Job Profile: Senior Retail Buyer

Job Overview

The Senior Retail Buyer serves as the chief architect of a dispensary's product assortment and its primary profit engine. This position operates at the intersection of quantitative analysis, consumer psychology, and stringent regulatory navigation. The role extends far beyond traditional procurement; it involves forecasting hyper-local market trends, building strategic partnerships within a fragmented and nascent supply chain, and developing a data-driven pricing strategy that maximizes margin while remaining competitive. Success is measured by the ability to curate a product mix that builds customer loyalty, optimizes inventory turns, and directly drives revenue growth. The Senior Retail Buyer leverages sophisticated business intelligence tools to translate complex sales data into a coherent and profitable assortment strategy, ensuring the dispensary's offerings are compelling, compliant, and commercially successful in a market defined by constant change and fierce competition.

A Day in the Life

The day begins with a deep dive into performance data. Using a business intelligence dashboard in Tableau, the Senior Buyer analyzes the previous day's sales velocity and margin performance across all product categories: flower, pre-rolls, vaporizers, concentrates, edibles, and topicals. The analysis identifies which specific SKUs are driving revenue and which are lagging, flagging items with low sell-through rates for potential promotional activity or discontinuation. Advanced Excel models are used to track inventory turns and Gross Margin Return on Investment (GMROI) by vendor, providing a clear picture of partner profitability.

Mid-morning is dedicated to the supply chain. This includes a virtual meeting with a promising new craft cannabis cultivator to review their latest harvest's Certificate of Analysis (COA), confirming THC potency and verifying passing results for microbial and pesticide screening. This is followed by a negotiation call with a major edibles manufacturer to plan a seasonal product launch, securing preferential pricing and marketing support. The Buyer meticulously documents vendor communications and commitments to ensure accountability and compliance with all state-specific regulations regarding product intake and marketing.

The afternoon focuses on strategic assortment governance and cross-functional alignment. The Buyer leads a weekly assortment review meeting with the Head of Retail and key Dispensary Managers. Using data visualizations from Tableau, they present insights on emerging market trends, such as the growing demand for solventless concentrates or fast-acting edibles. The team collaborates to refine the assortment strategy, deciding which new brands to onboard and which underperforming products to phase out. This process ensures the product mix remains fresh, relevant, and aligned with both consumer demand and overall business objectives.

The operational cycle concludes with future-focused planning. The Buyer updates the Open-to-Buy (OTB) plan for the upcoming quarter, allocating budget across categories based on forecasted sales and strategic growth initiatives. They draft purchase orders in the seed-to-sale tracking system, ensuring every detail aligns with state compliance requirements. Finally, they prepare a product knowledge brief for the retail team, outlining the key features, benefits, and target customer for a new line of wellness-focused CBD tinctures set to launch the following week, empowering the front-line staff to sell with confidence and expertise.

Core Responsibilities & Operational Impact

The Senior Retail Buyer's responsibilities are organized into three primary domains of impact:

1. Data-Driven Assortment Strategy & Curation

• Assortment Strategy Development: Formulating and executing a comprehensive product strategy that aligns with the brand's target demographic, financial goals, and the competitive landscape. This involves defining the optimal product mix and SKU count for each category to maximize sales and avoid choice overload.
• Market Trend Analysis: Utilizing business intelligence platforms like Headset or BDSA, alongside internal sales data, to identify and react to shifts in consumer preference, emerging product formats, and competitor strategies.
• Vendor Sourcing and Partnership Management: Identifying, vetting, and onboarding new brand partners. This includes rigorous due diligence on compliance history, production capacity, and product quality. The role also focuses on cultivating long-term, strategic relationships with key vendors to secure exclusive products and favorable terms.

2. Financial Management & Pricing Execution

• Pricing Strategy: Establishing and maintaining a dynamic pricing structure based on product tier, competitive positioning, and margin targets. This includes managing initial markups, promotional pricing, and markdown cadences to optimize profitability and inventory health.
• Inventory & Open-to-Buy (OTB) Management: Developing and managing the OTB budget to guide purchasing decisions. The Buyer closely monitors inventory levels, sell-through rates, and stock-to-sales ratios to ensure optimal cash flow and minimize carrying costs associated with overstock.
• Performance Analysis & Reporting: Conducting regular, in-depth analysis of sales, margin, and inventory performance by category, brand, and SKU. The Buyer generates actionable reports and presents findings to leadership, providing clear recommendations for strategic adjustments.

