories, swim products, golf, training, hydration and consumables. Introductions of both hydration and consumables resulted in $3M in sales with high profit margins.

• Annual volume exceeded $43M with a sku base of over 1500 styles.

• Maintained all financial metrics including OTB, IMU, GMROI, and TURN.

• Responsible for overseas sourcing of sporting goods equipment. Developed private label equipment for fitness, outdoors, team sports, toys and games. Sales initially exceeded $4M. Negotiated with factories to ensure the best quality, pricing, and timely deliveries.

• Developed individual vendor strategies and business plans to maximize sales and profits annually for both retail stores and E-Commerce.

• Possess strong negotiating skills to maximize all allowances to increase profitability.

• Managed a staff of seven planners and allocators to determine proper inventory levels by sub class and sku level. Approved all dept. and sku roll-up plans. Ensured deliveries of all receipt.

• Shopped market and competition regularly to ensure execution of brand strategy and competitive differentiation in market. Buyer / Merchandise Manager, Herman’s World of Sports 1985-1995

• Created successful product assortments consisting of vendor-branded merchandise and special make-up products. Responsible for product selection for all advertising.

• Managed and supervised staff of 9 buyers, planners, analysts, and merchandise controllers in the team sports area including equipment, athletic clothing and professional team clothing for adults and children.

• Sales volume exceeded $150M. Managed the assortment planning, Open-to Buy functions and was responsible for overall P/L.

• Created exciting assortment of branded vendor products and special make up products for each sports category to drive sales and increase revenues.

SKILLS

• Excellent management, communication, procurement, and people skills.

• Proficient computer skills in Microsoft Excel, Word, and Power Point.

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