Vice President, Merchandising - #1412255

This is a senior leadership position responsible for overseeing and leading teams and processes related to leadership, strategy and execution of all marketing and product management activities. This role drives the company’s product, supplier and sourcing strategy to meet the company’s revenue and margin goals.

40 % Leadership:

• Lead, mentor and develop a high-performing marketing and merchandising team, fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration and continuous development.
• Drive colleague engagement initiatives to maintain a motivated workforce and ensure the retention of talent.
• Lead a team of Category Managers who are responsible for the growth of revenue and margin in specific product categories and business analytics focused on performance reporting and customer targeting
  
  

30 % Financial Management/Budgeting:

• Develop and maintain a marketing and merchandising budget and deploy strategy to meet the company’s review and margin goals.
• Establishes strategy and category financial forecasting with category managers for each category
• Leads efforts with merchandisers to obtain vendor marketing spend.
• Review reports, proposals, earned income by category, margin components, scheduling, SKU’s etc
  
  

30% Core Strategy/Execution and Cross-Functional Collaboration/Alignment:

• Oversee the production of all publications and advertising campaigns for the company.
• Builds relationships and conducts financial negotiations with suppliers both domestically and internationally
• Works with logistics to optimize supplier shipping performance
• Positions products through web placement, categorization and in support of marketing efforts
• Studies and acts upon all market trends, new products, innovation and niches to drive additional sales and site loyalty
• Works cross-functionally with sales, logistics, information technology and finance to support company goals.
• Analyze, negotiate, approve and review new/existing suppliers and product lines.
• Source innovative products under specialty category, negotiating profitable programs and facilitating effective introduction to the sales force.
• Partner with the Inventory Management team (SCIM) to ensure both our upper and lower echelon buying expectations are met while meeting shrink goals.
  
  

Education Required

• Four-year college degree in Business Administration, Management or a related discipline; or equivalent combination of education and experience require
• 10+ years merchandising (category management, sourcing, vendor relations, product assortment, pricing and marketing) experience with demonstrated progressive levels of management experience
• Experience Preferred:
• 7+ retail, food service or consumer goods, importing experience strongly desired
  
  

Skills And Abilities

• Exceptional written, verbal, presentation and negotiation skills
• Proficient use of MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook)
• Strong business acumen and proven track record for driving business results through strong leadership, communication, effective internal and external relationships
• Skilled at negotiating
• Strong financial and analytical skills to identify and quantify new opportunities and gaps
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work with and influence a variety of key stakeholders
• Strong leadership skills, including the ability to mentor and develop others. Able to engage and lead team discussion and meetings. Understands team dynamics and works well within a team structure. Collaborative management style and strategic team player.
• Demonstrated complex initiative implementation skills
• Demonstrates skills in making independent decisions in support of company policies and procedures in a timely manner