Season 5 Episode 4: 'Always striving for what's next!' Rosie Platt, Head of E-commerce & Range, shares how moving retailers can really help you find whats really important to you. From carefully created collections to fast fashion trading floors

Today we’re joined by Rosie Platt, Head of Range & Ecommerce at NOTH. Rosie has a huge amount of retail buying experience working for a wide variety of UK retailers, including Principles, Debenhams, Oasis, Jaeger, River Island, BBC Children in Need and Superdrug. Rosie is a product development buyer at heart, like ourselves. We find out how Rosie got into buying, from taking an online quiz to figure out what she might be interested in, to how she landed her first job at Principles and the journey she’s been on working in very different buying environments. 

We hear all about the skills she picked up along the way from fast paced high street fashion, high end fashion shows, the charity sector (all those Pudsey bears!) to marketplace buying. This is a huge episode packed with so many different brands, sharing experiences of what is it REALLY like to work for all these large retailers, and also a sneak peak for retail businesses to understand what goes on behind the scenes. 

Rosie describes behind the scene of working at NOTHS from her 8 years experience of onboarding and coaching small product based businesses. Plus she shares her top tips for small businesses looking to partner, or get stocked in a retailer. We ask; what makes a good pitch? Do you need to send samples? What are the key metrics you should be sharing? 

This is a must listen episode for any brands wanting some valuable tips on what makes for a great pitch and what market places like NOTH are really looking for. If your a buyer this episode will feel very relatable as we are sure that in Rosies varied career she will touch upon a situation you most likely will of been in and gives her experience and advice on how to get through it.

Our takeaways for this episode are:

- Take a break when you feel close to burn out, it will reframe your perspective. Sometime a side step move is more in keeping with your values and ultimately your happiness. Note: you don't always have to push yourself onto the next thing. Often these breaks still lead you back to climbing the ladder for promotion, so whats the rush?!

- A coaching management style is incredible rewarding - on both sides! It gets the best out of your team by calling out where improvements can be made sharing ways to improve. It might feel a bit uncomfortable at first to get feedback, but it will help your development, and remember it comes from a caring place.  

- It's so great to see brands moving at a slower pace and being much more conscious of supply chain. Yes there are numbers to hit, and these are essential to stay afloat, but let's re-frame the way we look at the product and the numbers in a more holistic way, to enable long term growth. If Brands have this at the heart of the business, then customers can buy with a clean conscious. We need to lead the way.

You heard it first hand from Rosie that by 2030 70% of all sales will be on marketplaces... Are you retail ready? Struggling to get in front of buyers like Roise or structure your business to give it the best possible chance? Sign up for our bootcamp and we can help you with all of this! Find out more on our website: 

 https://www.buyingandbeyond.co.uk/bootcamp