Senior Buyer ProFlowers®

FTD Companies (Nasdaq:FTD) is a global premier floral and gifting company with a vision to be the leading and most trusted floral and gifting company in the world. We provide floral, plants, specialty foods, gift and related products and services to consumers, retail florists, and other retail locations and companies in need of floral and gifting solutions.

FTD is seeking an Innovative Senior Buyer for ProFlowers®. You will be responsible for setting the merchandising strategy for building out new categories including Trend, Wedding, Entertaining bundles and other new categories for our Plants portfolio. You will be tasked with pricing, selection, in stock position, supply chain and marketing and site merchandising strategies needed to ensure financial success of the category raising margin contribution and constantly exceeding customer expectations. In addition, this role will be expected to support key initiatives, while driving innovation through selection and technology, and serving to inspire and delight the customer on a weekly basis. Finally, this individual will serve to motivate and challenge their team ensuring optimal productivity and career development and success.

How you will make an Impact:

As the Senior Buyer for ProFlowers® youwill participate in the identification of market trends for our Plants assortment, and at what point they would be viable in the mass channels. The Sr. Buyer attends large cross-functional Master Planning Meetings that are held on a quarterly basis as the key representative from the division. This position also maintains and updates key planning spreadsheets that are used in this process by other areas of the company. The Sr. Buyer works collaboratively to plan every day and seasonal product assortments and will be responsible for presenting these assortments to channels and other internal groups as needed. The position also interacts regularly with other areas of the company including operations and logistics. The successful candidate will use a unique skill set of analytical, creative, and communication skills to perform these responsibilities.

What you will contribute:

• Developing new plant gifts and accessories that are in line with business objectives, market trends and company brand(s).
• Identify the direction of the portfolio each holiday.
• Oversee the New Product Introduction cycle including, but not limited to
  • trend research, competitive shopping
  • design plant gifts and accessories to fit the needs of the business
  • work with our suppliers to get initial pricing and projections for new plants and hard goods
  • coordinating with Planning team on initial margins, projections, and pricing
  • work with quality to ensure all elements are approved
  • work with quality, procurement and planning to determine product launch periods and provide product specifications
  • work with creative to photograph, name and request copy for each new product
  • evaluate farm manufactured product for recipe accurateness, appearance of manufactured product, and quality as needed.
  • Monitor the daily and weekly progress of new products
  • Pull reports to monitor the daily performance of all SKUs to identify 'winners' 'losers' and trends or gaps in the portfolio.
  • Support various 'bigger picture' projects such as but not limited to long term planning with the vendors, as well as out of box experience.
  • Lead major brand initiatives as determined by the GM, Sr. Director of Merchandising and Director Marketing of ProFlowers®
  • Serve as primary liaison from Merchandising Division to Marketing Channels.
  • Work collaboratively with marketing channel managers to plan products and promotional offers based on past performance and future needs. Communicate those plans back to merchandising team for design and implementation.
  • Maintain and update key planning spreadsheets
  • Collaborate with Quality, Planning and Procurement teams to plan the product portfolio for each season.
  • Collaborate with FTD.com counterparts to evaluate and implement shared SKUS and accessories for the Drop Ship Integration program.
  • Review's competitors' emails, sites, and catalog are for product, category and promotional trends.

What we offer:

• Enjoy all the benefits of working for a publicly traded company (stock purchase plan, flexible hours and a healthy vacation plan).
• The blending of cultures across multiple cities and 3 continents where you can be part of helping shape our future.
• Career opportunities! Those that have positive impact, with a positive approach, have a very bright future as we change, grow, expand and explore new and exciting experiences for our global customer base.
• During peak season this role requires overtime, during off peak we offer Summer hours.

What we seek:

• Ideally, 4-plus years of experience in retail or ecommerce buying or planning.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to influence
• Assist in developing and coaching Assistant Merchants and Coordinators
• Inspires, motivates, and influences the behavior of others to drive high performance
• Engages team to examine current practices and encourages creative thinking about how things could be more effective and efficient.
• Asserts own ideas and persuades others in a clear, confident, and composed manner. Tailors message for the audience and is able to gain support and commitment from others.
• Comfortable with taking risks and celebrating risk taking regardless of outcome
• Collaborative, consultative style with a strong ability to establish trust and build relationships across all levels and functions of the organization.
• Customer-focused, and passionate about product.
• Drives for excellence and quality.
• Resilient, tenacious, high energy and positive attitude. Able to rapidly bounce back from adversity.
• Embraces change with realistic optimism and persists through challenges and setbacks caused by change.
• Bachelor's Degree in Business, Finance, Marketing or equivalent.
• MBA preferred.

Come join our team and be part of an exciting transformation! In this role you will have a broader impact on the overall growth of the business. Consider joining one of the few companies outside of Silicon Valley able to offer development of a high-traffic ecommerce platform receiving upwards of 40K customer purchases an hour.

Come give FTD a look! This position will be based in Chicago, IL. We are an incredibly open and welcoming company--come join our family!