Merchandising Buying interview prep.

Behavioural questions to expect

1. Walk me through your CV.
2. Walk me through your most impressive category, item launch, or assortment decision.
3. Tell me about a weakness, a failure, or feedback you've received and worked on.
4. Why merchandising / buying - and why apparel / footwear specifically?
5. Why this format - vertical brand / specialty retailer / department store / DTC - and not the others?
6. Why the firm?
7. When a customer is choosing between the firm and a top competitor for the sector, what's the assortment-level reason she ends up with the firm?
8. Which categories at the firm look healthy right now, and where would you focus the next round of investment?

Technical concepts to master

• Open-to-buy (OTB) - the apparel / footwear buyer's working budget

  Open-to-buy (OTB) - the equation · MFP - Merchandise Financial Plan · GMROI - Gross Margin Return on Inventory

• Size curve, fit risk, and return-rate discipline

  Size curve · Fit session + fit posture · Return rate + fit failure · Size run and tier mapping (footwear)

• Sourcing calendar and lead-time discipline

  Seasonal flow calendar · Lead time + sourcing windows · Country mix + sourcing footprint

• The four-pillar merchandising framework - right product / price / place / time (apparel + footwear)

  Right product · Right price · Right place · Right time

• Fashion / seasonal flow vs. replenishment / basics in apparel and footwear

  Replenishment / basics - the model · Fashion / seasonal flow - the model · The blend - how an apparel / footwear buyer manages both

Practical drills

• You have an apparel category with $10M planned net sales for the season, planned markdowns of $1M, planned ending inventory of $2M at retail, beginning inventory of $3M at retail, and on-order receipts of $4M at retail (60% of which is past the sourcing-lead-time cancel window). What is your remaining OTB? Six weeks into a 12-week season you have shipped $4.2M of sales against a $5M plan-to-date. What is the sell-through gap, and what does that imply for the OTB position?
• You are taking over the the sector category. Last season ended with $20M net sales, 65% regular-price sell-through, 22% markdown rate, 52% net realised gross margin, and 22% return rate (digital). You have a flat comp target ($20M) and a 100bp margin improvement target (53% net realised gross margin). Walk me through how you would plan the season.
• Pitch me an item, silhouette, or assortment edit you would recommend the firm add to the the sector category for next season. 5 minutes prep, 5 minutes delivery.

Smart-question anchors

• Category investment priorities - which categories the senior merchant team is leaning into for the next 12-24 months and what the gating economic signal looks like
• Buyer-planner partnership - how OTB and MFP discipline work in practice across the buyer-planner table and where the friction lives
• Sourcing strategy + lead-time posture - country mix, nearshoring, quick-response capacity, and how the {firm_name} balances cost and speed
• Fit + size-curve discipline - how the team's fit-session cadence works, who owns fit posture across categories, and how return-rate is acted on
• Private label / owned brand vs. wholesale brand mix - penetration target, owned-brand capability investment, and where owned brand competes vs. complements wholesale

Sourced from

National Retail Federation (NRF) and AAFA merchant career and benchmark resources · McKinsey + Business of Fashion State of Fashion annual report · NPD / Circana retail tracking + Footwear News (FN) + WWD trade-press commentary · Harvard Business School + INSEAD apparel and footwear case library · Wall Street Oasis, Glassdoor, and Reddit r/retail buyer interview threads for apparel + footwear roles