In Retail, a Buyer Is a Job Title
A buyer is someone who buys. In shops and fashion, the buyer is a professional who decides what the whole business will stock.
A buyer is a person who buys. In retail it is also a senior job title: the buyer for a department store or fashion chain chooses, months ahead, which products the company will carry and in what quantity, which makes one person's taste the whole shop's stock. The Latin warning *caveat emptor*, let the buyer beware, uses the same idea and still names the legal principle that a purchaser must inspect goods.
- A purchaser. *The buyer paid cash.*
- A retail professional. *The head buyer for menswear.*
- Buyer's market — favourable to purchasers. *It's a buyer's market.*
- First-time buyer — a new home purchaser. *Help for first-time buyers.*
- Buyer's remorse — regret after purchase. *Classic buyer's remorse.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | buyer | A cash buyer. |
| Plural | buyers | Serious buyers. |
| Verb | buy | Buy it now. |
| Past | bought | He bought two. |
| Latin | emptor | Caveat emptor. |
- The buyer pulled out at the last minute.Property.
- She is the buyer for the shoe department.The job.
- Caveat emptor still applies at auction.Legal.
Buyer phrases in business
- Buyer's market — plenty of supply, prices favour purchasers
- Seller's market — the opposite
- Buyer's remorse — regret after a large purchase
- Caveat emptor — the buyer is responsible for checking
- Chain — in British property, a line of dependent buyers and sellers
From *buy*, Old English *bycgan*, of Germanic origin. The agent noun *buyer* is recorded from the 1300s; the retail job title is nineteenth-century.
What does caveat emptor mean?
Latin for let the buyer beware. It is the legal principle that a purchaser is responsible for checking goods before buying.
What does a retail buyer do?
They select and order the merchandise a shop will sell, usually months ahead of the season.