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Summary Job Description | Tasks | |||
Buy merchandise or commodities, other than farm products, for resale to consumers at the wholesale or retail level, including both durable and nondurable goods. Analyze past buying trends, sales records, price, and quality of merchandise to determine value and yield. Select, order, and authorize payment for merchandise according to contractual agreements. May conduct meetings with sales personnel and introduce new products. Includes assistant wholesale and retail buyers of nonfarm products. | Examine, select, order, and purchase at the most favorable price merchandise consistent with quality, quantity, specification requirements and other factors. | |||
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Negotiate prices, discount terms and transportation arrangements for merchandise. | ||||
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Analyze and monitor sales records, trends and economic conditions to anticipate consumer buying patterns and determine what the company will sell and how much inventory is needed. | ||||
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Interview and work closely with vendors to obtain and develop desired products. | ||||
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Authorize payment of invoices or return of merchandise. | ||||
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Inspect merchandise or products to determine value or yield. | ||||
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Set or recommend mark-up rates, mark-down rates, and selling prices for merchandise. | ||||
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Confer with sales and purchasing personnel to obtain information about customer needs and preferences. | ||||
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Consult with store or merchandise managers about budget and goods to be purchased. | ||||
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Conduct staff meetings with sales personnel to introduce new merchandise. | ||||
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Manage the department for which they buy. | ||||
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Use computers to organize and locate inventory, and operate spreadsheet and word processing software. | ||||
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Train and supervise sales and clerical staff. | ||||
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Provide clerks with information to print on price tags, such as price, mark-ups or mark-downs, manufacturer number, season code, and style number. | ||||
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Determine which products should be featured in advertising, the advertising medium to be used, and when the ads should be run. | ||||
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Monitor competitors' sales activities by following their advertisements in newspapers and other media. | ||||
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CompGeo Salary Survey Benchmark Job Summary and Competencies
Wholesale and Retail Buyers, Except Farm Products
The Benchmark Job Description below represents the specific Position Characteristics of the job used in the Salary Survey. Benchmark Job Descriptions should be inspected carefully to review the degree of matching between an organizations' Job and the Salary Survey Benchmark. Matching internal Jobs to Salary Survey Benchmark Jobs should not be done on Job Title alone. A thorough comparison of Salary Survey Benchmark to Internal Job Descriptions is recommended. A good overlap should exist on any comparisons used on critical Job Dimensions and Competencies.- Job Description
- Knowledges
- Skills
- Abilites
- Tools and Technology
- Education and Experience
- Alternate Job Titles
- Salaries
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Important Knowledge Competencies | Competency Description | |||
Customer and Personal Service | Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction. | |||
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Administration and Management | Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources. | |||
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Sales and Marketing | Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems. | |||
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English Language | Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar. | |||
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Economics and Accounting | Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking and the analysis and reporting of financial data. | |||
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Production and Processing | Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods. | |||
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Mathematics | Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications. | |||
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Clerical | Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology. | |||
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Computers and Electronics | Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming. | |||
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Education and Training | Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects. | |||
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Building and Construction | Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads. | |||
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Important Skill Competencies | Competency Description | |||
Active Listening | Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times. | |||
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Speaking | Talking to others to convey information effectively. | |||
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Persuasion | Persuading others to change their minds or behavior. | |||
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Negotiation | Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences. | |||
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Critical Thinking | Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems. | |||
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Mathematics | Using mathematics to solve problems. | |||
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Active Learning | Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making. | |||
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Monitoring | Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action. | |||
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Social Perceptiveness | Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do. | |||
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Coordination | Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions. | |||
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Complex Problem Solving | Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions. | |||
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Judgment and Decision Making | Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one. | |||
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Reading Comprehension | Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents. | |||
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Writing | Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience. | |||
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Management of Financial Resources | Determining how money will be spent to get the work done, and accounting for these expenditures. | |||
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Learning Strategies | Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things. | |||
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Service Orientation | Actively looking for ways to help people. | |||
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Systems Evaluation | Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system. | |||
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Time Management | Managing one's own time and the time of others. | |||
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Management of Personnel Resources | Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job. | |||
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Instructing | Teaching others how to do something. | |||
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Management of Material Resources | Obtaining and seeing to the appropriate use of equipment, facilities, and materials needed to do certain work. | |||
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Important Ability Competencies | Competency Description | |||
Oral Comprehension | The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences. | |||
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Oral Expression | The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand. | |||
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Speech Clarity | The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you. | |||
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Problem Sensitivity | The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem. | |||
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Deductive Reasoning | The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense. | |||
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Mathematical Reasoning | The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem. | |||
