Assistant Buyer, Footwear

Job Description

Job Description

Overview

The Assistant Buyer, Footwear  supports the execution of Fleet Feet’s footwear merchandising strategy across all channels. This role assists in building seasonal assortments, preparing reporting and analysis, and coordinating with cross-functional partners to ensure product is set up, ordered, and positioned to meet sales, margin, and inventory goals. 

This is a hybrid position based in Carrboro, NC , with an expectation of working in the office three days per week . Candidates must currently live within commuting distance or be willing to relocate to the area.

Responsibilities

Assortment & Strategy Support

• Assist in building seasonal footwear assortment plans by vendor, sub-category, and channel in alignment with the department’s financial targets and strategic direction. 
• Support the Senior Manager and Director in preparing materials for Open-to-Buy (OTB) and budget reviews, including vendor market share recaps and opportunities. 
• Help compile and maintain seasonal assortment packets, including visual line plans, planograms, trend recaps, and seasonal buy summaries. 
• Manage seasonal attributing within system each buy cycle.

Cross-Channel Merchandising & Ecommerce

• Partner with ecommerce partners to ensure assortments, product attributes, and launches align with in-store strategies and timelines. 
• Assist in merchandising setup for digital platforms, ensuring products are correctly represented and ready for launch. 

Reporting & Business Analysis

• Pull and organize seasonal category reporting, including:
• Historical retail and ecommerce sales trends
• Digital platform performance (dropship and in-store app)
• Competitor and market research
• Operator feedback (seasonal survey)
• Price and gross profit recaps 
• Support the preparation of vendor pre-line, preseason sell-in, and buy review analysis decks for internal and external meetings. 

Preseason Buy & Order Book Support

• Assist Senior Manager with preseason buy entry by SKU, ensuring orders align with assortment strategy and vendor deadlines. 
• Help validate data accuracy for order book uploads into Fleet Feet systems and flag discrepancies or gaps. 
• Support the build-out and maintenance of the product lifecycle calendar (intro dates, MAP calendar, promotional timing). 

Store & Franchise Support

• Assist in providing assortment direction and allocation notes to the Retail Inventory team, supporting door-level decisions and seasonal order book creation. 
• Help develop preseason support tools and resources for Franchise doors to align local assortments with Corporate strategies. 

Tools, Systems & Process Improvement

• Support enhancements to merchandising and planning tools by testing new features, providing feedback, and helping with simple documentation and training resources. 
• Maintain organized records of seasonal assortments, recaps, and reports for easy access and future reference. 

Collaboration & Team Support

• Participate in cross-functional meetings with Buying, Inventory, Digital, Marketing, and Stores to stay aligned on priorities and timelines. 
• Provide day-to-day support to the Senior Manager, including meeting prep, recap notes, and follow-up actions with internal and external partners. 

Measures of Success (Supported KPIs)

The Assistant Merchant contributes to team performance in the following areas (at the category/channel level): 

• Sales vs. Plan
• Style productivity
• Color productivity
• Gross margin performance

Qualifications

• 1–3 years of merchandising, buying, planning, or retail experience preferred; internship or store experience in footwear or sporting goods a plus.
• Strong analytical skills with proficiency in Excel/Google Sheets and comfort working with reports and large data sets.
• High attention to detail and strong organizational skills; able to manage multiple tasks and seasonal calendars.
• Clear written and verbal communication skills; comfortable collaborating with cross-functional partners and vendors.
• Passion for the Fleet Feet brand, running, fitness, and/or active lifestyles is strongly preferred.

Competencies

• Ownership & Follow-Through: Takes responsibility for assigned tasks and delivers against deadlines.
• Collaboration: Works effectively with teammates across departments and with vendor partners.
• Curiosity & Learning: Proactively seeks to understand the business, category trends, and the “why” behind results.
• Customer & Operator Focus: Considers both the end consumer and store operators when supporting assortment and merchandising decisions.