Head of Merchandising

DeMellier; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 125,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

A luxury handbag brand is seeking a Head of Merchandising to shape the merchandising strategy and oversee product lifecycle management. The ideal candidate will have over 10 years of experience in merchandising leadership within luxury leather goods and accessories, with exceptional financial acumen and people leadership skills. This role requires strategic thinking and the ability to manage complex inventory and pricing strategies while ensuring alignment with brand objectives. The position offers a hybrid-working policy and various benefits including employee discounts.

Benefits

Hybrid-working policy offering flexible hours

Annual Leave package

Enhanced company maternity policy

Yearly volunteering time for charity

50% off stock discount

Qualifications

• Experience in premium/luxury leather goods and accessories.
• Proven collection strategy leadership.
• Strong understanding of pricing, margin, and inventory.

Responsibilities

• Define overall merchandising strategy aligned with brand.
• Lead and develop the merchandising leadership team.
• Oversee seasonal buying and inventory strategy.

Skills

Merchandising leadership

Financial acumen

Advanced Excel knowledge

Strategic thinking

People leadership

Education

10+ years in merchandising leadership

Job description

Overview

Our Story – We are a modern affordable luxury handbag brand, crafting timeless and elegant styles that are made to last. Founded with a vision to do things differently, we create handbags that empower women, are sustainably sourced and ethically made, and give back to those who need it most. These principles guide everything we do. We are committed to driving change, championing equality, and celebrating women. Through our permanent charity initiative, ‘A Bag, A Life’, every purchase funds lifesaving vaccines and medical treatments for children in need, in partnership with SOS Children’s Villages. To date, we have funded over 1,000,000 vaccines. Join us and be part of an award-winning, purpose-driven brand that fosters creativity, collaboration, and meaningful impact within the luxury industry.

Head of Merchandising

Reports to the Commercial Director

Direct Reports: 3

Role Purpose

The Head of Merchandising is the guardian of DeMellier’s product integrity and commercial performance, responsible for shaping a disciplined, intentional, and scalable assortment across our accessories collections.

This role owns the end to end merchandising strategy, governance, and performance across DeMellier’s product lifecycle - from collection strategy and assortment architecture through buying, pricing, inventory management, and physical retail execution.

The focus is on thoughtful edit, lifecycle longevity, and controlled growth, ensuring every product introduced serves a clear purpose and strengthens the brand over time.

This role provides strategic direction, alignment, and decision-making authority across Collection Merchandising, Buying/Planning & Allocation, and Visual Merchandising, ensuring that product vision, commercial execution, and customer experience are fully aligned across E-commerce, Retail, and Wholesale.

As a senior leader, the Head of Merchandising partners closely with Design, Product Development, Production, Finance, Marketing, Digital, and Retail, ensuring clarity of ownership, disciplined execution, and consistent delivery of brand and commercial objectives.

Responsibilities – Merchandising Strategy, Leadership & Governance

• Define and own the overall merchandising strategy, ensuring alignment between brand positioning, product vision, and commercial objectives.
• Establish clear ways of working, governance structures, decision frameworks, and escalation routes across the merchandising function.
• Lead, coach, and develop the merchandising leadership team, setting clear accountability, performance expectations, and ownership of KPIs.

Own merchandising performance reviews, escalation decisions, and overall accountability for delivery against strategic and commercial goals.

Responsibilities – Collection Architecture, Assortment & Lifecycle Strategy

• Set strategic direction for collection architecture, category focus, lifecycle management (Core vs Seasonal), carry-over vs newness, and price architecture.
• Partner closely with Design and Product teams to ensure collections are creatively strong, commercially robust, scalable, and brand-consistent.
• Provide final sign-off on seasonal assortment strategy, pricing architecture, margin targets, and buy frameworks.
• Partner with Product Development, Industrialisation, and Production to make responsible assortment and lifecycle decisions, balancing longevity, materials, sustainability commitments, and inventory risk.

Responsibilities – Market Insight, Competitive Intelligence & Brand Direction

• Use customer insight, performance data, and market intelligence to challenge and evolve creative direction while protecting design evolution and brand integrity.
• Lead ongoing competitive and market analysis across assortment breadth, pricing architecture, product drops, and seasonal cadence.
• Use external insight to inform collection strategy, pricing decisions, and in-season trading actions while reinforcing brand differentiation.

Ensure market and performance insight is consistently embedded into strategic, seasonal, and in-season decision-making.

Responsibilities – Commercial Planning, Buying & Inventory Governance

• Oversee seasonal buying, forecasting, and inventory strategy across all channels.
• Govern OTB, WSSI, inventory health, and stock risk, ensuring disciplined planning, visibility, and execution.
• Challenge, approve, and oversee in-season trading actions including reorders, pricing actions, promotions, markdowns, and risk mitigation plans.
• Ensure strong visibility, control, and accountability for inventory investment across the business.

Responsibilities – Pricing, Margin, Finance & Wholesale Strategy

• Own pricing and margin governance, ensuring consistency, competitiveness, and financial discipline across channels.
• Act as a key commercial partner to Finance on forecasting, budgeting, margin delivery, cost of goods, inventory investment, and cashflow implications.
• Define and own the wholesale merchandising strategy, including channel-specific assortments, pricing architecture, and margin frameworks.
• Partner with Wholesale, Commercial, and Finance to ensure wholesale growth is profitable, brand-aligned, operationally scalable, and supported by disciplined seasonal buys and forecasts.

Collaborate with wholesale in overseeing seasonal wholesale buys, forecasts, and performance reviews with key partners.

Go-to-Market, Visual Merchandising & Cross-Functional Leadership

• Oversee seasonal critical paths and launch readiness, ensuring collections are delivered on time and executed consistently across channels.
• Ensure alignment between product availability, storytelling, and visual execution at key launch and drop moments.
• Set strategic direction for Visual Merchandising, ensuring product strategy is translated into compelling window concepts and in-store storytelling, with consistent execution across the retail network.

Act as the senior merchandising partner across Design, Product Development, Production, Finance, Marketing, Digital, and Retail, leading key forums and ensuring clarity, alignment, and consistency of product and commercial communication.

Experience & Skills

• 10+ years senior experience in merchandising leadership, within premium and/ or luxury leather goods and or accessories, with deep understanding of handbag lifecycles, carry over models, materials, and margin structures.
• Advanced Excel knowledge
• Proven ability to lead collection strategy, buying, planning, trading, and visual merchandising through managers.
• Strong commercial and financial acumen, with deep understanding of pricing, margin, inventory, and forecasting.
• Strategic thinker with the ability to balance brand, customer, and commercial priorities.
• Confident people leader and cross-functional influencer, comfortable operating at senior level.
• Highly organised, analytical, and decisive in a fast-paced environment.

Benefits

• Hybrid-working policy offering flexible hours.
• Annual Leave package with additional (increases with length of service).
• Enhanced company maternity policy.
• Time given yearly to volunteer for a charity of your choice.
• Employee Discount: 50% off stock discount & up to 90% off seasonal sample sales