VP Merchandising & Inventory, Quill

Responsibilities

• Define and lead the end-to-end merchandising and inventory strategy, aligning assortment, pricing, promotions, and inventory investment with company growth and profitability goals.
• Drive revenue growth, gross margin expansion, and inventory productivity through data-driven decision-making and disciplined execution.
• Establish merchandising as a core competitive advantage, delivering differentiated and market-leading product assortments.
• Partner with executive leadership to shape enterprise strategy, annual planning, and long-term growth initiatives.
• Lead initiatives that improve customer acquisition, conversion, retention, and lifetime value.
• Champion the evolution of Merchandising into a customer-first, insight-driven merchandising strategy, ensuring assortments are relevant, easy to shop, and aligned to customer segments and behaviors with the goal to improve customer satisfaction, conversion and lifetime value.
• Oversee the development of compelling, differentiated assortments, including exclusive products and strategic category expansion.
• Set the strategic direction for pricing and promotional effectiveness, balancing competitiveness with margin optimization.
• Ensure a seamless and compelling omnichannel customer experience across digital platforms and sales channels that measurably improve the Merch function.
• Own inventory strategy and performance, optimizing working capital, inventory turns, and service levels.
• Partner with Supply Chain and Finance to ensure accurate forecasting, demand planning, and inventory allocation.
• Drive disciplined decision-making around inventory investment, risk management, and lifecycle optimization.
• Balance growth and profitability by aligning inventory strategy with financial targets and operational capabilities.
• Develop and lead strategic vendor partnerships that drive innovation, exclusivity, cost efficiency, and long-term value.
• Negotiate and manage partnerships to improve cost structures, service levels, and product differentiation.
• Identify and scale new brands, categories, and strategic sourcing opportunities to expand market share.
• Hold partners accountable to performance metrics tied to revenue, margin, and customer outcomes.
• Build a culture of data-driven decision-making, leveraging analytics and insights to optimize merchandising and inventory performance.
• Establish KPIs and dashboards to track business performance, customer behavior, and operational efficiency.
• Lead continuous improvement initiatives that enhance speed, agility, and execution quality.
• Translate insights into actionable strategies that deliver measurable business results.
• Serve as a trusted partner across Marketing, eCommerce, Sales, Supply Chain, and Finance to align strategies and drive execution.
• Ensure merchandising strategies are amplified through integrated go-to-market plans, content, and customer experiences.
• Influence enterprise decisions and drive alignment across functions to achieve shared business outcomes.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Economics, Engineering or equivalent work experience.
• 15 years of relevant work experience leading Merchandising teams driven by Data, Analytics and Data Science.
• Technology experience with data platforms especially MDM, big data technologies, data sciences, engineering and ecommerce.
• Retail, Marketing, Sales and eCommerce business knowledge.
• Understanding of Big data technologies and Engineering.
• Proven experience leading inventory and merchandising strategies that drive revenue growth and profitability.
• Strong understanding of market analysis and consumer behavior.
• Excellent vendor management skills, with a track record of securing favorable terms and optimizing product assortments.
• Experience working with advanced pricing analytics tools and merchandising platforms.