Strategic Fashion Merchant

Victoria's Secret & Co.; Reynoldsburg (OH); On-site; USD 80,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Victoria's Secret & Co. is seeking an Associate Merchant to support the Merchant/Leader in delivering volume and growth through assortment management, financial acumen, and strong cross-functional leadership.

This role spans product, leadership, and customer insights across markets with emphasis on seasonal strategies and collaboration. You will influence seasonal strategies, partner with Planning, and drive communication of product details and regional insights to optimize customer experience

Responsibilities

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

Job description

Victoria's Secret & Co. is seeking an Associate Merchant to support the Merchant/Leader in delivering volume and growth through assortment management, financial acumen, and strong cross-functional leadership.

This role spans product, leadership, and customer insights across markets with emphasis on seasonal strategies and collaboration. You will influence seasonal strategies, partner with Planning, and drive communication of product details and regional insights to optimize customer experience