Free People Divisional Merchandise Manager - Accessories

Divisional Merchandise Manager

Free People is searching for a Divisional Merchandise Manager to be responsible for growing the sales volume and profit for those categories of merchandise they manage. They should directly influence the buyers as they attempt to translate customer and competitive information along with fashion knowledge into action that drives category specific growth and increased profitability in support of company goals and objectives. They are accountable for the quality of work generated by the team and for bringing together the collaborative efforts of internal talent and external partnerships resulting in unique product satisfying the Anthropologie shopping experience. The DMM will be expected to use their fashion intuition to direct the merchandising of their product categories.

Role Responsibilities

Profit Planning:

• The DMM is responsible for strategizing the growth of both sales and profit for all categories they manage. The process begins by understanding the growth of each category on an annual basis and relaying the information to the President and Planning Director regarding the sales potential for each category. Once the President and Planning Director have approved the annual goals and seasonal business plans, the DMM is responsible for driving the bottoms up planning by prioritizing and allocating budgets across product categories. The DMMs provide category specific direction to the buyers and review the detail assortment plans with buyers. DMMs are responsible for insuring the correct driver distortions are made to ensure correct fashion positioning for the coming season.

Product Design and Development:

• The DMM is responsible for bringing a customer and market perspective to the design process and to ensure that the final line recommendations are commercially viable. The DMM should establish and maintain a peer relationship with the design and production leadership and engage in a free and informal exchange of information regarding trends being observed in the market (customer, competition) and within the business. The objective is a collaborative relationship between design, production and buying that allows the organization to realize the benefits of both market and design expertise.

Sourcing and Production:

• The DMM coordinates and provides information to the production function to facilitate production planning needs. Develops and monitors sourcing and production strategies for private label and market vendors.

Marketing:

• The DMM identifies marketing and promotional opportunities for their categories of merchandise and contributes to the development of the marketing, packaging and promotional plans partnering with, and facilitating for the Art Department and Creative team.
• The DMM collaborates with marketing team to create strong product narratives that resonate with our customer and drives traffic in store and on line.
• The DMM is responsible for determining the overall mix of market and private label product for each buying area to ensure that the final mix is ultimately customer oriented.

In Store Merchandising:

• The DMM is expected to play an active role in determining the in store placement of their product. They must have a point of view on what merchandise should receive priority placement within the store and how to maximize customer response to the product. It is their job to manage the prioritization across all product categories falling within their responsibility aligning with the creative team and to control the communication to the field. This is achieved through seasonal overviews with the marketing and visual departments and through regular store visits and weekly operations meetings.

OTB/Inventory Management:

• The DMM plays the pivotal role in managing their categories of business in season. The DMM is responsible for synthesizing information they receive through regular business analysis, or specific analysis requested in response to trends or opportunities and to develop recommendations. The DMM is to look for opportunities to increase sales, improve margins, optimize inventories and decrease markdowns.

Team Development:

• The DMM must coach and mentor buyers to maximize the market resources, margins, and timeliness of product. The DMM should facilitate the process of developing new market vendors, watching the vendor life cycle and helping the buyers understand how to remove the vendors for the product mix before the lifecycle is complete. The DMM should coach buyers on how to use the market to react to changes in business and how to freshen up an assortment to keep up with trend changes.
• The DMM must provide buyers with regular job performance feedback and annual performance evaluations with the goal of developing someone to the point they are promotable.

Role Qualifications

• Entrepreneurial in spirit: Thinks and acts like an owner.
• The ability to recognize a new trend, item, look, and product early in its lifecycle.
• The ability to understand the magnitude of an opportunity and to translate that insight into an assortment and buy. Creative thinking is an asset in recognizing and managing in changing paradigms.
• An understanding for the Anthropologie customer and the shopping experience and that it is the final category edit for the merchandising assortment. The DMM has to possess the ability to identify, gather and assimilate information specific to our customer.
• The ability to make the transition from strategic (conceptual and planning) to execution. Financial acumen and the ability to manipulate numbers are critical in achieving the tactical objectives.
• The ability to develop and communicate a vision of the business that translates into bottom line performance.
• The ability to delegate and direct the daily activities of the buyers and provide direction to the team.
• Personnel skills to lead, develop and coach people and the recognition that building a team is critical to the Company's success.
• The ability to develop partnerships with other functional heads.
• The ability to collect, assimilate, analyze, package and present information to the President in a way that permits them to make an informed decision and take measurable action.

The Perks

URBN offers comprehensive Perks & Benefits to employees. Availability and eligibility to specific benefits may be subject to your location and employment status. Benefits include medical, dental, vision, PTO, generous employee discounts, retirement savings and much more! For additional information visit

EEO Statement

URBN celebrates diversity and is committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We are proud to provide equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, sex (including gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity or expression), religion, creed, age, physical or mental disability, national origin or ancestry, ethnicity, citizenship, service in the uniformed services, genetic information, or any other protected characteristic as established by law. We believe strongly in fostering a safe, fair and respectful work environment. To ensure compliance with our non-discrimination and anti-harassment policies, we offer anti-harassment training to managers and employees.