3. Compliance Governance & Cross-Functional Leadership

• Assortment Governance & Compliance: Acting as the gatekeeper for all products entering the dispensary. The Buyer ensures every potential product meets stringent state-specific regulations for testing, packaging, and labeling before a purchase order is ever issued.
• Collaboration with Operations and Marketing: Working closely with the inventory team to manage inbound logistics and with the marketing team to develop promotional calendars, product launch campaigns, and in-store merchandising strategies.
• Retail Team Enablement: Creating and disseminating essential product information and training materials to dispensary staff. This empowers budtenders to speak confidently about the product assortment, enhancing the customer experience and driving sales of strategic items.

Strategic Impact Analysis

The Senior Retail Buyer directly influences key business performance metrics through the following mechanisms:

Chain of Command & Key Stakeholders

Reports To: This position typically reports to the Director of Retail Operations or the Vice President of Merchandising.

Similar Roles: Professionals with titles such as Category Manager, Merchandise Planner, or Procurement Manager in traditional retail, consumer packaged goods (CPG), or beverage alcohol industries possess highly relevant skill sets. The Senior Retail Buyer role in cannabis uniquely integrates the responsibilities of these positions with the added layers of complex regulatory oversight and management of a highly fragmented, state-locked supply chain. The role demands the analytical rigor of a planner, the product sense of a merchant, and the diligence of a compliance officer.

Works Closely With: This position maintains critical working relationships with the Inventory Manager, Marketing Director, Director of Compliance, and regional Dispensary General Managers.

Technology, Tools & Systems

Mastery of specific technology platforms is essential for success:

• Business Intelligence (BI) Tools: Advanced proficiency in data visualization platforms like Tableau or Power BI is critical for analyzing sales data, identifying trends, and creating compelling reports for decision-making.
• Spreadsheet Software: Expert-level skill in Excel or Google Sheets is non-negotiable for financial modeling, OTB planning, pricing analysis, and managing large datasets.
• Cannabis Point-of-Sale (POS) Systems: Deep familiarity with cannabis-specific POS and inventory management systems (e.g., Dutchie, Flowhub, Treez) is required to extract sales data and understand operational workflows and seed-to-sale tracking.
• Market Intelligence Platforms: Regular use of cannabis data analytics services such as Headset or BDSA to benchmark performance, monitor competitive landscapes, and validate market trends.

The Ideal Candidate Profile

Transferable Skills

High-performing candidates often transition from industries that require a similar blend of analytical and creative skills:

• Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) & Grocery: Experience as a Category Manager or Buyer, managing high-volume SKUs, analyzing syndicated sales data (like Nielsen or IRI), and developing promotional strategies.
• Specialty Retail (e.g., Sephora, Whole Foods): Proven ability to identify niche trends, build relationships with emerging brands, and curate a product assortment that educates and excites a discerning customer base.
• Wine & Spirits Distribution: Deep understanding of navigating complex, state-by-state regulatory frameworks, managing supplier relationships, and forecasting demand for regulated products.
• Fashion & Apparel Merchandising: Expertise in trend forecasting, seasonal planning, Open-to-Buy management, and the financial acumen to manage markdown cadences and inventory lifecycle.

Critical Competencies

The role demands specific professional attributes for success:

• Quantitative Horsepower: The ability to dissect complex financial and sales data to find actionable insights, build sophisticated models in Excel, and make decisions grounded in solid business intelligence.
• Strategic Relationship Building: The skill to move beyond transactional vendor interactions to build true partnerships, fostering collaboration and securing competitive advantages for the business.
• High Adaptability Quotient: The capacity to thrive in a fluid and often ambiguous regulatory and market environment, pivoting strategy quickly in response to new data, regulations, or competitive pressures.

Top 3 Influential Entities for the Role

These organizations create the frameworks and provide the data that fundamentally shape the Senior Retail Buyer's decisions:

• State Cannabis Regulatory Agencies: (e.g., California's Department of Cannabis Control, Florida's Office of Medical Marijuana Use). These government bodies are the ultimate authority, defining the entire operational playbook. They dictate everything from product testing standards and THC limits per package to labeling requirements and marketing restrictions, creating the rigid compliance guardrails within which the Buyer must operate.
• Cannabis Market Intelligence Firms (Headset, BDSA): These companies are the equivalent of Nielsen or IRI for the cannabis industry. They aggregate and analyze anonymized point-of-sale data from thousands of dispensaries, providing the essential business intelligence on market trends, brand performance, category sizing, and competitive pricing strategy that allows a Buyer to make informed decisions beyond their own four walls.
• Seed-to-Sale (S2S) Tracking System Providers (e.g., METRC, BioTrack): These are the state-mandated compliance software platforms that track every cannabis product from cultivation to its final sale. A Buyer must have a deep operational understanding of these systems, as all purchasing and inventory receiving processes are executed and reported through them. An error in the S2S system can halt product movement and create significant compliance liabilities.

Acronyms & Terminology