Category Buyer in Panama City Beach, Florida at GULF COAST PANAMA JACK

Supply chain professional responsible for sourcing and procuring goods, materials, and services for wholesale distribution of beach commodities. This role is responsible for ensuring inventory is available at the right time, price, and quality while balancing budgets and minimizing supply chain disruptions. Category focus is on domestic sourcing for Suncare, Sand toys, Impulse games, Namedrop accessories, Drinkware, Towels and Apparel, with potential expansion to import procurement.

Core Responsibilities

• Sourcing & Vendor Evaluation: Research, vet, and select suppliers based on price, quality, lead times, and reputation. Maintain mutually beneficial Vendor relationships.

• Procurement Execution: Review internal requisitions, create purchase orders (POs) in ERP systems, and track orders to guarantee on-time delivery.

• Sales Processing: Complete NOVA submissions in Walmart’s Retail Link platform and complete sales order posting for “Drop Ship” buys.

• Negotiation: Negotiate pricing, delivery terms, and contracts to secure the best value and minimize total costs.

• Inventory & Demand Management: Analyze sales data, track stock levels, and collaborate with planning/production teams to prevent stockouts or overstock.

• Issue Resolution: Resolve discrepancies with suppliers, including damaged goods, delayed shipments, and invoicing errors. Prepare suggestions of alternative available products on hand for sales team if core outages occur.

• Market Analysis: Attend trade shows, track commodity trends, and monitor consumer or industry shifts to inform future purchasing decisions.

Key Qualifications & Skills

• Education: A bachelor’s degree in supply chain management, business, economics, or a related field preferred.

• Experience: 1–5+ years in procurement, purchasing, or inventory control required.

• Hard Skills: Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Outlook, Teams, Excel, and PowerBI (for spend analysis), and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems (e.g., SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics). Basic math competency in relation to accounting and budgets.

• Soft Skills: Excellent verbal/written communication, strong negotiation tactics, and high organizational capabilities to track dozens of open orders simultaneously.

• Bonus Skills: Resort Industry knowledge/expertise and product development experience.