What Does a Retail Buying Career at Pacific Sunwear Look Like?

Lifestyle

Paige Becker of Pacific Sunwear on Her Career in Retail Buying

What Does a Retail Buying Career at Pacific Sunwear Look Like? Image

When both of your parents work as retail buyers, it isn’t hard to figure out your career path. After watching her father manage his own clothing company, Paige Becker was bit by the ‘buying bug’ at a young age. She went into college with her major already declared (fashion buying and merchandising), and set out to make her mark on the fashion industry.

After completing an internship with Volcom and even creating her own business as a school project, she landed her first role in the retail buying world with Swell. The fashion industry is notoriously difficult and hectic, but Paige’s passion for her work helped her learn and grow into her current position with PacSun.

Some might think that merchandising is just “shopping for a living”, but it’s so much more than that. It might be a career full of crazy days, but Paige wouldn’t have it any other way. Keep reading to find out how she balances her hectic days and stays on top of the fickle fashion industry.

Her Starting Point

Tell us a little more about your background. What was your first job post-college and what was the transition like?

Both of my parents were buyers so I grew up with the interest in mind. I worked retail while I was in high school and went to college knowing what I wanted to do - study apparel & merchandising. I interned for Volcom while I was in college and started working for them part-time once I graduated. I worked with the Volcom retail buyers and specifically assisted the ecommerce buyer. This is where my love for ecommerce began.

Before PacSun, you worked as an assistant buyer for Swell. How did your role at the two companies differ and how did you handle this move?

I did the everyday tasks that any assistant would do; entered purchase orders, maintained & organized samples, coordinated photo shoots and attended vendor appointments to view all of the upcoming season’s styles and trends. I didn’t have a lot of control over the business but was able to learn a lot from the lead buyer. At PacSun I transitioned to both a buying and management role. I currently oversee all of the buying for the website; including all classifications and all brands that we sell online (roughly 40 classes and 60-70 brands per season).. It was a pretty intimidating task at first but has definitely been a transformational move for my career. It took a lot of motivation and late nights at the office to set some processes in place that would set us up for a successful future.

Breaking into the fashion industry is notoriously difficult. Did you have any internships or other experience that helped you land your first post-grad job?

The apparel & merchandising program at my university required an internship prior to graduation. It basically replaced a semester of school in which we were rewarded with 12 credits after completion. I interned for Volcom the summer before graduation and learned a lot about both buying and ecommerce. I had worked retail for years before which helped to gain a general knowledge of the industry but interning at Volcom helped me to learn the wholesale side of the business. It enabled me to hone in on one brand and really learn the details before starting my career at a multi-branded retailer.

What do you love most about your current job with PacSun? What’s the company culture like?

The thing I love most about my job with PacSun is that I touch multiple departments within the organization. There is a lot of collaboration that goes on between me (the merchandising team), the marketing team, the ecommerce team and the creative design team. I am doing something different every day and constantly moving which helps to keep an upbeat outlook on work.

I also really enjoy the people that I work with. Working with so many different brands and individuals within PacSun makes works enjoyable. We not only have an amazing men’s team but the culture of the company from the top down is incredible. Our HR team and CEO do a wonderful job of making PacSun a great place to work. We have happy hour events in our courtyard, Christmas parties with karaoke (which the CEO participates in!), and we work closely with philanthropic companies to really make a difference outside of just our industry. It’s such a great feeling to really love what you do, but it’s even better when you love the company you work for and the people you work with!

What Does a Retail Buying Career at Pacific Sunwear Look Like?- Her Starting Point

Her Big Break

How did you first learn the ins and outs of buying? What resources (i.e. websites, people, etc.) helped you?

It started with my parents, then school, then my boss at Swell. I grew up hearing about my parents’ careers which initially sparked my interest. My Dad owned his own clothing company for years and I got a bit of an inside look into what actually made a clothing business work. I remember working with my siblings in his warehouse (playing hide and seek when he wasn’t in the room), packing boxes to be shipped to his accounts.

Then there was college. I went to school knowing exactly what I wanted my degree to be. I was accepted into the program and began apparel & merchandising classes from the first day of school. In order to graduate we had to create and manage a company which started freshman year and was completed senior year. It was a 4 year project that really helped to understand every aspect of running a retail business.

