Merchandising Manager - Fragrances & Beauty

Colony Brands, Inc.; Monroe (WI); On-site; USD 85,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Colony Brands, Inc. seeks a Fragrances & Beauty Merchandising Manager to lead strategic product assortments across fragrances, skincare, cosmetics, bath & body, and beauty accessories. You will drive category growth by optimizing assortments and building strong vendor partnerships.

The role requires retail experience in catalog, brick-and-mortar, eCommerce, or omnichannel settings, along with strong analytical and negotiation skills to align with financial goals and brand positioning.

Qualifications

• Retail experience in catalog, brick-and-mortar, eCommerce, or omnichannel environments.
• Strong verbal and numerical reasoning skills.
• Experience in Merchandising, Buying, or Category Management.
• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Marketing, Merchandising, or related discipline.
• Creative individual who can conceptualize merchandising strategies and align assortments with brand vision.
• 5+ years of merchandising, buying, beauty industry, marketing, or related business experience.
• Ability to identify and work within beauty industry trends and consumer purchasing behaviours.
• Strong aptitude for researching and analyzing business opportunities, customer insights, and competitive trends.
• Ability to organize and manage multiple priorities while leading cross-functional projects.
• Strong vendor relationship management and negotiation skills.

Responsibilities

• Develop compelling product assortments in fragrances and beauty that meet strategic and financial goals.
• Lead assortment architecture and partner with vendors to identify opportunities.
• Negotiate costs, MOQs, exclusives, and timelines.
• Utilize analytics, trends, and consumer insights to inform assortments and presentation.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams for successful execution.
• Monitor industry trends, launches, and competitive activity to inform decisions.
• Develop merchandising strategies aligned with seasonal financial goals and brand positioning.
• Work with Planning to build seasonal financial plans and adjust pricing, promotions, and inventory.
• Lead end-to-end assortment planning, including product selection and KPI analysis.
• Maintain relationships with fragrance houses, beauty brands, and suppliers to identify growth opportunities.
• Collaborate with divisional leaders on catalog, digital, and promotional assortments.
• Communicate product attributes and trends to creative teams for compelling presentation.
• Identify assortment gaps and opportunities to improve conversion and profitability.

Skills

Merchandising

Buying

Category Management

Vendor Relationships

Negotiation

Analytical Skills

Trend Analysis

Cross-functional Collaboration

Communication Skills

Creative Merchandising

Education

Bachelor's degree in Business Administration

Bachelor's degree in Retail Consumer Science

Bachelor's degree in Marketing

Bachelor's degree in Merchandising

Job description

Join our team as a Fragrances & Beauty Merchandising Manager and lead the development of strategic, trend-right product assortments across our fragrances, skincare, cosmetics, bath & body, and beauty accessories portfolios. In this role, you'll drive business growth by optimizing category performance, building strong vendor partnerships, and collaborating cross-functionally to bring innovative, customer-focused products to market. Your expertise will help shape compelling assortments that inspire customers, strengthen brand positioning, and keep our beauty offering competitive, relevant, and exciting.

What You’ll Do:

The Merchandising Manager is responsible for developing compelling product assortments in the fragrances and beauty category that align with strategic and financial goals. This role involves leading assortment architecture, partnering with vendors to identify new product opportunities, and negotiating key business terms such as costs, minimum order quantities, exclusives, and timelines. The manager leverages analytics, market trends, consumer insights, and brand direction to ensure assortments meet customer expectations for quality, innovation, value, and presentation. Collaboration across cross-functional teams is essential to successful execution. In addition, you’ll:

• Monitor beauty industry trends, emerging brands, fragrance launches and competitive activity to inform product and category decisions.
• Develop merchandising strategies that align with seasonal financial goals, customer acquisition objectives, and brand positioning.
• Partner with Planning to build and analyze seasonal financial plans, adjusting pricing, promotional strategies, and inventory investments as needed.
• Lead end-to-end assortment planning, including product selection, vendor negotiations, and KPI analysis.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with fragrance houses, beauty brands, and supplier partners to identify opportunities for growth and differentiation.
• Collaborate with divisional leaders to plan and execute compelling catalog, digital, and promotional assortments.
• Communicate product attributes, key selling points, fragrance profiles, ingredient benefits, and trend stories to creative teams for accurate and compelling presentation.
• Evaluate category performance and customer insights to identify assortment gaps, opportunities, and strategies to improve conversion and profitability.

What It Takes:

To be successful, you must have retail experience in catalog, brick-and-mortar, eCommerce, or omnichannel environments. We're looking for someone with strong verbal and numerical reasoning skills and experience in Merchandising, Buying, or Category Management. Ideally, you will have a bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Retail Consumer Science, Marketing, Merchandising, or a related discipline. In addition, we are looking for:

• A creative individual who can conceptualize merchandising strategies, articulate them effectively, and develop assortments that support the brand vision and customer experience.
• 5+ years of merchandising, buying, beauty industry, marketing, or related business experience.
• The ability to identify and work within beauty industry trends, fragrance and cosmetic product development cycles, and consumer purchasing behaviors.
• A strong aptitude for researching and analyzing business opportunities, customer insights, and competitive trends.
• The ability to organize and manage multiple priorities while leading complex, cross-functional projects to successful completion.
• Strong vendor relationship management and negotiation skills, including the ability to evaluate product opportunities, marketing partnerships, and brand exclusives.