Provide administrative support in the sourcing of merchandise and suppliers in line with the merchandise strategy and ensure best value, lead-time and quality is delivered.

Education:

Grade 12 

 Relevant degree or diploma would be favourable (e.g. Procurement & Sourcing, Retail Management)

Experience:
1-2 years’ experience within Product Sourcing 

Specific Knowledge:
Microsoft Office (Excel & PowerPoint)

Negotiation Skills

Product Construction

Fabrics and Materials

Manufacturing and Production

Costing

Analytical Thinking

Ethical/Social Compliance Awareness

Business Understanding:

Commercial acumen

Sourcing/ Procurement understanding & experience

Analysis, Research & Reporting

Assist with conducting in depth analysis and monitoring of key metrics & KPI's across the sourcing value chain in order to measure supplier performance and highlight potential risks or further opportunities to the business.
Assist with identifying new product and fabric developments in the global market and how they could be adapted for the local market in order to remain customer relevant.

Strategy

Participate in developing and implementing a short- and long-term sourcing and supplier strategy to support the business strategic objectives and merchandise direction, whilst ensuring that there is a responsible balance between sourcing territories, sourcing channels, supplier performance, capacity, and capability planning, as well as managing any potential risk to the business.

Supplier Development & Management

Partner with the respective Sourcing Specialist in building strategic supplier relationships and identify new partnerships for long term sustainability.
Assist and guide new suppliers in order to ensure their understanding of our requirements, policies and procedures
Procurement of Product
Partner with the Sourcing Specialist in the procurement of merchandise at the optimal total cost without compromising on product execution, quality and lead-times, through; negotiation, volume bundling and fabric optimisation.
Partner with the Sourcing Specialist to re-engineer product for lower costs where necessary while still maintaining required standards and value perception.

Critical Path Management

Manage the critical path up to the handover of goods to the forwarder in order to ensure on-time delivery of merchandise in the correct product execution, full order quantity and required quality.
Call-out any potential delivery delays to the Sourcing Specialist and work together on finding proactive solutions to mitigate any/minimal delivery delay impact on the business.
Partner with respective merchants in reacting to the trading environment in order to maximise sales.