Merchandising Buying interview prep.

Behavioural questions to expect

1. Walk me through your CV.
2. Walk me through your most impressive category, product launch, or assortment decision.
3. Tell me about a weakness, a failure, or feedback you've received and worked on.
4. Why luxury merchandising / buying — vs. specialty retail buying, brand marketing, or wholesale account management?
5. Why the sector — what's your point of view on this category?
6. Why the firm?
7. What is your read on our codes, signature objects, and current product pyramid?
8. Which categories or product lines at the firm look healthy right now, and where would you focus the next round of investment?

Technical concepts to master

• Luxury OTB + atelier capacity — the capacity-led buy

  Capacity-led OTB · Lead time + reservation cadence · Vertical integration leverage

• Sell-through + markdown discipline — full-price is the KPI

  Full-price sell-through · Markdown taboo on icons · Residual management · Price increases as discipline

• Allocation + clienteling priority — top clients + flagships first

  Top-client (VIC) priority · Flagship-first allocation · Wholesale + travel-retail rationalisation · Clienteling as merchant input · Density per door

• Product pyramid + creative-merchant partnership

  Pyramid balance · Capsule + collaboration cadence · Métier d'art + haute as dream-value engine · Creative-commercial translation

Practical drills

• Your maison is launching a signature handbag next season at $8,000 retail. The atelier has reserved capacity for 24,000 units in year 1. Top-client demand (estimated through sales-advisor waiting lists) sits at 18,000 units. You have 120 DOS globally, of which 12 are flagships. Walk through the allocation, the year-1 revenue + AUR + density-per-door, and the full-price sell-through you'd target.
• You are taking over the the sector category. Last season ended with $300M net sales, 88% full-price sell-through on icons, 78% on core continuity, 72% on RTW seasonal, AUR up 4%, like-for-like in DOS at 6%. The Chief Merchandising Officer wants a 100bp gross-margin lift and continued AUR mix-up. Walk me through how you would plan the season.
• Pitch me a product, capsule, 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

• Codes and signature objects — which are protected, evolving, or under-leveraged in the current pyramid
• Product-pyramid balance — entry / core / icon / haute share, capsule cadence, métier-d'art programme direction
• Atelier and vertical-integration roadmap — owned capacity, supplier scorecards, multi-year capacity reservations
• Creative-merchant partnership — how the merchandiser sits with the creative director on the product calendar and the icon decisions
• Allocation and clienteling discipline — top-client share, flagship density, wholesale rationalisation pace

Sourced from

Bain & Altagamma Luxury Goods Worldwide Market Study · McKinsey + Business of Fashion State of Fashion report · Vogue Business + WWD luxury trade commentary · Kapferer + Bastien — The Luxury Strategy · Aggregated luxury merchandiser / category buyer interview reports (Glassdoor, BoF Careers, INSEAD + SDA Bocconi + ESCP luxury programmes)