Merchandising Manager - Work Group

About the position The Work Group at Wolverine Worldwide includes market-leading brands Wolverine Boots and Apparel, Cat Footwear, Merrell Work and Tactical, Bates, Harley Davidson Footwear, and Hytest. Across the Work Group there are 100+ year old businesses, global and domestic brands, as well as licensed and owned entities. Through building awesome products that blur the line between work and lifestyle, we tap into the collective power of all these brands to deliver our customers amazing stories and the trusted features they demand: comfort, durability, and style. As Work Group’s Channel Merchandiser Manager, you will lead, create and drive assortment strategies for the assigned marketplace channel. By partnering in being the owner of the Work Group’s channel strategies and being the expert on customer needs and marketplace, you will be accountable for building consumer focused assortments for the Specialty/Independents & Key Accounts Channels. You will select products that meet financial plans and deliver business results. In this role you will drive cross-functional alignment with Sales, Product, and Marketing to ensure the right product is delivered on- time and meets both consumer need and financial targets. This position will serve as the strategic business driver for the product development, ensuring product and presentation enhances the brand while achieving sales targets and maintains brand integrity for both digital and physical environments.

Responsibilities

• Develop seasonal & annual strategies for Work Group’s brands that meet or exceed sales goals, margin targets, and align to the overarching group strategy
• Create and communicate seasonal line plans to guide design, product and production in support of work group’s portfolio’s objectives
• Develop and implement merchandising assortments strategies to meet sales targets and market needs (Key Channels: Work Specialty, Independents, & Key Accounts)
• Provide product market intelligence; performance data, market trends, competitor landscape from cross functional partners to brand product teams in effort to impact insight to adoption strategy
• Key communicator to cross-functional partners on product knowledge, intent and assortment
• Operate a lead for product reviews, assortment building and present to wholesale teams seasonal assortment strategies as well as cross function teams
• Work cross-functionally with brand product teams to ensure any changes, updates and strategy shifts are communicated to sales partners
• Curate specific assortments by channel for each store and digital environments in alignment with work groups portfolio strategy
• Consolidate, analyze each accounts performance trends to advise specific product needs for future line planning
• Advise on channel pricing strategies to ensure brand expectations are met and margins protected
• Consolidate Key Account performance to provide brand product teams with detailed reports and recommendations for future lines
• Collaborate with Brand Marketing and Retail Marketing to providing brand and product plans strategies to guide marketing placement
• Drive operational excellence across the work group to deliver efficiencies, timeliness and go-to-market execution
• Always a champion of the Work Group informing the WWW organization by communicating and educating strategic plans in and outside of milestones.
• Performs duties consistent with the company’s AAP/EEO goals and policies.
• Performs other duties as required/assigned by manager.

Requirements

• Minimum of 5+ years of merchandising experience
• Strong analytical skills and ability to interpret market data and trends
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills to work effectively with global teams
• Understanding of Merchandising Management software and tools such as PLM, excel, adobe, PowerPoint
• Ability to manage multiple projects and prioritize tasks in a fast-paced environment
• Passion for creating best-in-class partnerships through strong communication skills
• Strong communication skills, including confidence in leading cross-functional meetings
• Bachelor's degree required/MBA preferred or equivalent work experience

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