Merchant

Merchant International Merchandising

The Merchant International Merchandising supports the leadership team in driving sales, growth, and profitability across a designated book of business. This role serves as the category subject matter expert, combining strong merchandising instincts, financial acumen, customer insights, competitive intelligence, and market knowledge to identify opportunities and influence assortment strategy.

The Merchant manages assortment content, SKU productivity, testing initiatives, and regional product strategies while partnering closely with Planning, Brand Merchandising, Marketing, Visual, and international regional teams. The ideal candidate is highly analytical, commercially minded, customer-focused, and comfortable operating in a fast-paced, evolving global retail environment.

Key Responsibilities

Merchandising Strategy & Business Leadership

• Partner with leadership to drive international business performance by connecting financial trends, customer insights, and market intelligence to identify growth opportunities.
• Adapt broader brand and merchandising strategies to meet the needs of individual international markets and regions.
• Serve as the category expert in key merchandising and cross-functional meetings, helping drive prioritization and business decisions.
• Identify opportunities to improve and evolve merchandising processes that support international growth and scalability.
• Lead day-to-day communication across international, regional, and domestic merchandising teams.
• Provide strategic recommendations and influence cross-functional partners to support key business initiatives.

Financial & Business Analysis

• Support achievement of sales, growth, and profitability targets for assigned categories.
• Analyze weekly financial performance, product selling trends, historical results, and regional differences to identify opportunities and potential risks.
• Partner with Planning to align financial objectives with assortment and category strategies.
• Develop seasonal hindsight analysis and translate historical performance into actionable forward-looking recommendations.
• Identify opportunities for incremental growth through SKU productivity, assortment optimization, testing, and market-specific strategies.
• Use quantitative and qualitative insights to recommend appropriate in-season and future business actions.

Product & Assortment Management

• Influence and execute assortment edits, product distortions, and market-specific assortment strategies.
• Manage assortment details, SKU information, and International MAT tool maintenance.
• Communicate assortment and strategy changes clearly to cross-functional and regional partners.
• Maintain a strong understanding of the target customer, competitive landscape, market trends, and regional product preferences.
• Compile regional customer and product insights to influence future seasonal strategies.
• Support product launches and selling initiatives by coordinating Marketing, Visual, Sales Education, and other product-related requests.
• Prepare presentations and materials for key business meetings and respond to ad hoc merchandising requests.

Cross-Functional & Regional Partnership

• Build strong relationships with regional and field teams through business reviews, assortment strategy discussions, regional analysis, and ongoing communication.
• Partner closely with domestic Brand Merchants to exchange information, share best practices, and maintain alignment on assortment strategy.
• Establish effective partnerships across Planning, Marketing, Visual, Finance, and other cross-functional teams.
• Regularly gather customer, product, and floorset insights through store visits and translate findings into business recommendations.
• Present recommendations clearly and effectively to stakeholders at varying levels of the organization.
• Demonstrate flexibility, curiosity, and creative problem-solving when responding to changing business needs.

Leadership & Team Development

• Support the onboarding and development of new cross-functional partners.
• Provide ongoing coaching, feedback, and knowledge sharing to strengthen team performance.
• Demonstrate strong leadership and serve as a resource to merchandising and cross-functional partners.
• Foster a collaborative, customer-focused, agile, and results-oriented team environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Fashion Merchandising, Business, Retail Merchandising, or a related field preferred.
• 5+ years of experience in merchandising, merchandise buying, brand development, or a related retail function.
• Multi-category merchandising experience required.
• Strong understanding of assortment planning, SKU management, product performance, sales trends, and retail financial metrics.
• Demonstrated ability to analyze financial and product data and translate findings into actionable merchandising recommendations.
• Strong strategic, analytical, and creative problem-solving skills.
• Experience influencing and partnering with cross-functional teams and stakeholders at multiple organizational levels.
• Strong presentation, written, and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to anticipate business needs, respond quickly to changing priorities, and course-correct when necessary.
• Strong understanding of brand positioning, target customers, competitive trends, and the retail marketplace.
• Ability to work effectively across diverse markets, audiences, and business environments.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and Outlook.
• International or global merchandising experience is highly desirable.