After college was my career at Swell. I was an assistant to an amazing boss who taught me so much about buying. We worked on the men’s side of the business, which didn’t come naturally to me at the time. If it wasn’t for her helping me to learn about the brands and the business I definitely wouldn’t be where I am today.

As a buyer you have to stay on top of the latest trends. How do you stay creatively inspired and find pieces that match the brand statement?

Social media is a huge platform that I use for trend forecasting. There are many influencers/bloggers/etc. that have a leading edge on fashion and they are easily accessible through social media. In addition, I use websites such as hypebeast, complex, and XXL mag to really see what is up-and-coming in the industry. They feature both retailers and brands that offer unique ideas and products.

Tell us a little bit about your role on the marketing side for PacSun. Do the buying and marketing teams typically work closely together?

The two departments work extremely close at PacSun. I buy all the product that is presented on the website and the marketing team owns the actual presentation. We have numerous weekly meetings to really nail down our onsite & social media projection, e-mail cadence, and digital marketing strategies.

We image your schedule must be pretty hectic! What does a typical day in your life look like?

Oh my, what does my schedule look like? I wake up, make myself a cup of coffee and get ready for work while watching the news. I drive to the office and usually get here around 8:30am. My days are typically filled with a wide array of back-to-back meetings ranging from buying & planning to photography & marketing… all while multitasking and answering emails from my phone. Once meetings end, typically around 5:30pm, I sit down at my desk and answer emails. Those are the extreme days!

On normal days once I arrive at the office, I catch up on any emails and place a few buys. We work so far in advance that I am currently buying and planning for Spring 2016…. and it’s only May 2015 right now. It gets pretty hectic but I love to keep busy! On any given day I could be meeting with the brands, placing buys, helping style a photo shoot or helping brainstorm what the subject line for our next email blast will be. Every day is something new!

What Does a Retail Buying Career at Pacific Sunwear Look Like?- Her Big Break

Her Perspective

What advice do you have for others looking to work as a fashion buyer? Where should they start?

I was so fortunate to apply to college knowing exactly what I wanted to study and down the road pursue a career in. I not only learned the fundamentals of what went into being a buyer but I was also very hands-on in key projects that helped prepare me for the fashion world. We organized fashion shows that were put on by our design students and also went to events that helped us meet brands and influential individuals within the industries we were interested in. Networking has been key!

My coworkers and I always joke about how small our industry truly is, but in the grand scheme of things, the fashion and retail industry is enormous. Everything definitely comes full circle but started with my education.

What’s the biggest lessons you’ve learned about your career so far? Is there anything you wish you would’ve done differently?

Take risks and be confident in yourself. I was extremely reluctant to make the big jump from Swell to PacSun so early on in my career, but there couldn’t have been a better decision for me to make. I was thrown in to fix a struggling business and was completely in over my head. After being completely overwhelmed, I took a step back, assessed the issues, and confidently began to make changes one after another while marching towards the bigger picture. It took about 9-12 months to really get my feet underneath me but in the end, it was all worth it! Along the process I had to keep telling myself “they hired me for a reason so do what you were hired to do!” and in the end it all paid off.

Some think of retail buying as simply “shopping.” What are some misconceptions of the retail buying industry you’ve encountered that are important for aspiring buyers to know?

That’s so true! Everyone thinks that I shop for a living. In fact, buying is very little “shopping” and a lot of number crunching! I’m a woman buying men’s fashion - not my ideal personal shopping experience! Buying is truly about knowing your consumer and what their interests are that will eventually lead to conversion, or a purchase.

Every week I analyze consumer traffic reports that help me to learn who my customer is, where they are shopping and what their personal interests are. It’s unbelievable the amount of data that the internet can supply and I am constantly learning about my consumer and the buying decisions I can make to supply them with what they want and need. It truly is a consumer science.

And finally, what do you wake up looking forward to? What’s next for your career?

I wake up in the morning looking forward to every crazy day at the office. Half of the time I feel like I am running around like a crazy person, but it all comes down to loving what I do and I enjoy coming to work every day. I work with so many different brands and individuals that I thrive off of the relationships I have been able to create with them.

I plan to stay in this industry for the remainder of my career - ecommerce is constantly evolving so every quarter (more like every day!) there is something new and exciting to learn about. I’m hoping to continue to build my team on the men’s side here at PacSun and, hopefully as I grow in my career, I can transition to oversee both genders.