Senior Buyer - Lingerie: Panties (Cape Town)

A leading Fashion retailer based in Cape Town is seeking an experienced and commercially astute Senior Buyer – Lingerie: Panties to develop and execute customer-focused, profitable, and trend-relevant seasonal product strategies aligned with the organisation’s overall business and brand strategy.

The successful candidate will take ownership of the end-to-end product journey, from concept and range development through sourcing, buying, and in-season trading, ensuring balanced and commercially viable ranges that deliver against sales, margin, and profitability targets. The role will also provide leadership, coaching, and mentorship to junior buying team members while building strong strategic relationships across Planning, Design, Sourcing, Marketing, Sales, and other key stakeholders.

• Develop and execute the departmental seasonal product strategy and buying plan in line with overall business objectives.
• Collaborate with Planning and Sourcing to develop product, fabric, and trading strategies that deliver agreed commercial KPIs.
• Utilise design direction, local and international trend research, current and historical trade data, customer analytics, competitor intelligence, and benchmarking to inform seasonal product direction.
• Present seasonal plans, including key strategic areas, must-win categories and items, and channel-specific considerations.
• Build profitable, balanced, and customer-focused product ranges.
• Conduct range development workshops to ensure products are on-brand, trend-relevant, commercially viable, and aligned with customer expectations.
• Incorporate local and international market analysis, competitive intelligence, and benchmarking into range development.
• Identify product categories and opportunities for growth, optimisation, or exit in line with strategic objectives.
• Collaborate with Design to develop balanced ranges across styling, fabric, colour, and price architecture.
• Ensure product development remains aligned with critical path and merchandise cycle milestones.
• Partner with Sourcing on product development, including new concepts, supplier selection, costings, technical packs, packaging, and quotation approvals.
• Collaborate with Technical Product Development teams on sample approvals, product reviews, final sign-offs, product presentations, and innovation opportunities.
• Introduce new product concepts and work with suppliers and Sourcing teams to develop product innovation.
• Conduct product reviews and present final concepts, pre-production and production samples, packaging, and display considerations.
• Collaborate with Planning on financials and assortment plans, ensuring alignment across relevant grades and sales channels.
• Work closely with Marketing and customer teams to maintain a strong understanding of the target customer and evolving consumer needs.
• Conduct market and trend research to understand competitor activity, product differentiation, range offerings, pricing, and merchandising strategies.
• Analyse customer ratings and reviews to identify online customer preferences and opportunities to improve the customer experience.
• Leverage supplier insights and local and international travel to identify new market opportunities and trial innovative products.
• Develop product marketing proposals to optimise the customer experience across physical and digital channels.
• Conduct weekly sales and trade analysis to assess product and sales performance across channels.
• Develop collaborative action plans with Planning to address product performance and provide relevant competitive and market feedback to management.
• Work closely with Sourcing stakeholders to determine when products should be continued, adjusted, or discontinued based on performance.
• Recommend promotional, markdown, and volume adjustment strategies to optimise sales, stock, and profitability.
• Communicate trading changes and actions that may impact other departments, including Marketing and Visual Merchandising.
• Participate in regular cross-functional trading meetings to align on production, shipments, supplier communication, and trade actions.

People Management

• Lead, coach, and mentor Buyers and Buying Assistants to ensure effective skills transfer and professional development.
• Support direct reports in establishing and achieving career development objectives.
• Manage employee performance through the relevant performance management process.
• Support the training and adoption of new buying systems, processes, and ways of working.
• Build strong internal and external networks and strategic stakeholder relationships.
• Promote a collaborative, high-performance culture within the buying team.

• 5–8 years’ proven buying experience within a fashion retail environment.
• Previous experience in lingerie buying within a fashion retail business would be advantageous.
• Strong understanding of local and international retail markets, customer trends, and the competitive landscape.
• Proven commercial acumen with the ability to identify market opportunities and translate trends into profitable product strategies.
• Advanced analytical skills, with the ability to interpret sales performance, customer insights, and market data to drive strategic decisions.
• Proven ability to manage the end-to-end product lifecycle, from concept and range development through sourcing, buying, and in-season trading.
• Strong expertise in range construction, category management, pricing, and margin optimisation.
• Proven experience leading, coaching, and developing Buyers and Buying Assistants.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, PLM systems, and relevant market intelligence platforms.
• Willingness and ability to travel locally and internationally as required.

Key Competencies

• Strong commercial acumen with a passion for fashion and lingerie retail.
• Customer-centric mindset with a strong focus on delivering compelling product assortments, quality, and value.
• Strategic thinker with the ability to translate market and customer insights into commercially successful ranges.
• Advanced numerical, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
• Strong understanding of customer behaviour, market trends, competitor activity, and the broader fashion retail environment.
• Confident and commercially astute decision-maker who thrives in a fast-paced, results-driven environment.
• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills across Design, Planning, Sourcing, Technical, Marketing, Operations, and Supplier teams.
• Excellent communication, presentation, negotiation, and influencing skills.
• Proven leadership capability with the ability to coach, mentor, motivate, and develop junior team members.
• High attention to detail with a strong focus on product quality and execution excellence.
• Proactive and solution-oriented, with the ability to anticipate and respond effectively to changing market conditions.
• Strong sense of ownership, accountability, and commitment to delivering business objectives.
• Excellent planning, prioritisation, and organisational skills, with the ability to manage multiple deadlines and competing priorities.
• Resilient, adaptable, and comfortable operating in a dynamic retail environment.
• Passionate about innovation, product development, customer experience, and continuous improvement.

Please forward your CV to ***email_hidden***. Should you not be contacted within 2 weeks, kindly consider your application unsuccessful.