Need a buyer for the season? Let's talk.

A few of you have asked, after reading about my mentoring work, whether I take on buying itself — not just advice, but actually doing the buy, for your store, each season.

The answer is yes. And I want to explain properly what that looks like.

What contracted buying actually means

Instead of hopping on a call to talk through your instincts, this is me stepping into the buyer role for your business, each season — reading your sales history, understanding your customer, and building a range that's built to sell, not just built to look good on an order form.

It's the same process I run for Wink and for Golden every season: what worked last time, what your customer's actually asking for, where the gaps are, and how much to commit to each category so you're not left carrying stock that never moves.

Image below - At Expo Riva Schuh in Italy — one of the world's biggest footwear trade fairs, and part of how I source and buy for both Wink and Capelli Rossi.

This is where the buying actually happens, long before a season ever reaches a shop floor — walking trade fairs like this one, assessing ranges firsthand, and making the calls on what's genuinely worth committing to.

A lot of the buying process is actually locally based!  And realistically this is where most of the buying actually happens. 

Why bring in an outside buyer at all

Buying alone is hard. It's easy to buy what you love rather than what your customer needs. It's easy to overcommit on excitement and undercommit on the quiet performers that actually pay the bills. An outside eye — someone who's built ranges for 20 years and made (and learned from) plenty of expensive mistakes along the way — catches the things that are hard to see from inside your own store.

How it could work

Every business is different, so this isn't one-size-fits-all. Depending on what you need, it could look like:

• A full seasonal buy, start to finish, built around your sales data and budget
  
• Working alongside your existing buying process as a second, experienced set of eyes. My feet are also very close to sample size so I can help with fit and how a shoe can be worn as well.
• Building the buy plan and numbers, while you handle supplier relationships directly

Who this is for

If you're a small retailer without the time, headcount, or confidence to run your own seasonal buy properly — or you simply want someone experienced doing it with you rather than you doing it entirely alone — this is exactly what I'd love to help with.

Interested?

Get in touch and let's have a chat about your store, your season ahead, and whether this is the right fit.

FIND OUT MORE

Lenore x