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Buying / Digital Merchandising

A Day in the Life

Macy’s Buying and Merchandising team has a high acumen for products and trends, and drives relationships with vendors in the marketplace. Macy’s Buying and Merchandising team maximizes sales and gross margin for each product category by identifying, procuring, and assorting the products that their customer demands.

Buying

8:45 AM

Arrive at the Office

I start my day walking through the main floor of Herald Square on my way up to the office. I noticed the new line of backpacks has arrived and was just merchandised. It was great to see how nice they look on the new fixtures. When I get to my desk, I’ll want to see how they are merchandised online as well. Can’t wait to see how they sell!

9:00 AM

Prepare for Team Meeting

The first thing I do in the office is pull some key reporting that I will refer to during my Divisional Merchandise Manager’s team meeting. I will need to update the team on how my programs sold during last weekend’s Super Saturday sale. I’ll rank the best and worst sellers and recap the topline results.

10:00 AM

Attend the Team Meeting

This is our weekly team meeting hosted by my Divisional Merchandise Manager. We all discuss current business results as well as future sales growth opportunities. Each member of the team has a chance to review a portion of the business and ask questions. We use this time to recap overall assortment performance, collaborate on future promotional strategies, and discuss current product trends. We are excited to see that the styles we felt strongly about are doing great so far this season.

11:30 AM

Update with my Supervisor

Next, I sit with my Buyer to review next steps and action items based on what we discussed during the team meeting. We discuss asking the vendor for additional product availability of two of last week’s best-selling styles. During the meeting we call our Financial Planner to see if we can move up next month’s fashion delivery to fuel trending sales. Our Financial Planner confirms we have the receipt dollars available and is supportive of our recommendation.

12:00 PM

Attend Market Appointment

The vendor hosts lunch and presents the proposed assortment for the following season. We walk the showroom with the Buying and Planning teams, talk about each new program, and discuss current business. My buyer selects the key promotional items that will be heavily promoted during the fourth quarter. At the same time I review the best sellers and ask the vendor about what is available for immediate shipment. We talk about the next delivery timing that can ship 1 week earlier to maximize next month’s sales. We also discuss an additional advertisement for our newest replenishment item. I’ll need to work with Planning to make sure the additional inventory is ordered and allocated for the event. I’ll also need to make sure Marketing gets all the information they need to set up the event.

2:00 PM

Collaborate on Capstone Project

This is when I get together with my EDP project team to work on our Capstone project. We collaborate and decide which executives we want to leverage to gather more information.

3:15 PM

Review Assortment Plan

Now is when I get together with my Merchandise Planner to discuss next season’s assortment plan that was reviewed at the market appointment. We identified 4 new key items that we project to be best sellers. We will propose that these items get added to basic item replenishment. I review the overall color stories for each program and my planner begins to think about regional distortions based on trend.

4:00 PM

Systems Training

Our Omnichannel Assortment Analytics tool helps merchants understand historical item performance across all selling channels. In training, we are learning how to use this tool to analyze past deliveries and create our pre-market “shopping list” for future deliveries.

5:00 PM

Touch Base with Digital Director

We are finalizing a strategy to expand our assortment of a new upscale designer luggage program online. The Digital Director is helping us test this program online to see how well it sells digitally before deciding if and when we will roll it out to stores.

6:00 PM

Competitive Shop

On our way home, a couple friends from the EDP program and I stop by a few specialty stores in Soho. It’s always good to see what the competition is up to and how customers are reacting to their product offerings. I’ll want to update my buyer on what I noticed tomorrow.

Digital Merchandising

8:45 AM

Arrive at the Office

I start my day by grabbing a cup of coffee from the kitchen and checking my emails to see if there are any pressing issues at hand. We work very closely with Macy’s site analytics team in San Francisco so I want to respond with anything they need before their day starts on the West Coast.

9:00 AM

Prepare for Team Meeting

The next thing I do in the office is check sales from the previous day. Specifically, I focus on the business generated on the site and analyze whether the customer responded favorably to our promotional email blasts and pricing strategy. I will also be prepared to update the team regarding the site’s best and worst sellers. I am disappointed to see that a couple of the colors were not selling as fast as we had hoped.

10:00 AM

Attend the Team Meeting

This is our weekly team meeting hosted by my Divisional Merchandise Manager. We also have a similar bi-weekly meeting with our Buying team. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss business results, identify overarching product trends, competitive analysis, and discuss upcoming due dates. We present our sales analysis to our DMM and discuss our actions to correct our business. We collaborate on successful initiatives across the division and discuss how to leverage them. I learn that another team successfully sold through poor performing merchandise by featuring it in a flash sale.

11:30 AM

Touch Base with my Supervisor

Next, I sit with my Digital Director to review next steps and actions based on what we discussed during the team meeting. We decide to ask the vendor for additional mark down support to feature the slow selling styles in our upcoming flash sale. The team discusses maximizing digital marketing exposure for best selling products and trends. We would also like to get the opinion of our Buyer and Site team, so we set up a call for later this afternoon.

12:30 PM

Lunch and Shopping

I just moved into a new apartment with a few of my friends from college. I grab lunch quickly and use the extra down-time to order a few items for my new bedroom.

2:00 PM

Collaborate on Capstone Project

This is my favorite part of the day. I love the time I get to spend in class or working on projects with the other EDPs. Our assigned project topic focuses on the cookware category. To prepare for the meeting, I did a ton of research around online pricing and promotional cadence of cookware products on our competitors' sites.

3:00 PM

Call with Buyer and Site Analytics Team

Our team discusses business and collaborates on strategies with the Buying team. We learn from our counterparts that we are moving up next month’s fashion delivery to fuel trending sales. Based on our discussion with our Buying team we create supporting digital marketing and adjust site merchandising for upcoming events and launches. We also review site metrics to identify how our customers shopping online and discuss how we can improve site experience.

4:00 PM

Systems Training

Our Omnichannel Assortment Analytics tool helps merchants understand historical item performance across all selling channels. In training, we are learning how to use this tool to analyze past deliveries and create our pre-market “shopping list” for future deliveries.

5:00 PM

Site Testing

I spend the last part of my day reviewing the preview testing environments for future events and sales. It is important for us to catch any site errors during the testing phase.

6:00 PM

Work-Out

I am an avid runner. It helps me unwind and stay healthy. I typically run about 2-3 miles after work each day and recently completed my first half-marathon.

Macy’s Snapshots

Buying / Digital Merchandising

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