Associate Merchant, International (UK)

Your Role:

The Associate Merchant supports the Senior Merchant in delivering volume and growth expectations for the UK omnichannel business through comprehensive management of assortments and inventory. They, along with the Senior Merchant are the subject matter expert in areas including, but not exclusive of, assortment content, SKU management, testing initiatives, competitive intelligence and customer intimacy. Possesses strong leadership skills as this individual is ultimately responsible for driving cross-functional communication and motivating the team to be customer focused, innovative, fast and team oriented in their work.

Your Impact:

Leadership & Strategy

• Partners with United Kingdom Joint Venture (UKJV) leadership in driving the UK Beauty business by connecting financial patterns and market insights to identify growth opportunities

• Contributes to the success of the categories through replicating and adapting brand strategies in UK markets while meeting or exceeding the financial goals 

• Provides recommendations and gains alignment from Beauty merchant leaders to influence work streams of cross-functional teams to support key initiatives 

• Supports the UK team in cross functional meetings and communication in Columbus, OH in relation to Beauty strategy 

• Drives the day to day business decisions and actions for the UK in the Columbus office 

Financial

• Accountable for achieving sales and growth targets within Beauty, balancing opportunities for incremental growth and risk management

• Collaborates with UKJV London based merchant and planning team to build and cascade the UK seasonal hindsight, focusing on impact to forward strategy by leveraging and understanding historical data to ensure business is compared appropriately to last year 

• Drives Beauty alignment and collaboration with the UKJV planning partners 

• Helps analyze and communicate financial results on a weekly basis to Columbus based partners. Is the point person for the UK Beauty International cross functional team to communicate strategy and change

Product

• Helps influence and execute decisions around store and digital assortment edits/distortions for the UK 

• Help maximizes customer experience by driving execution of all sales education, marketing, and visual requests for the product category (pre-season and in-season) 

• Understands customer intimacy and competitive environment; proactively seeking knowledge through exposure and travel to market 

• Drives the communication of product detail to cross functional partners in the UK to support Beauty 

• Supports key meetings through deck preparation and completion of ad hoc requests, always staying agile and flexible 

• Collaborate with cross functional partners to ensure raw materials commitments and buys are provided per Beauty product development calendars 

Collaboration, Communication

• Builds productive relationships with International and Digital counterparts to facilitate exchange of information, share best practices, and stay abreast of assortment strategy updates 

• Establishes and maintains strong partnerships with cross functional teams by building rapport and communicating effectively 

• Consistently demonstrates open mindedness and free thinking when problem solving 

• Regularly share customer insights and business recommendations in cross functional forums 

• Liaison to the UK office, requiring frequent travel to the market

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