Do you want a career in fashion but not sure in which area to specialise? Each week we will introduce a fashion career role and list the responsibilities and skills required. Here are the typical duties and requirements for Head of Merchandising…
Job Description:
As the Head of Merchandising you will play an important role in a retail company by overseeing the marketing, branding, and promotion of the company’s products. This managerial position requires strong leadership skills, in addition to creativity and knowledge of market trends. Industry experience is the most important prerequisite to succeed in this profession, but pairing that with a bachelor’s degree might be supportive.
Responsibilities:
- Manage the buying and merchandising team and be responsible for the entire buying and merchandising function for both retail and e-commerce
- Provide detailed analysis and trade reports on a regular basis
- Organise and manage the buying across all regions
- Fully accountable for the entire stock management system
- Responsible for producing all in-season reports, forecasting and buying plans
- Measure and monitor the performance of the business on a weekly basis
- Be completely in charge of the allocation & distribution of stock
- Partner with the retail teams to ensure launches, sales etc. are actioned seamlessly
- Partner with the senior team to create and implement clear procedures and guidelines
- Operates as a strategic business manager, overseeing the teams and their processes, demonstrating best practise
Skills:
- Capacity to build strong working relationships throughout the brand and work effectively with all levels
- Team Leadership – provide clear business goals for teams to support and develop skills base.
- Commerciality – skilled at finding opportunities to achieve profit in any situation, trading mentality to support and develop product areas
- Problem Solving – ability to gather all key information and then use logic and creativity to propose solutions
- Experience of working in a fast paced fashion retailing environment with solid merchandising experience
- Currently at Merchandise Manager level or equivalent
- Experience in both mono and multi-brand environment