How does the buyer work



    The task of the procurement department is to ensure the availability of goods, form an assortment matrix, smoke a logistics analysis and conduct document management about all this.

    The buyer seeks to increase network profits due to the optimal use of all possible resources. This is a rather hardcore optimization task, because it requires a serious hardware to predict demand, and then to determine what, how and when to take. There were times that it was easier for us to buy more goods in order to get a volume discount, work out the holidays, and then destroy the "excess" goods that provided a volume discount. Writing off (in that case we gave our positions to orphanages) was more profitable than storing and selling slowly - renting a warehouse also has a price. This is the only release, usually everything is much calmer, but often you have to maneuver between conditions, which is better - a monthly deferred payment or an additional 5% discount. And the answer is far from always unambiguous.

    Not everyone can be a purchaser. We need an analytical mindset, attentiveness, love poking around in numbers. At the same time - good negotiation skills and strong will. In less "children's" areas - the iron liver. And you still need a scent in order to understand which product will come in and which not.

    Another paradox is that the buyer, of course, must understand the product - but should not love it. Attachment to a product makes you act differently from what you deserve numerically. We must be able to see the whole picture - if the product is cool and at the same time economically disadvantageous, then it is better to bring it out (of course, if the assortment manager does not consider it an anchor).

    Work with the supplier


    As a rule, the supplier appears on the horizon himself and says - dudes, I have an awesome product, here it is. Further, the purchase asks him for samples, an appointment is made - and discusses what and how. In our area, in addition to system suppliers and publishers who know all the numbers and rules of the game, people often appear who have made 1-2 tables.

    If the product is of interest to us (and this is determined by the fact that we receive a competitive price, we believe that the product is suitable for the network, and we can sell it more than 3,000 pieces per year), then the signing of the contract begins. The general principle is that there is one paper model contract. When the paper comes from the supplier, the buyer simply stacks it with the image, and looks at the light - to identify the difference in the lines. If everything is smooth and clean, it is signed. Yes, on each page there is a footer with the contract number, subject and signatures of the parties - so that the sheets do not change in the process. If any changes are needed, it is only a protocol of disagreements, and not a change of contract. Before work, the contract is given to the security guards, they at least check the judicial incidents with their legal entities, their former legal entities and their former legal entities.

    After that, sales begin. The purchase distributes the goods to the shops (for example, at one time we seriously made a mistake with my book “Business as a game” based on posts from Habr - here in the post I described why people went to retail rather than to the online store). He makes sure that presentation samples are needed, so that the author of a potentially hit game goes shopping and instructs sellers to play on their own, so that the level of marriage does not exceed 1%, and so on. The purchase withdraws the goods, if it does not go well, it constantly fights for the conditions, gnaws the first export supply directly from the customs warehouse, and does a lot more.

    Sometimes a product comes in unevenly, and you need to do a redistribution - from unsuccessful places for this product to successful ones. At the same time, it is necessary to understand why specifically here the goods are sold well, but badly there. It can be seen that Mosigra stands next to the Children's World, and the latter have an action. Or in the shopping center we are in the children's zone (although the tables are historically an adult product) - that’s where children's positions are sold much more fun. As a rule, it is enough to talk with the elder. After the management, the buyer is the second person who decides what is in the store.

    Next - Analytics. The most important indicators are ABC analysis (the share of goods in turnover) and, in fact, the turnover rate. If the goods did not go (from the entire supplier), then the contract is closed, the remainder is collected via the network and returned to the supplier, or transferred to wholesale (so that some other network with a good discount picks it up). This was the case with the game “50 shades of gray” - no one really knew why we entered it into the assortment, but it was assumed that there would be wild demand for the film (then the first one). We saw a graph of demand for Viy, and we decided that it would work. By the way, it’s a direct joke with Viy - then they dismantled Gogol in the book covers in the film cover as hot cakes, but in the usual one, without reference to the film, they didn’t touch him at all. So it didn’t work, but the supplier has only this one in the price list of games, and about 3500 other items for sex shop.

