Merchandising Assistant

The Merchant of Women’s Tops is responsible for creating compelling assortments and managing day-to-day assortment and business needs. They partner with the USCA Merchants and cross functional partners to drive the overall strategy for their Tops categories and bring seasonal category visions to life. The Merchant fully understands their customers’ needs and market dynamics to create the right product mix for the marketplace and segment accordingly.

Responsibilities:

• Create assortment strategy for USCA Women’s Tops based on analysis of both our internal metrics, competitive landscape, consumer insights and macro trends. Deliver assortments that support key brand and cluster strategies while achieving financial targets.
• Partner with planner and allocator on weekly business reviews, open-to-buy management, and plan revisions to achieve financial goals and strategic objectives.
• Analyze weekly and monthly product performance, partnering with Planning, Allocation and Sales to identify risks and opportunities; determine and drive short-, medium-, and long-term actions to optimize opportunities and minimize risks.
• Attend, and present during Milestone Meetings including Briefs, Hindsight, Product Reviews, Investment Reviews etc
• Engage and partner with Global Merchandising team to ensure alignment and ensure USCA needs are met
• Partner with cross-functional teams to drive elevated on floor execution of product stories

Experience/Requirements:

• Bachelors degree in related discipline preferred.
• 3-5 years direct merchandising/buying experience working at an apparel manufacturer, retailer, or marketer.
• Knowledge of merchandising and design trends; ability to apply that knowledge, connect the dots and create product assortments that win in the marketplace.
• Surfaces problems and conducts simple analysis in own area of work. Identifies directly related causes.
• Demonstrated ability to move routine or executional work forward once a strategy and plan has been established.
• Pushes self and helps others to achieve great results; ability to train others.
• Strong collaboration and partnership with team members and cross-functional partners
• Recognizes the business objective behind strategic plans and tactics. Understands full product lifecycle and how various functions contribute to the value chain to create the best assortments for customers.
• Analytical with strong understanding of financial measurements including sales, gross margin, inventory turn, weeks of supply and how to impact them.
• Curious and solution-oriented with a focus on continuous improvement.
• Effective communication, interpersonal and organizational skills across teams and levels
• Proven ability to multi-task and work in a fast paced, dynamic environment.
• Recognized as a category expert with passion for product and the consumer.
• Excellent attention to detail.
• Strong knowledge and proficiency with MS Office applications (Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook)