Associate Merchant, International

Victoria's Secret; New York (NY); On-site; USD 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Victoria's Secret in New York seeks an Associate Merchant to support the Merchant/Leader in delivering volume and growth through comprehensive management of a product collection, assortment content, and customer-focused product decisions.

You will influence cross-functional teams, partner with Planning on investments, and drive seasonal strategies, education, marketing, and visual requests to maximize profit and create an exceptional customer experience.

Qualifications

• Understanding of assortment strategy and market trends.
• Customer-centric mindset with ability to translate insights into action.
• Strong communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.

Responsibilities

• Drive accuracy of product detail through excellent execution and management of assortment documentation and communication, with emphasis on MAT tool execution.
• Supports selection and optimization of assortments to meet financial goals and customer needs.
• Collaborate with planning, merchandising, marketing, and stores to execute seasonal and in-season strategies.
• Prepare and present insights and recommendations to cross-functional teams to influence go-forward plans.

Job description

Description

Your Role:

The Associate Merchant supports the Merchant/Leader in delivering the volume and growth expectations of a book of business, through comprehensive management of a collection, and understanding and applying their financial acumen.They are the subject matter expert in areas including, but not exclusive of, assortment fashion content, SKU management, testing initiatives, competitive intelligence and customer intimacy.Influences leadership by sharing a strong, merchant point of view that is derived from customer insights, competitive patterning and hind sighting. Possesses strong leadership skills as he/she is ultimately responsible for driving cross-functional communication and motivating the team to be customer focused, innovative, fast, and team oriented in their work.

Your Impact:

System Management & Execution

• Drive accuracy of product detail through excellent execution and management of assortment documentation and communication, with emphasis on MAT tool execution

Product

• Supports the merchant/leader in delivering financial objectives and maximizing volume/profit by leveraging intuitive client insights when building seasonal strategies.
• Drives decisions around assortment edits/distortions by market.
• Partners with Planning on assortment investments and recommended action plans
• Maximizes customer experience by driving execution of all sales education, marketing, and visual requests for the product category (pre-season and in-season).
• Understands customer intimacy and competitive environment; proactively seeking knowledge through exposure and travel to market as well as collaborating with partner merchant counterpart.
• Supports seasonal hind sighting process by driving the communication of regional customer insights to influence go-forward strategies.
• Drives the communication of product detail to cross functional partners
• Supports key meetings through deck preparation and completion of ad hoc requests, always staying agile and flexible

Leadership & Strategy

• Partners with the Merchant/Leader in driving the International brand businesses by connecting financial patterns and market insights to identify growth opportunities, while maintaining the replication model.
• Contributes to the success of the category through replicating and adapting brand strategies in markets around the world while meeting or exceeding the financial goals.
• Provides recommendations and gains alignment from merchant leaders to influence work streams of cross-functional teams to support key initiatives.
• Drives category business by “outside of the box” thinking that connects the lines between financial patterns and market/store insights to identify growth opportunities.
• Leads day to day communication between all members of the team.
• Acts as the category expert in key brand & cross-functional meetings, driving prioritization and distortion.

Customer

• Demonstrate an ability to turn Customer insight into actionable recommendations as it relates to assortment strategy
• Understand the customer’s lifestyle by staying on top of trends, social media, and pop culture as it specifically relates to the customer
• Engage in competitive patterning in order to understand the current competition/market trends and influence product strategy while making business recommendations

Financial

• Partners with Merchant/Leader in developing the line to support the financial goals of business.
• Understands and helps influence sales and growth targets, recognizing opportunities for incremental growth and risk management.
• Collaborates across departments to build and cascade seasonal hind sights, focusing on impact to forward strategy by leveraging and understanding historical data to ensure business is compared appropriately to last year.
• Drives category alignment and collaboration with planning partners.
• Analyzes, interprets and reports financial results on a weekly basis to influence business strategy.
• Understands product trends and historical data at the category level in order to manage in season opportunities.
• Acts as the expert of store/regional performance by analyzing size and market trends and making appropriate recommendations.

Collaboration, Communication and Partner Support

• Maintains strong line of communication with field team and directly partners with regional teams when applicable through business reviews, assortment strategy cascades, regional analysis, premium and pricing studies, buy weeks, monthly TBs, etc.
• Builds productive relationships with US Brand counterparts to facilitate exchange of information, share best practices, and stay abreast of assortment strategy updates.
• Establishes and maintains strong partnerships with cross functional teams by building rapport and communicating effectively.
• Possess category/business knowledge in order to gain internal buy-in.
• Plans and leads cross functional team meetings and calls.
• Consistently demonstrates open mindedness and free thinking when problem solving.
• Regularly share customer insights and business recommendations in cross functional forums.

Talent

• Effectively on-boards new cross functional partners
• Motivates the team to ensure effective performance and growth with consistent on-the-job feedback and training
• Acts as a role model within the company by coaching and teaching team members to work together and remain focused
• Demonstrates mentoring and strong leadership to the Merchant team and cross functional partners

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