Associate Merchant Job Description
Associate merchant
provides regular weekly and monthly standard suite of reports and performance trends; usage metrics; and Provide ad-hoc reporting requests.
Associate Merchant Duties & Responsibilities
To write an effective associate merchant job description, begin by listing detailed duties, responsibilities and expectations. We have included associate merchant job description templates that you can modify and use.
Sample responsibilities for this position include:
Attend all CFTs (by department/commodity) in order to capture assortment updates and product development issues
Product development (front-to-back) all licensing exclusives (fabric, lab-dips, proto review, fitting, ensure on-time delivery and cost)
Patterns competition on a regular basis to understand online merchandise offerings and site capabilities to maximize business
Gathers and maintains accurate product files that includes but is not limited to product material detail
Identify business opportunities and demonstrate ability to lead, manage and execute department projects and cross- department initiatives
Partner with Merchant and Merchandise Manager to develop a seasonal plan that utilizes historical performance and current business data
Attend Merchant meetings and critical product reviews
Manage the Online Product Lifecycle - Manage product items through entire web process
Collaborate with Cross-functional Teams - Meet regularly with Product Merchandising, Merchandise Planning, and Inventory Management partners to understand and influence the direction of future product lines
Monitor and Improve Site Productivity - Participate in site update and redesign initiatives
Associate Merchant Qualifications
Qualifications for a job description may include education, certification, and experience.
Licensing or Certifications for Associate Merchant
List any licenses or certifications required by the position: CISA, CAMS, CIA
Education for Associate Merchant
Typically a job would require a certain level of education.
Employers hiring for the associate merchant job most commonly would prefer for their future employee to have a relevant degree such as Bachelor's and Associate Degree in Business, Merchandising, Marketing, Education, Finance, Management, Computer Science, Accounting, Business/Administration, Fashion Merchandising
Skills for Associate Merchant
Desired skills for associate merchant include:
PCM
SAP and guided Ad-hoc reporting tools
Vendor negotiation techniques
Product development
Shop competition and visit Talbots stores frequently
Sourcing and quality
Excel
Retail industry trends
Retail metrics and sales
Catalog and web industry trends
Desired experience for associate merchant includes:
System and computer literate
Implement seasonal merchandise and class plan by monitoring weekly sales, analysis of vendor/style performance
Assist the Merchant or DMM
Requires a Bachelors degree plus three to four years of experience in merchandising
Provide site direction by developing overarching merchandising strategies, continuing to elevate our voice online while maintaining the Club Monaco brand aesthetic
Partner with Design, Other Markets, & Production to drive initiatives and develop the seasonal line
Associate Merchant Examples
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Associate Merchant Job Description
Job Description Example
Our innovative and growing company is looking to fill the role of associate merchant. If you are looking for an exciting place to work, please take a look at the list of qualifications below.
Responsibilities for associate merchant
- Work with Planning to determine quarterly budget
- Participate in OTB meetings
- Provide on-site visual direction to ensure a cohesive in store to online experience
- Develop annual goals for direct report
- Provide on the job training, behavioral feedback, coaching as needed for direct report
- Be a role model for direct report and CFT, by focusing on team objectives, communicating effectively and resolving conflict productively
- Work with Design, Creative, and Marketing to come up with seasonal and monthly site features & emails
- Cultivate a strong relationship between Ecommerce, Store Merchants, Design and Production
- Continue to grow the 3rd party brand assortment across several categories
- Lead Weekly/ Monthly Business Review
Qualifications for associate merchant
- Attend Hindsight Meetings prepared to discuss past season misses and opportunities
- Attend Monthly Fit & Feel sessions and react to business needs based on learnings when applicable
- Constantly reevaluate your line based on current trends in your business and the marketplace with ability to react quickly to chase
- Strong knowledge of the competitive landscape and ability to react based on findings
- At least three-five years retail buying experience, Ecommerce experience preferred
- Comfortable and confident in making effective decisions in a timely manner
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Associate Merchant Job Description
Job Description Example
Our innovative and growing company is hiring for an associate merchant. We appreciate you taking the time to review the list of qualifications and to apply for the position. If you don’t fill all of the qualifications, you may still be considered depending on your level of experience.
