General Merchandise Manager

REI - Seattle, WA

Full-time - Manager

Seattle, WA

Clothing, Clothing Accessories, Shoe, and Jewelry Retailers

About the position

As the General Merchandise Manager (GMM), you will play a pivotal role in shaping the strategic direction and success of our omni-channel product strategy. The GMM is responsible for creating and executing multi-year, annual, and seasonal merchandising strategies that align with the Co-op's goals. This role is pivotal in delivering consumer-centric product assortments across multiple product categories and vendors within Actionsports and Outdoor Hardgoods, driving sales growth, sustainable profitability, and increased market share in the outdoor specialty retail sector. You will ensure our company stays relevant by understanding and forecasting market trends, emerging brands, and changing consumer behaviors to inform inventory allocation, store space, marketing, and internal resourcing. The role involves building and leading a robust merchant team that manages vendor relationships, product assortment, pricing, promotions, and vendor terms for $2B+ in revenue. Collaboration with senior leaders across marketing, commercial channels, planning, and supply chain is essential to realize a compelling omni-channel Go to Market (GTM) plan across all customer touchpoints, incorporating their insights into strategies.

Responsibilities

• Develop and communicate a clear and compelling merchandising vision, strategy, and 5-year roadmap aligning with the organization's broader business objectives.
• Lead the identification, development, and implementation of new business strategies, initiatives, and product lines.
• Drive initiatives to enhance customer experience, increase market share, and meet financial targets (i.e., margin, pricing, market share, traffic, etc.).
• Set assortment architecture framework, category expansion and exits, pricing strategy, and activity positioning for all categories under oversight, supporting an aligned process across merchandising.
• Lead and mentor across divisional organization to enable the strategy execution through the GTM calendar, expectations, and goals.
• Analyze data and understand market trends, consumer behavior, and the competitive landscape to develop product strategies and inform regional assortments across categories.
• Integrate insights from Allocation and Assortment teams to create data-driven merchandising strategies that align with overall business objectives.
• Partner with the Merchandising Data team to analyze sales data, market trends, and consumer behavior to inform assortment planning and inventory management.
• Work with the Allocation team to ensure optimal distribution of products across all channels, maximizing sales potential and inventory efficiency.
• Work closely with marketing, visual, and digital merchandising to create product presentations that support strategy.
• Ensure incorporation of policies, procedures, and objectives for the Merchandising areas to operate effectively and efficiently.
• Provide leadership and strategic direction to achieve financial goals, drive the core business, and the transformation agenda.

Requirements

• 12+ years experience, with 8+ years building and leading teams in merchandising, and strategy development in a retailer or brand.
• Bachelor's degree in business or related field, master's degree preferred.
• Knowledge of industry activity, brands and product trends.
• Strategic change agent with track-record of evolving merchandising teams through people, process, technology in a fast-paced environment.
• Data driven leader who understands the power of leveraging data to understand consumer trends and identify new growth areas.
• Demonstrated understanding of product lifecycle management, event planning, vendor negotiations, and financial KPIs.
• Proven track record of successful delivery of strategic and operational initiatives from concept through implementation, including new business development, category expansion and contractions and exits.
• Ability to assess business risks proactively and collaborate to mitigate.
• Understanding of product development, sourcing and manufacturing of hard and soft goods.
• Demonstrated experience bringing large scale change opportunities to life through storytelling, fact-based orientation, and business analytics to inform complex decision making.
• Experienced with demand planning, supply planning and forecasting using state-of-the-art merchandising software.
• Results-oriented, adept in conflict resolution, skilled at prioritization and change management.
• An inclusive leadership style and the ability to engage and communicate with all levels of the organization, from the C-suite to product specialists.
• People management experience including strong interpersonal and leadership skills: meeting facilitation, skill-sharing and training, organization, conflict management, change agent, manage relationships.
• Collaborative thinker, who will drive enterprise outcomes, and facilitate a 'win-together' culture.
• Success leading and developing a team of world-class merchandising and product development professionals, including ability to coach, develop and leverage the experience of seasoned executives within organization.
• Excellent, proven interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills with all levels.

Benefits

• Generous employee discount
• Access to health benefits
• Retirement savings plan
• Accrued time off