Divisional Merchandising Manager

We are seeking a Merchandising leader who knows the home goods business, is a positive leader, and brings an entrepreneurial spirit to identify, develop, and grow others and business opportunities. Do the challenges of retail and merchandising energize you? Do you enjoy helping others overcome challenges and grow in their roles? If so, then this role should be of interest to you!

What You’ll Do:
As Divisional Merchandising Manager (DMM), you’ll have the opportunity to establish brand merchandising strategies and positively impact the customer experience and profitability of a stable, family-owned, customer-centric company in business since 1926. You’ll direct individual Senior Merchandise Managers through KPI definition, execution of optimal assortments, and merchandising of engaging catalogs for the home goods division. The DMM will report to the Executive Director of Merchandising & Design.

As a DMM, you will also be accountable for:
• Developing a strong team of all levels of merchants by mentoring and teaching both fundamentals and advanced concepts to continually elevate merchandising competencies in the organization.
• Ensuring appropriate training on best practices, processes, reports, and communication to enhance the skill development and career growth of the Merchandising team.
• Evaluating existing merchandising practices and presenting recommendations to improve outcomes and achieve operational efficiencies.
• Developing annual budgets and providing financial oversight of merchandising expenses and variances.
• Providing indirect leadership and partnering with the Divisional Planning, Inventory, and Sourcing teams.
• Driving collaboration with Brand Marketing, Quality Assurance & Internet, Legal, Traffic & Logistics, Fulfillment Operations, Call Centers, Accounting, Integrated Marketing Services, Creative Marketing Services, etc.
• Consistently incorporate Colony Brands’ core values into work culture, including:
o Fostering, valuing, and rewarding a team-oriented, performance-driven, and customer-focused culture.
o Reinforces accountability to individual and business results.
o Providing direction, sharing information, and cultivating two-way dialog within the merchandising organization.
o Creates a climate that inspires and enables merchandising staff to formulate creative ideas to keep our portfolio of brands exciting and purposeful in the minds of customers.
• Partnering with Planning to develop catalog offer plans that achieve financial goals of Colony Brands (KPIs/IPIs) and working closely with cross-functional Supply Chain partners to support key business initiatives and process improvement.
• Analyzing in-season and hindsight business performance to determine successes, trends, and applying an understanding of historical performance, industry competitors, and multi-channel merchandising to recommend assortment and pricing strategies to maximize financial results in both print and digital channels.
• Driving all merchandising-owned Seasonal Planning Calendar milestones and deliverables.
• Establishing merchandising standard operation procedures (SOP’s), key deliverable templates, and training.
• Evaluating seasonal assortment plans and providing guidance to the Merchandising team on category goals, line structure, price points, product mix, QA issues, vendor performance, etc. to provide products that are customer-relevant, aligned to each brand’s direction, and achieve financial targets.
• Taking projects from concept to full implementation, including process and objectives development, delegation to team members, communication and follow-up with all involved parties to ensure best results.
• Acquiring a strong understanding of the scope of the business and adapting creative tools to solving general business problems.