Her Story
About Beatriz
Beatriz Asuncion serves as a buyer for leather goods at Urban Outfitters, a role she has held for approximately one and a half years. In this position, she oversees product development for the leather goods division, manages sales and merchandising plans, and ensures the right assortment for customers while handling inventory. Prior to this, she worked for about 10 years as a merchant at Aritzia, where her responsibilities centered on product development and buying. She earned a degree in sociology, which sparked her interest in studying people and consumer behaviors, leading her into retail after working at a store and observing customers from the ground up. She attributes her professional success to being customer-obsessed, working effectively across functions, and remaining flexible in a changing retail environment.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Beatriz
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would attribute my success to being very customer-obsessed. I think I've been in multiple roles where I think I know who our customer is. I think that's really important to my success. I think also the ability of me working cross-functionally, I feel like I've really brought in everyone in all the right roles to help succeed. And then I also think, you know, being able to be flexible, and every day is going to change, and, you know, not everything is going to go your way, but to be flexible with the business, because retail is flexible.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I think what I would say with her is really hyper-focus on who your customer is. Customer's always going to tell you the answers. Really dig into the data and look under the covers to really learn on what is working and what isn't working. Just your intuition, because it's a mixture between your own opinion and the customer's opinion.
03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I think Professionally and personally, I have almost the same values. I think loyalty's definitely one. I think transparency is also really important to me. And, yeah, I think loyalty and transparency.
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