About Us
My 1st Years is the UK’s leading personalised baby and kids gifting brand, offering high-quality, beautifully designed personalised products through eCommerce, retail, and 3rd party marketplaces.
We have built a strong direct-to-consumer presence in the UK and are now expanding into premium physical retail with partners such as Harrods and Selfridges alongside growing marketplace channels such as Next.
International expansion is also underway, making this a pivotal and exciting stage in our journey as we bring the My 1st Years experience to more customers around the world.
With personalisation at the heart of what we do, our business thrives on exceptional customer experiences, innovation, and premium quality.
Customer retention and CRM are central to achieving our growth ambitions, ensuring we maximise lifetime value and deepen relationships with every customer we serve.
About you
As a Buying Admin Assistant, you will take ownership of all administrative tasks for the Buying team and support its day-to-day operations. You are responsible for managing supplier critical paths, alongside learning and developing your skills in commercial product and personalisation techniques. You will have a passion for providing support to the team and making sure that things get done.
You will join our teams based in Northampton (on a hybrid working model), where you will be right in the heart of all the action. You will see the products designed around you before playing a critical role in making them a reality before seeing the finished items having their special personalisation added, before going off to our customers.
Key Responsibilities
- Critical path management - working with suppliers to ensure it is completed and checked weekly, going back to supplier with comments and flagging any lateness to the team in a concise manner (under supervision of Assistant Buyer).
- Work with MAA to review critical path and delivery schedule and ensure alignment.
- Creating Skus and supporting with PO (purchase order) raising as required.
- Maintaining line details in conjunction with the rest of the team.
- Look after sample management, including sample room, filing, and supporting Assistant Buyer with collating photoshoot samples.
- Working with the production team to help get samples personalised for eCom shoots, sign offs etc under supervision from Assistant Buyer.
- Liaising with customer service to support in answering queries and issues.
- Completing regular comp shops on areas requested by the Buying Team.
- Supporting the B&M team with admin tasks in preparation for weekly trade meetings, (eg. Adding images to Best & Worst).
- Assisting the Buying team with preparation for sign offs, strategies and other ad-hoc meetings such as with external suppliers and other functions across the business as required.
- Assisting in fit sessions, taking notes and working with Quality Assistant and Assistant Buyers to complete workbooks and send to supplier, updating Critical Path accordingly.
- Take minutes in department / divisional meetings as required.
- Support with other ad-hoc admin to help support the team
- Develop a working knowledge of M1Y warehouse operations including our personalisation techniques and methods, simultaneously cultivating a relationship with Team Leaders to ensure appropriate personalisation technique is applied to products, identifying problems and feeding back to AB/Buyer as appropriate.
Skills & Knowledge
- Relevant fashion degree/course
- Good time management skills with the ability to plan, organise and prioritise tasks under pressure to meet deadlines
- Be a team player, understanding priorities and work-load from other departments and want to just get stuck in
- Working knowledge of Excel, Powerpoint and Word as well as G-suite programmes
- Excellent communication skills, with the ability to build positive relationships at all levels of the business
- Exceptional attention to detail and organisational skills
- Able to work well under pressure, and in a fast-paced environment
- Previous retail experience would be great but not essential
- Love My 1st Years as much as we do!