Job Title: Head of Central Merchandising
Reports to: Buying & Merchandising Director
This role is the commercial lead for the evolution of the business, developing strategic change to establish an effective Buying and Merchandising function. This role leads the development of new processes and tools, setting best practice and business definitions. It ensures that all stages of the commercial Business Calendar and Trading Calendar are completed to industry best practice and on time, with the result that all activities align to the strategy, deliver the targets and the best customer experience.
Once strategic change is completed, this role is the owner of continuous improvement and ensures consistent standards.
This role also supports the Buying & Merchandising Director on all budgeting and trading activities, ensuring planning numbers reconcile to Finance and overseeing all “Top down, Bottom U” processes, to ensure targets are set and met effectively. An independent and objective role, which can support and challenge the B & M teams, across product and channel planning and provides the commercial business input for new IT systems & tools.
THE PERSON
- Superior analytical and quantitative skills; ability to analyse and draw business implications from multiple sources: financial, customer, market, and other data sources
- Commercial acumen: results driven and a completer finisher able to work at pace
- Clear thinker that has strong process skills, able to break down complex problems and tasks into simple steps
- Superior written and oral communication skills – ability to present complex ideas in a compelling manner
- Capacity to work collaboratively with cross-functional teams within commercial and the wider organization, bringing people together to deliver business goals
- Stakeholder management: ability to achieve rapport and influence outcomes, utilizing effective communication skills and change management practices
- Transparent, empowering, and inspiring leader who is a role model and lives the values
- Good delegator who develops talent through coaching
- Ability to establish credibility, rapport, and influence with reports/peers/supervisors.
- Self-starter with an ability to work at the highest levels with little supervision
- Able to challenge constructively and deliver difficult messages effectively with respect
EXPERIENCE REQUIRED
- Minimum 10 years at a senior/Head of level in Merchandising or Planning based on the Merchandise Planning model
- Excellent technical planning skills including WSSI management & advanced Excel skills
- Degree, or appropriate business-related experience / equivalent
- Meaningful experience in the retail sector, with a holistic understanding of the retail industry and underlying customer behaviors
- Experience of transformation and strategic change programme management an asset
MAIN DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES
PLANNING
- Drive the planning process for a phased category plan by channel to propose robust financial targets to the B&M Director which support the commercial strategy
- Work closely with Finance to reconcile metrics between financial plans and product plans – compare, contrast, challenge and in line with lead times
- Provide guidance, support & challenge for B&M teams to achieve targets
- Model key product metrics in advance to assess risk profiles and reconcile top-down and bottom-up planning to deliver consistency and encourage cross-functional working
- Propose and manage the business definitions of KPIs and ensure consistent use
- Lead a cross-functional review of the Business Calendar to secure the critical planning & trading milestones that deliver on time launch
- Voice of B&M team in planning with the intention to achieve buy-in across the business for more realistic growth plans
TRADING
- Own the monthly reforecasting (WSSI) process, rolling up risk and opportunities and modelling impact on cash flow of recommendations for in-season Brand allocations
- Provide visibility to Buying team of OTB positions
- Oversee the reforecast & sign off process and communicate to Finance as appropriate
- Ensure the Trading calendar is appropriate to hit financial and customer targets, reflecting the needs across all channels
- Analyse promotional results to recommend future events with sales & profit impacts
- Liaise with supply chain/logistics and product teams to optimise the flow of stock and intake in the event of capacity constraints and ensuring stock targets are met
- Manage the process for coding seasonal stock & use of clearance markdown budget, ensuring it is spent to clear stock effectively to hit terminal stock targets
CHANNEL OPTIMISATION
- Establish grading & clusters to support the business managing space, sales, and local trading opportunities
- Support overall stock & range planning from end to end for all channels including eComm and ROI
- Liaise with Store Operations re new stores and refurbs, communicating dates and requirements to the Merchandisers
- Work across the channels to agree priorities and provide guidance for option and stock planning & allocation
PROCESS, TOOLS/ SYSTEMS & REPORTING
- Identify areas for improvement, diagnosing issues and solving them and constantly reprioritise
- Act as the commercial business input lead for the IT roadmap
- Lead the development of appropriate reports and tools (WSSI, category plans, range framework plans etc ) that will be used consistently and look to simplify work for the teams wherever possible
- Develop standard reports for planning & trading to drive consistency and standards
- Working with IT ensure the commercial teams can access the required data and ad hoc reporting needed to facilitate decision making
- One change agenda: all requests from the teams are assessed and prioritised so IT have one set of requirements
- Process optimisation: Review of the processes and tools used by the B&M teams to avoid extra work and cost and deliver desired outcomes
- Productivity: Initiatives are taken to improve productivity e.g. automating processes and reporting, systems implementation
PEOPLE
- Share technical knowledge with others and identify those who need support & training
- Encourage others to freely share their point of view and be open to feedback
- Ensure that the RACI is clear and appropriate by function and that all impacts within commercial and other functions are understood and captured
- Role model teamwork and collaboration with directors, other functions and between buyers and merchandisers
- Model schuh’s beliefs and convey a positive image in everything you do
- Celebrate diversity of thought and have an open mindset
- Embrace, champion, and influence change through the organisation
About the location
What we will offer you:
Our culture
You do you, and we do shoes.
Sure we’re all about shoes and sneakers but we’re also about the people wearing them.
Our vision is People.Purpose.Progress and central to this is our commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion. We welcome applications from underrepresented communities and want you to express yourself everyday, no matter your ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, neurodiversity, age, family or parental status, beliefs, nationalities, religions or otherwise.
A destination for self-expression for over 40 years. Be part of it.
To support an inclusive environment, our purpose groups – racial equality, LGBTQ+ equality, disability equality, mental wellness and sustainability are employee led and give different ideas, perspectives and backgrounds to fuel innovation and celebrate diverse voices. Find out more here Our Purpose | schuh
Perks of the job
- Up to 40% product discount for those amazing sneaks you want. You can also share this with your loved ones.
- 34 days holiday (including bank holidays) – flexibility to buy and sell holiday
- Your birthday off to celebrate you
- Flexible working hours, hybrid and remote working options depending on your role
- Perk platform for hundreds of discounts
- Stream your wages as you earn them to get paid your way
- Employee assistance programme with the retail trust to support your wellbeing
- Auto-enrolled pension scheme to help you save for the future
- Vitality health scheme to help you to better understand your health and reward you for getting healthy
- Relocation assistance and two flights home on us per year if you relocate outside of or into the UK
Location: Our main offices are based in Livingston & Bathagte, Scotland and we also have a Central London Office too! At schuh we offer a hybrid working model with the expectation that successful applicants are based from their applicabe office a couple of times a week.