Senior Merchandiser - Women's Branded
The Very Group, United Kingdom
Job Description
About us
We’re The Very Group, home to Very.co.uk, Littlewoods.com and a team of 4,000 super-talented people. I am currently looking for a Senior Merchandiser to join the Women's branded team. The preference is to be based in our Head Office in Speke, Liverpool but we are open to a London based role.
We’re the UK’s largest integrated digital retailer and financial services provider, and we’ve been helping customers say yes when it matters most for over 100 years. In that time, we’ve consistently reinvented our business to adapt to economic conditions and industry changes going from bricks, to clicks, to mobile.
But despite our passion for reinvention, we’ve never wavered from our purpose; to make good things easily accessible to more people. It means giving our customers the brands they love, an outstanding shopping experience and flexible ways to spread the cost.
We’ve continued to deliver for our customers throughout the Covid-19 outbreak and we’ve done it by transforming the way we work.
We’re fired up for the future and the next stage in our development. We’ll give customers access to more great brands for themselves and their families, a seamless shopping experience and even more control of their finances through innovation in flexible ways to pay.
Ready to reinvent? Get in touch.
The role
We are looking for a Senior Merchandiser to join our Women’s Branded team. You’ll have 3 direct reports, and a wider team of 13 colleagues. You’ll be a strong leader who will be a role model to the team, focus on changing mind-sets and building capability for our teams to adapt and deliver in a pure digital retailer, and essentially drive significant growth. We are looking for a well establish Senior Merchandiser or Merchandising Manager to take the lead in building our overarching merchandise strategy.
So you know about the team, now what about the role?
You’ll be responsible for Womens Branded Fashion, driving growth whilst managing cost to provide a strong return for our shareholders. Shaping and building a best in class digital retailer merchandising team, providing the right balance of support and challenge to your direct reports and wider team.
Building strong relationships with the ability to influence stakeholders is key, in particular across buying, finance, and the wider Product senior management team. You’ll contribute to the wider transformation of The Very Group, through involvement in change projects which will move us closer to our ambition of world class.
You’ll analyse trading patterns, market trends and performance, interpreting and communicating insights to help make key decisions to drive future growth, contributing to the overall strategy and direction of The Very Group product team. Combined with this, you will use data insights to ensure the management of stock is efficient and maximises sales potential.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Working with the Senior Buyer, planning seasonal budgets by Product Category amp; Brand, balancing assortment breadth and depth to deliver overall business and financial goals, aligning bottom-up plans to top-down strategic initiatives
- Controlling stock levels based on weekly sales and stock intakes (WSSI), reviewing sales forecasts based on performance, and actioning re-forecasts in-season
- Analysing and monitoring best amp; worst performing Categories amp; Brands, proactively managing risk and balancing the assortment based on customer needs
- Driving Availability improvements, whilst controlling stock investment
- Planning and actioning markdowns and any in-season promotional activity to achieve planned sell thru, in accordance to markdown and margin budgets
- Working closely with the Senior Buyer, developing and implementing joint business plans with Brands in line with department strategy
Requirements
What are we looking for?
You’ll have a strong background in merchandising or category management and be highly commercial with a real focus and desire to drive significant profitable growth across the category.
You will have a growth mind-set, be curious and challenge the way things are done here, be analytical in approach and be able to both understand and interpret data, providing key insights to help make commercial decisions.
You’ll have your finger on the pulse, with a good understanding of external trends and the wider market position, bringing new thinking within the team to help build a best in class team.
Requirements;
- Tried and tested experience at a Senior Merchandiser level or Merchandise Manager level (essential)
- Previous multi-brand and multi-category experience (essential)
- Highly numerate, with a