How does the buyer work

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

The purchaser seeks to increase network profits through the optimal use of all possible resources. This is a rather hardcore optimization problem, because it requires a serious math apparatus to predict demand, and then to determine what, how and when to take. There have been cases that it was easier for us to purchase more goods in order to get a discount on volume, work out holidays, and then destroy the “excess” product, which provided a volume discount. It was more profitable to write off (in that case, we gave positions to orphanages) than to store and sell slowly - renting a warehouse also has a price. This is the only emission, usually everything is much calmer, but often you have to maneuver between the conditions, which is better - a monthly payment delay or an additional 5% discount. And the answer is not always unequivocal.
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Not everyone can be a buyer. 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 - iron liver. And you also need a chuyka to understand which product will go in and which will not.

Another paradox is that the purchaser, of course, must understand the product - but he must not love it. Attachment to the product makes it do not how it numerically deserves. You need to be able to see the whole picture - if the product is cool and at the same time economically unprofitable, then it is better to withdraw it (of course, if the assortment manager does not consider it anchor).

Work with the supplier

As a rule, the supplier appears on the horizon himself and says - dude, I have an awesome product, here it is. Then the purchase asks for samples from him, an appointment is made - and it is discussed what and how. In our field, in addition to the system suppliers-publishers who know all the numbers and rules of the game, often there are people who have made 1-2 nastolki.

If the goods are of interest to us (and this is determined by the fact that we get a competitive price, we consider that the goods are suitable for the network, and we can sell more than 3000 pieces per year), then the signing of the contract begins. The general principle is one paper contract sample. When the paper comes from the supplier, the buyer simply puts it with the image, and looks at the light - to identify the difference in the lines. If everything is smooth and clean - subscribes. Yes, on every 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, then only by a protocol of disagreements, and not by a change of agreement. Before work, the contract is given to the security men, who at least check the judicial incidents with their legal entities, their former legal entities and their former legal entities. This some inflexibility is not always convenient when working with small counterparties, but such is life.

After that, sales begin. Purchase distributes goods to shops (we, for example, at one time seriously mistaken with my book “Business as a game” based on posts from Habr - here I described in post why people chose retail but not online store). He ensures that where the presentation samples were necessary, that the author of the potentially hit game went shopping and taught the sellers to play himself, so that the level of marriage did not exceed 1% and so on. The purchase also recalls the goods, if it goes bad, it constantly fights for the conditions, gnaws the first export delivery straight from the customs warehouse, does a lot more.

Sometimes a product comes in unevenly, and redistribution needs to be done - from unsuccessful places for a given product to successful ones. At the same time, it is necessary to understand why exactly the goods here sell well and 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 area (although nastolki historically - an adult product) - here and sold children's positions there are much more fun. As a rule, it is enough to talk to a senior. After the manual, the purchaser is the second person who decides what is in the store.

Next - analytics . The most important indicators are the ABC analysis (the share of goods in circulation) and, in fact, the turnover rate. If the goods did not go (from the entire supplier), then the contract is closed, the balance is collected over the network and returned to the supplier, or transferred to the wholesale (so that some other network can be picked up at a good discount). We had it with the game “50 shades of gray” - no one really knew why we introduced it into the assortment, but it was assumed that there would be a wild demand for the film (then the first). We saw a graph of demand for the book "Viy", and decided that it would work. With “Viy”, by the way, it’s an anecdote - then Gogol’s books were disassembled like hotcakes in bookstores, and in the ordinary, without reference to the film, they didn’t touch at all. So it did not work, and the supplier in the price list of the games only this, and about 3500 more items for sex shops. At most, we could from there still buy new year presents for our competitors (as Chichvarkin did), but we are not so angry.

Another standard task is screening. Often it makes the buyer, leaving the warehouse. He knows what kind of product, where it came from, whether it is possible to return it or not. Last December, there were 6 visiting days; boxes were moved with gloves and Antis suits. Discounts on goods with damaged packaging are up to 50 percent. If you need a desk for one evening - a box with scratches or a knife from opening a shipping container is completely rolled at this price.

Delivery of goods

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

First, we look for a product, and then we figure out who we can get from and under what conditions. A good supplier with an uninteresting product is not an option. For example, “ Fijet Cubes ” is a product that collected a lot of money on Kickstarter, and which the Chinese started to produce before the end of the campaign. This is absolutely useless thing, which costs 300-1400 rubles, depending on quality. On it, buttons, twists, switches, etc., - everything to occupy hands. Ira received a sample, decided that it was the most idiotic product in the world and ... suddenly sat down.



Three days later we could not take away from her this cube. It became clear that the product will go. There was a supplier who transported these cubes to Russia - he put them at the time in the “Expedition”. We bought, and now we have these cubes. The caveat is that there were two types of them - expensive and cheap. Cheap - scary sucks, taking him in the hands is unpleasant. Dear - a bit different from the original on Kickstarter, fumbles from China, and is very, very similar. The problem is that the market is now playing dumping: many have bought cheap ones and write “the original” on them. According to our data, none of the suppliers were original in Russia last month. A month later, the market will slide into stabbing, - people will get confused about what is good, what is bad - and the buyer must understand this in forecasting demand.

The second story is these postcards from China and Vietnam:



I had been hunting for them for about three years, even trying to persuade a friend to bring their suitcase. Not in order to earn money, but simply because they are absolutely magical, and I want to put such goods in the store so that people rejoice and wonder. In China, they stand at retail 100-200 rubles, 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 impudence. And that is why, probably, we will not deliver them, or we will deliver them in a very limited game.

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, their two circulations diverged from preorders). In this case, the purchase sends information to our foreign agents who are trying to negotiate localization in Russia. If it does not work out - just keep abreast of the delivery of goods.

Other tasks

Every six months, an audit of suppliers is done: a hefty plate with all indicators is simply compiled, and analysis of each of the counterparties begins: "- that's about it.

Total

For the last three years, we have been working on an optimal mathematics model in terms of maximizing profits — this is a crisis plan. Now the situation is better, and we are working on a wide range model so that everything imaginable in the future can be obtained from us. Suppliers are squabbling over the goods - for example, there is a company that, for personal reasons, does not put its goods to us, violating these antitrust laws. We didn’t even touch them with a finger in 2011, we just accidentally ruined their retail stores. But returning to a wide range of models - last year, Igor Poleschuk and I (the analyst) considered the lost profit from the fact that we do not have any positions. And the results were very significant - the fact is that in this case we do not receive the second game on the check (and we rarely take one each) and another 2-3 years of purchases from this buyer, who is accustomed to returning for gifts. Therefore, the procurement work had to be changed a little.

By the way, how to practically consider a product - I advise the book “Educational program analyst”, everything is the main thing that allows you to start. Further - forums and profile articles, experience at closed conferences for retail and other small parties.

It seems to the people from the outside that the purchaser has a regular holiday - after all, they are sitting, surrounded by a bunch of games, and often test the goods. Gifts unfold. During the day, three boxes of gifts can be considered and spoiled, checking for strength. And at exhibitions behind a curtain at suppliers thump. Hard dangerous work.