FP Movement Merchandise Manager - Outerwear

Role Qualifications

• Entrepreneurial in spirit: thinks and acts like an owner
• Ability to recognize a new trend, item, look, and product early in its lifecycle
• Ability to understand the magnitude of an opportunity and translate that insight into an assortment and buy
• Creative thinking is an asset in recognizing and managing in changing paradigms
• Understanding for the Free People Movement customer and the shopping experience and that it is the final category edit for the merchandising assortment
• Ability to identify, gather and assimilate information specific to our customer
• Ability to make the transition from strategic (conceptual and planning) to execution
• Financial acumen and the ability to manipulate numbers are critical in achieving tactical objectives
• Ability to develop and communicate a vision of the business that translates into bottom line performance
• Ability to delegate and direct the daily activities of the buyers and provide direction to the team
• Personnel skills to lead, develop and coach people and the recognition that building a team is critical to the Company's success
• Ability to develop partnerships with other functional heads
• Ability to collect, assimilate, analyze, package and present information to the Managing Director in a way that permits them to make an informed decision and take measurable action
• 12+ years of buying and merchandising experience
• Located in Philadelphia, PA

Profit Planning Responsibilities

• Strategize the growth of both sales and profit for all categories managed
• Understand the growth of each category on an annual basis and relay information to the Managing Director and Planning Director regarding sales potential for each category
• Drive bottoms-up planning by prioritizing and allocating budgets across product categories once annual goals and seasonal business plans are approved
• Provide category-specific direction to buyers and review detail assortment plans with buyers
• Ensure correct driver distortions are made to ensure correct fashion positioning for the coming season

Product Design and Development

• Bring a customer and market perspective to the design process and ensure final line recommendations are commercially viable
• Establish and maintain a peer relationship with design and production leadership
• Engage in free and informal exchange of information regarding trends being observed in the market (customer, competition) and within the business
• Foster collaborative relationship between design, production and buying to realize benefits of both market and design expertise

Sourcing and Production

• Coordinate and provide information to the production function to facilitate production planning needs
• Develop and monitor sourcing and production strategies for private label and market vendors

Marketing

• Identify marketing and promotional opportunities for categories of merchandise
• Contribute to development of marketing, packaging and promotional plans – partnering with and facilitating for the Art Department and Creative team
• Collaborate with marketing team to create strong product narratives that resonate with customers and drive traffic in store and online
• Determine overall mix of market and private label product for each buying area to ensure final mix is ultimately customer oriented

In Store Merchandising

• Play an active role in determining in-store placement of product
• Have a point of view on what merchandise should receive priority placement within the store and how to maximize customer response to the product
• Manage prioritization across all product categories falling within responsibility – aligning with creative team and controlling communication to the field
• Achieve through seasonal overviews with marketing and visual departments, regular store visits, and weekly operations meetings

OTB/Inventory Management

• Play pivotal role in managing categories of business in season
• Synthesize information received through regular business analysis or specific analysis requested in response to trends or opportunities and develop recommendations
• Look for opportunities to increase sales, improve margins, optimize inventories and decrease markdowns

Team Development

• Coach and mentor buyers to maximize market resources, margins, and timeliness of product
• Facilitate process of developing new market vendors, watching vendor life cycle, and helping buyers understand how to remove vendors from product mix before lifecycle is complete
• Coach buyers on how to use market to react to changes in business and how to freshen up assortment to keep up with trend changes
• Provide buyers with regular job performance feedback and annual performance evaluations with goal of developing someone to point they are promotable

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Paid time off (PTO)
• Generous employee discounts
• Retirement savings plan

For additional information visit www.urbn.com/work-with-us/benefits