Senior Merchandiser

Job Title: Senior Merchandiser

Location: Dubai

Company Overview

SUMWON STUDIOS is a fashion brand group, with an innovative and creative approach to developing & designing direct-to-consumer fashion brands for a diverse global customer base.

The current brands we run are MISSGUIDED, SUMWON, AiiRZ and KiZN. Our team of talented designers, trend forecasters, and industry experts collaborate seamlessly to bring our vision to life.

We leverage our expertise in market research, consumer insights, and design excellence to create brands that resonate with consumers. We are proud to have forged a strategic and exclusive relationship with one of the largest fashion retailers in the world. This partnership enables us to expand our reach and distribute our brands to a global audience of over 150 million customers. Where others perceive limits, we perceive opportunities.

We're building our team - ready to challenge everything and embrace bold, new-age thinking. We honour and celebrate individuality, building an international space where everyone can feel inspired and thrive.

About the Role

As a Senior Merchandiser at SUMWON STUDIOS, you will play a crucial role in the planning, development, and execution of our merchandising strategies. Your primary responsibility will be to maximizes sales through performance analysis, amending future option plans adopting a test and scale approach. You will work in cooperation with the design team to concisely brief opportunities both numerically and visually.

What you'll do

Planning

• Analyse historical and current sales data, identify trends and make informed decisions regarding future product development.
• Develop clear strategies to improve sales, hit rate and other key performance indicators.
• Present insights, forecasts and recommendations to the senior leadership team.

Trading

• Show strong commercial awareness and maximise on trade reactions maintaining a buy now wear now mentality.
• Have an appreciation of the latest fashion trends to inform the trading strategy.
• Understand seasonality, promotional calendars and key selling periods to manage risk and ensure maximum profitability.

Process innovation and ways of working

• Drive innovation, adapt and improve our ways of working with overall goal to add value.
• Maintain and develop our internal wiki with best practice ensuring we follow the agreed ways of working.

CPT Management

• Owner of the critical path - deliver improvements in the time to online ensuring supplier and team compliance.
• Work closely with the Studio team to ensure prioritisation and correct handling of samples.

Onsite Management & Pricing

• Work with the onsite and pricing team to set initial pricing and discount strategies to maximise margins.
• Evaluate the performance of price testing and promotions on profitability making clear recommendations.

Team Development & Leadership

• Ensure strong cross-functional communication is maintained with our partners and other business areas to deliver merchandising strategies & wider business goals.
• Develop, coach and lead a team of Junior Merchandisers and Assistant Merchandisers in commercial decision making.
• Performance management – set clear KPI’s for junior team members, conducting regular performance reviews and in the moment feedback.

What you’ll bring

• Proven experience as a Merchandiser with a fashion/clothing retailer
• Minimum 2 years’ experience at merchandiser/planner level with circa 7 years overall experience
• Strong understanding of core merchandising principles but a trading mentality is key to the role
• Excellent organizational and multitasking abilities.
• Advanced knowledge of Excel and Google sheets
• Creative mindset with a keen eye for detail and design - Appreciation of global fashion trends preferred
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to work as part of a team and at speed is a must

What we'll bring

• 25 working days of annual leave, going up to 30 working days after 1 year
• 30% employee discount on all SUMWON STUDIOS brands (SUMWON, Missguided, AiiRZ)
• Learning and development opportunities
• Company social events
• The coolest colleagues you can find

Why Join Us?

SUMWON STUDIOS is redefining fast fashion with a forward-thinking approach. Join a creative, ambitious team, and help us build a brand that resonates.