BA (Hons) Degree in Fashion Business & Buying

Specialise in fashion buying and decide what’s in store next season. Professional fashion buyers know how to select a balanced combination of products and brands that fully satisfy company sales targets, consumer demands, and market needs, planning and following strategic buying processes that are essential when taking a collection from the design showroom to the store.

This three year full time course forms business professionals with core fashion buying skills covering all sectors of the fashion and luxury markets. 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).