    Another standard task is sorting out. Often this is done by the buyer, leaving for the warehouse. He knows what kind of product, where it came from, whether it can be returned or not. Last December, there were 6 visiting days, boxes in gloves and suits of Antis were moved. Discounts on damaged packaging are up to 50 percent off. If you need a table for one evening - a box with scratches or a knife from the opening of the shipping container is quite a lot to many at this price.

    Delivery of goods


    Sometimes you need to get a rare or desired product. To do this, you need to wool sources of information like anomalies in the search for Yandex or mentions in celebrity blogs.

    First, a product is searched, and then we figure out who we can get from and on what conditions. A good supplier with uninteresting goods is not an option. For example, “ fidget cubes ” - a product that collected a lot of money on Kickstarter, and which the Chinese began to produce before the end of the campaign. This is an absolutely useless thing, which costs 300-1400 rubles, depending on the quality. On it buttons, knobs, switches, etc., - everything to take hands. Ira got a sample, decided that this is the most idiotic product in the world and ... suddenly got hooked.



    Three days later, we could not take her cube from her. It became clear that the goods will come. There was a supplier who takes these cubes to Russia - he put them at that time on the Expedition. We have purchased, and now we have these cubes. The nuance is that there were two types of them - expensive and cheap. Cheap - terrible sucks, it’s unpleasant to pick it up. Dear - a little different from the original on Kickstarter, fumbling from China, and very very similar. The problem is that the market is now playing dumping: many bought cheap ones and write the “original” on them. Original in the Russian Federation last month was not yet any of the suppliers according to our data. After another month, the market will slide into stabbing - people will get confused about what is good and what is bad - and the buyer must understand this in forecasting demand.

    The second story is these postcards from China and Vietnam:



    I’ve been hunting them for three years already, I even tried to persuade my friend to bring their suitcase. Not in order to earn money, but simply because they are absolutely magical, and I want to put such a product in the store so that people are happy and surprised. In China, they cost 100-200 rubles at retail, in Vietnam - 60-150 rubles, and in our country - 450-600. I am ready to sell them for 250 rubles apiece, well, a maximum of 300. Above - IMHO, already arrogance. And that’s why, probably, we won’t put them, or put them in a very limited batch.

    The third story is when we see some kind of western hit in the procurement tracking channel, for example, the game “Space Truckers” (in Prague, two of their circulations were distributed on pre-orders). In this case, the purchase transmits information to our foreign agents who are trying to agree on localization in Russia. If it doesn’t work out, we just keep our finger on the pulse until the goods are delivered.

    Other tasks


    Once every six months, an audit of suppliers is carried out: a hefty tablet with all indicators is simply compiled, and analysis begins for each of the counterparties: “this key, this promising one, is merged, and it’s uncomfortable and unprofitable, therefore you can sell more if you give a discount "- like this.

    Total


    For the past three years, we have been working on the model of optimal mathematics in terms of maximizing profits - this is a crisis plan. Now the situation is better, and we are working on a wide range of models so that everything conceivable in the future can be obtained from us. Suppliers squabble for the goods - for example, there is a company that, for personal reasons, does not deliver its goods to us, in violation of the antitrust laws. We didn’t even touch them with our finger in 2011, we just accidentally broke their retail. But returning to the wide range model - last year, Igor Poleshchuk (financier) and I considered the lost profits from the fact that we do not have any positions. And the results were very significant - the fact is that in this case we don’t get the second game in the check (and we rarely take one each) and another 2-3 years of purchases from this buyer, getting used to returning for presents. Therefore, the procurement work had to be slightly changed.

    By how to practically consider the goods - I advise the book “Likbez analytics”, there is everything basic that allows you to start. Further - forums and specialized articles, experience in closed conferences for retail and other bargains.

    It seems to the people from the side that the purchaser has a constant holiday - after all, they sit, lined with a bunch of games, and often test the goods. Gifts unfold. For a day, three boxes of gifts can be considered and ruined, checking for strength. And at exhibitions behind the curtain vendors thump. Hard dangerous work.

    Also popular now: