USA Merchandiser

USA Merchandiser
Leeds, LS15
Full-Time (3 days in Office, 2 days from home)

Purpose of the role:

The Merchandiser will lead the commercial relaunch and
merchandising management of a newly acquired brand license for the US Market.
Based in the UK, this role acts as a vital strategic bridge connecting our UK
based product creation team with our US based Wholesale Sales team. The primary
focus is to drive profitable revenue growth by delivering strong range plans,
accurate stock forecasting and seamless supply chain execution tailored
specifically to the US market.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategy:

• Collaborate with the UK design and buying
  team to build commercially viable range plans specifically for US Wholesale
  accounts. Ensure the right delivery date, pricing architecture and desired
  margin has been agreed between all parties to maximise sales and profits
• Lead the commercial launch and rebuilding
  strategy for the US license, establishing merchandising operations tailored to
  both full price and off price Wholesale Channels
• Provide the wider team with analysis by category
  and customer by season, feeding the results into the range plan and providing
  forecasted sales by line that achieve the budgeted sales and margin; setting
  target margins for the buying team to facilitate
• Ownership of US Selling Windows: Defining and
  driving the US seasonal selling, go to market week and intake calendars,
  ensuring alignment with US market expectations and key buying dates
• Budget Management: Build, monitor and deliver
  annual sales, margins and stock budgets for the US territory, ensuring
  alignment with financial targets. Liaising with the sales teams to ensure the
  most accurate information to cover sales, agents’ commissions and margins.
• Ensure all brand strategies are executed in
  line with the overall business needs and communicate these to the wider team

People:

• Develop a collaborative cross functional working relationship with
  the US and UK teams across sales, design, buying and tech to ensure the
  right product is booked for the market and is executed in line with
  required delivery dates

Trade and planning:

• Establish and manage WSSI models specifically
  tuned to US delivery windows and trade cycles
• Delivery
  – Working with the buying team reviewing information from suppliers collated by
  the team, attending CP meetings and acting where needed to improve deliveries
  and ensure goods arrive on time and in full. Communicating all deliveries to
  the US Sales team to make sure customers are kept fully updated throughout the
  season
• Shipping
  - Management of all commercial paperwork - PI, packing lists, draft BL and
  tariff documentation ensuring on time clearance through US custom and delivery into
  the US warehouse
• Working
  closely with the US team who will control the importing, exporting, invoicing
  and payments to make sure nothing is delayed to the customer, supporting with
  all required documentation
• Lead
  weekly trade meetings and develop comprehensive trade reports to continuously
  re-forecast sales and intake on a weekly basis to ensure deliveries are on time
  and budgeted sales and margins are achieved. Highlighting any anomalies to the
  relevant parties and Senior Management
• Management
  of the weekly cashflow document to forward plan all future stock payments in
  line with the most up to shipping dates
• Management
  of the US Ecommerce sales reporting, working closely with the UK Merch and Ecommerce teams regarding product launches, trading stance and marketing to drive growth
  across the web platform

Additional
responsibility:

• Support
  the Head of Merchandising with quarterly business reviews and multi-year
  reforecasting for the US Market
• Ensure
  all documents are checked and correct for the use of the Merchandising and
  wider BSI teams.
• Ensuring
  the BSI Senior Management Team are communicated to in an effective and timely
  manner
  

Knowledge
& Skills:

• The
  ability to cope with the pressure of having to make important decisions and
  meet tight deadlines.
• Understanding
  the importation of goods into the US including required tariffs and duty
• Knowledge of relevant product
  categories and competitors
• Presentation skills - visual, verbal
  and written
• Strong negotiation skills
• Organisational skills - the ability
  to manage the critical path from product development to customer delivery date
• Team player - ability to manage
  working relationships at all levels
• Numerate - working with margin
  calculations and budgets
• Analytical skills – ability to
  analyse and interpret various data sources and reports
• Problem solving skills - able to make
  the right the decision when faced with sales / margin / supply issues
• Understanding of the clothing
  industry & trading environments. Broad knowledge of wholesale environments
• Strategic thinker - able to look
  forward and innovate
• Self-motivated
  
  Qualifications
  & experience:

• GCSE
  level C in Maths & English
• Ideally
  to have Business, Merchandise or Fashion degree
• At
  least 2 years as a Senior Assistant Merchandiser/Junior Merch - ideally in a
  related category with previous Wholesale exposure