A buyer in a concept store is an employee who is responsible for the entire life cycle of an item from the moment it is selected in the showroom to the final sale in the store. It can be divided into four main parts. Before fashion weeks, there is a preparation stage: analysis of sales from previous seasons, search for new brands, creation of an agenda of shows and meetings in showrooms. Next is a trip to Milan and Paris, where buyers move around the city throughout the day to have time to see all the collections and make the right selection for the next season. It is important to discuss with the brand team not only the selected items, but also the conditions of cooperation and get something exclusive on the market.
When I return home I want to relax and breathe, but it’s impossible: the deadlines for shipping orders are pressing. Then the buyer immerses himself in the routine work of the current season and comes into contact with logistics, customs agents and accounting, because he needs to offer the goods to customers before anyone else. Price formation, pricing, employee training, promotions – all this is also within the buyer’s control.
Every season new brands appear in the store: we find them ourselves by looking at the list of brands from respected peer stores, we take a look at what the main influencers are wearing, we read reviews from fashion publications and follow the nominees for the Andam awards and LVMH. To choose, we evaluate whether the brand is conceptually suitable, what its price segment is, its market distribution, its growth prospects and who the designer is. We also always exchange finds with other buyers. For the SS25 season, the main male buyer, Yoshi, of the Japanese GR8, recommended several brands. Some brands write cooperation offers themselves. So, for example, it happened with Jean Paul Gaultier, when they started a new era with guest designers: Glenn Martens, Shane Oliver, who, if not KM20, would present a new product on the market.
In recent years, Russian buyers have actively improved qualities such as stress resistance, adaptability and diplomacy. Sanctions, customs regulations, exchange rate fluctuations or the complete closure of the Moscow Stock Exchange: every day you have to work with new inputs, strive to deliver all the season’s collections on time and maintain competitive prices. In addition, we now have to spend a lot of time communicating with brands, explaining to them that our cooperation is legal and that there will be no legal consequences if we do not violate the sanctions.
I will not hide: the current situation with the development of parallel imports is alarming. Unfortunately, now anyone can open a store and buy any brand from resellers without making any effort to establish an association with the brand. All of this takes our grown-up market, which lives by the rules, back to the 90s.