Responsibilities for associate merchant
- Understand the needs of the foreign markets and communicate that to the production and design teams in order to ensure line development addresses regional needs
- Assort the line by region prior to international market
- Ensure global brand continuity and design integrity by managing offering at market and policing adoption
- Present the line at market
- Market recap and ranking with CEO, design, and concept merch
- Introducing all approved licensing exclusive requests into the production matrix (fabric r&d, design, tech design, production)
- Capture all concept assortment changes and communicate with external partners
- Attend select fittings (licensing exclusive styles, high ranking styles that are key buys for external partners)
- Receive and approve any locally produced licensing exlusives (Korea has a contractual allotment to produce their own CM branded goods)
- Analyze licensee seasonal hindsight in order to ensure adequate style/CC for forthcoming season
Qualifications for associate merchant
- Strategic – Combines strategic thinking with a penchant for action and able to work with others to implement solutions
- 5-10 years of wholesale or private label experience
- Acute awareness of market trends (trend forecasting)
- Flexible/nimble – continuously analyzes and reacts to the business landscape
- Managing plans for stock levels
- Reacting to changes in demand and in logistics
3
Associate Merchant Job Description
Job Description Example
Our company is looking for an associate merchant. We appreciate you taking the time to review the list of qualifications and to apply for the position. If you don’t fill all of the qualifications, you may still be considered depending on your level of experience.
Responsibilities for associate merchant
- Collaborating with other departments within the organization to ensure projects are completed
- Participating in promotional activities
- Writing reports and forecasting sales levels
- Liaising with shop personnel to ensure product/collection supply meets demand
- Seeking merchandise feedback from customers
- Providing merchandising directives to stores on a monthly basis
- Assist with writing seasonal lineplans & strategies
- Maintain daily operational functions
- Will be the "Merchant" owner of a group of categories within the department
- Demonstrated ability to manage communication with all brand levels of brand partners
Qualifications for associate merchant
- Manage on order weekly based on most current buy sheets including cost, retail IMU and units
- Daily communication with vendors, including tracking all submits, sample approvals and purchase order management communication
- Assertive, energetic and results driven
- Broad-based business acumen with the potential to grow to the Merchant level t
- Exceptional leadership capabilities with the ability to influence cross functional partners • Acute sense of brand and customer intimacy
- Ability to grow and develop talent
4
Associate Merchant Job Description
Job Description Example
Our company is looking to fill the role of associate merchant. We appreciate you taking the time to review the list of qualifications and to apply for the position. If you don’t fill all of the qualifications, you may still be considered depending on your level of experience.
Responsibilities for associate merchant
- Negotiations with internal partners including launch plans, strategies, assortments, reverse logistics, in- store visual and space allocation
- Communicates brand and business opportunities to stores and field leadership
- Plan online merchandise assortments in alignment with the respective Brand strategy
- Analyze the store-based assortments and supplement with product categories and price points that lend to the expanded assortment strategy
- Source expanded assortment product and direct the product set-up for the web environment, coordinate the vendor set-up for drop-ship to consumer
- Manage and monitor inventories for drop-ship vendor network
- Responsible for IMU to achieve financial targets, including the management of margin mix across categories, key items, and clearance
- Responsible for developing a key-item strategy that drives revenue and maintains margin in order to protect online marketshare
- Collaborate with the planning team on consumer and promotional trends to support their forecasts for product demand
- Collaborate with the Site Merchandisers on product trends in order to support product categorization, layout, and sequencing, including the selection of product and concepts to promote in homepage refreshes and email campaigns
Qualifications for associate merchant
- Systems and computer savvy, including Microsoft Office Applications
- Crystal and/or CZ experience preferred
- Broad-based business acumen with the potential to grow to the Merchant level
- Exceptional leadership capabilities with the ability to influence cross functional partners
- 5+ years of related business experience, Beauty or Retail industry preferred
- Must demonstrate strong strategic, creative, interpersonal, organizational, and communication skills
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Associate Merchant Job Description
Job Description Example
Our innovative and growing company is looking to fill the role of associate merchant. To join our growing team, please review the list of responsibilities and qualifications.
Responsibilities for associate merchant
- Research and analyze market trends in order to source and develop viable products
- Shop and analyze the competition to understand trends, pricing opportunities, marketing concepts, and the customers’ perspective
- Keen analytical and decision-making skills and the ability to accomplish objectives
- Downloading pictures of products and filing them
- Using a database to research the products and the SKUs
- Doing audits and tracking any product damages
- Identifying problems with packaging, and tracking those as well
- Collaborate with Sourcing on vendor resource, calendar and costing strategies to facilitate production planning
- Process account and portfolio data into various reports
- Support the Sales and Merchandising team with administrative responsibilities
Qualifications for associate merchant
- Able to handle multiple priorities and work within matrixed organization
- Team player project management expertise a plus
- Minimum of 3 years of retail buying and merchandising experience
- Minimum of 2 years e-commerce experience
- Possess stamina in pursuit of new strategies and different approaches
- Willingness to embrace new ideas and technology to support changes to the business