Merchant

Overview :

TekWissen is a global workforce management provider headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan that offers strategic talent solutions to our clients world-wide. The below job opportunity is to one of Our clients who is the world's largest intimates specialty retailer offering a wide assortment of modern, fashion-inspired collections including signature bras, panties, lingerie, casual sleepwear, swim and athleisure, as well as award-winning prestige fragrances and body care.

Job Title: Merchant
Location: New York, NY
Duration: 2 Months

Job Type: Temporary Assignment
Work Type: Hybrid

Job Description:

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RESPONSIBILITIES:

Leadership & Strategy:

• Partners with leadership in driving the International brand businesses by connecting financial patterns and market insights to identify growth opportunities, while pioneering the new buy model.

• Contributes to the success of the category through 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 international team as well as the domestic team.
• Acts as the category expert in key brand & cross-functional meetings, driving prioritization and distortion.
• Entrepreneurial mindset in creating, evolving and perfecting new processes to enable international growth.

Financial:

• Accountable for sales and growth targets for book of business, 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 selling trends and historical data at the category level to manage in season and future opportunities.
• Acts as the expert of their category and understanding regional differences through market trends, analytical analysis and therefore making appropriate recommendations.

Product:

• Influences and executes decisions around assortment edits/distortions by market.

• 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.
• Manages all assortment details, including International MAT tool maintenance, and cascading strategy changes to cross functional teams.
• Supports seasonal hind sighting process by compiling the regional customer insights to influence go-forward strategies.
• Drives the communication of product details to cross functional partners.
• Supports key meetings through deck preparation and completion of ad hoc requests, always staying agile and flexible.

• Maintains strong line of communication with field teams and directly partners with regional teams when applicable through business reviews, assortment strategy cascades, regional analysis, monthly TBs, etc.
• Builds productive relationships with US Brand merchants 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 to gain internal buy-in.
• Consistently demonstrates open mindedness and free thinking when problem solving.
• Regularly share customer and floorset insights and business recommendations through store visits.

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.

EXPERIENCE :

• Bachelor's degree preferred.
• 5+ years with Brand Development and Merchandise Buying.
• Multi-category experience required.
• Strong presentation and communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to influence across different levels.
• Proved strategic, analytical and creative thinking skills.
• Demonstrated passion for delivering results while maintaining flexibility.
• Anticipate next, ability to course correct and address change.
• Intimate understanding of brand and target customer.
• Ability to adapt well to diverse audiences and environments.
• Proficiency in MS Office/Word/Excel/PowerPoint/Outlook.

EDUCATION:

• Bachelor's degree in Fashion Merchandising or a related field.

TekWissen Group is an equal opportunity employer supporting workforce diversity.