Fashion Business & Buying

Participants progress to learn the selection and purchasing of luxury fashion products for high street brands, boutiques, innovative independent fashion labels and e-commerce retail outlets using existing and contemporary business models, encapsulating innovation, new media, and technology in the global buying process. The course explores trends, stock mix, the buying calendar, range planning, pricing strategies and profitability, all crucial when planning the purchase of a seasonal fashion collection. Excellent negotiation techniques with suppliers are fundamental, together with issues in pricing, merchandising, budgets, JIT ordering, distribution channels and supplier lead times. Buyers need to be both creative and business-minded, with strong merchandising, analytical skills in order to understand and successfully manage the supply chain. Accurately predicting sales and customer demand is crucial to the success of a fashion company. Buyers may work just a few months in advance, or at times years ahead depending on the product and market positioning. Participants learn how to anticipate trends through careful analysis of fashion weeks, through research and investigation of the target audience, and by evaluating tendencies and current issues in the fashion industry, including sustainability and new media influences that affect consumer taste and essentially, consumer buying habits. They learn how to make detailed analyses of past sales records in order to predict future sales, exploring the technical and theoretical aspects of a buying campaign and the impact of merchandising and visual display on sales, both in store and in online retailing (e-commerce). Participants learn real-world skills working on buying campaigns, seeing how collections and launches are viable, and in collaboration with international companies on industry projects and case studies. Meanwhile classes in fashion context and culture provide the necessary skills to make a critical assessment of a brand or client’s lifestyle and legacy, completing the course with a highly sought after professional profile in fashion and luxury buying. This course is part of the fashion business study pathways. With fashion business as the core subject, participants specialise in the chosen area of interest (buying), completing the course with a distinct professional profile. This course is also available as a BA (Hons) four-year course (including Sandwich Year Placement).

• Fashion buying strategies
• Contemporary buying and e-commerce
• Fashion buying and product development management
• Fashion marketing management
• Purchasing budgets and range planning
• Supply chain management & distribution
• Stock management and merchandising mix
• Communication, time management, leadership
• Professional research & presentation methods
• Fashion history & cultural contemporary perspectives

• Fashion buyer
• Product manager
• Retail manager
• Project manager
• Distribution manager
• Operations & logistics manager

Year one

• Introduction to Fashion
• Alpha Marketing
• The Luxury Fashion Product
• Principles of Business

Year two

• Visual and Emotional Branding
• The Contemporary Product
• Fashion Next
• Finance and Management Control

Year three

• Omnichannel Distribution
• Honours Project Fashion Business & Buying
• Future of Fashion

Badges of Excellence recognise a school’s strengths in four key areas: Best Overall, Best in Global Influence, Best in Learning Experience and Best in Long-Term Value.

• Global Influence – The global reputation and influence of a school, based on the selectivity of a school in admitting applicants and the enrolment rates of admitted applicants.
• Learning Experience – The students’ experience while in school assessing the quality of teaching and the resources available at the institution.
• Long-Term Value – The students' preparedness for the real world, based on student progression rates provided by the schools, assessing student satisfaction around employment, career preparedness and accessibility of alumni.

An Overall BoF Score was then awarded to each institution based on the sum-weighted score across all three key indices.