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Speech Recognition | The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person. | |||
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Written Comprehension | The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing. | |||
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Category Flexibility | The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways. | |||
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Number Facility | The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly. | |||
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Near Vision | The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer). | |||
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Inductive Reasoning | The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events). | |||
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Information Ordering | The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations). | |||
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Written Expression | The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand. | |||
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Fluency of Ideas | The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity). | |||
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Originality | The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem. | |||
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Visual Color Discrimination | The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness. | |||
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Flexibility of Closure | The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material. | |||
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Selective Attention | The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted. | |||
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Tools/Technology Example | Product Category | |||
Accounting software | Accounting software | |||
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Advanced Retail Management Systems Retail Pro | Point of sale POS software | |||
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Biztrak Business Solutions Biztrak | Enterprise resource planning ERP software | |||
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CAM Commerce Solutions Retail STAR Point of Sale POS | Point of sale POS software | |||
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Claritas ConsumerPoint | Customer relationship management CRM software | |||
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Contact management software | Calendar and scheduling software | |||
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Eclipse software | Development environment software | |||
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Email software | Electronic mail software | |||
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Enterprise resource planning ERP software | Enterprise resource planning ERP software | |||
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Enterprise risk management software ERMS | Enterprise resource planning ERP software | |||
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Graphics software | Graphics or photo imaging software | |||
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Infor Supply Chain Management | Materials requirements planning logistics and supply chain software | |||
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Intuit QuickBooks software | Accounting software | |||
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Inventory control systems | Inventory management software | |||
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JDA Software Group Advanced Warehouse Replenishment by E3 | Enterprise resource planning ERP software | |||
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JDA Software Group Assortment Planning by Arthur | Enterprise resource planning ERP software | |||
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Kliger-Weiss Infosystems software | Materials requirements planning logistics and supply chain software | |||
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Material requirement planning MRP software | Materials requirements planning logistics and supply chain software | |||
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Microsoft Access | Data base user interface and query software | |||
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Microsoft Excel | Spreadsheet software | |||
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Microsoft Internet Explorer | Internet browser software | |||
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Microsoft Office software | Office suite software | |||
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Microsoft Outlook | Electronic mail software | |||
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Microsoft PowerPoint | Presentation software | |||
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Microsoft Project | Project management software | |||
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Microsoft Word | Word processing software | |||
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Millennium Software Atrex | Point of sale POS software | |||
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Oracle Advanced Procurement | Procurement software | |||
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Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne | Enterprise resource planning ERP software | |||
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Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise Supply Planning Multi-Site Material Planner | Materials requirements planning logistics and supply chain software | |||
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POSitive Software POSitive for Windows | Point of sale POS software | |||
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Plexis Software Plexis POS | Point of sale POS software | |||
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Point of sale POS software | Point of sale POS software | |||
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Presentation software | Presentation software | |||
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Product development management software | Enterprise resource planning ERP software | |||
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Project management software | Project management software | |||
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SAP POS Data Management | Point of sale POS software | |||
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Sage ERP Accpac | Enterprise resource planning ERP software | |||
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Scheduling software | Calendar and scheduling software | |||
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Sourcing Simulator | Procurement software | |||
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Specialized Business Solutions Keystroke POS | Point of sale POS software | |||
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Spreadsheet software | Spreadsheet software | |||
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Web browser software | Internet browser software | |||
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Windward Software Windward System Five | Point of sale POS software | |||
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Word processing software | Word processing software | |||
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10-key calculators | Calculators or accessories | |||
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Desktop computers | Desktop computers | |||
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Personal computers | Personal computers | |||
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Point of sale POS systems | Point of sale POS terminal | |||
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Prerequisite Qualification Category | Education and Experience Level | |||
Related Work Experience | Over 2 years, up to and including 4 years | |||
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Required Level of Education | Some College Courses | |||
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On-the-Job Training | Over 1 year, up to and including 2 years | |||
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Alternate Job Title(s) | |||
Art Dealer | |||
Assistant Buyer | |||
Assistant Merchandise Buyer | |||
Associate Merchandise Buyer | |||
Buy Boat Operator | |||
Buyer | |||
Buyer Assistant | |||
Category Manager | |||
Commodity Manager | |||
Contracts Specialist | |||
Department Manager | |||
Fashion Buyer | |||
Fashion Merchandiser | |||
Fur Buyer | |||
Gold Buyer | |||
Head of Merchandise Buying | |||
Importer | |||
Importer Exporter | |||
Internal Wholesaler | |||
Jobber | |||
Mechandiser | |||
Merchandise Buyer | |||
Merchandise Manager | |||
Merchandise Planner | |||
Merchandise Worker | |||
Merchandise for Resale Purchasing Agent | |||
Merchandiser | |||
Merchant | |||
Old Gold Buyer | |||
Print Buyer | |||
Procurement Specialist | |||
Product Manager | |||
Purchaser | |||
Purchasing Agent | |||
Purchasing Coordinator | |||
Purchasing Manager | |||
Purchasing Specialist | |||
Purveyor | |||
Resident Buyer | |||
Retail Buyer | |||
Senior Merchandise Buyer | |||
Sustainability Purchasing Agent | |||
Tie Buyer | |||
Trader | |||
Tradesman | |||
Wholesale Buyer | |||
Wholesale and Retail Merchant | |||
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