Online Merchandising Strategist  

ASSOCIATE ONLINE CATEGORY MERCHANDISER:

The Associate Category Merchandiser is responsible for managing and executing online merchandising strategy for a category. This position is the main liaison between the merchant organization and all online support channels. Responsibilities include merchandising site through homepage planning, planning email, managing pricing and promotional requests to ensure alignment of messaging on site. Partners with marketing team to ensure on-time delivery of new products are set up on the site for sale. Set content strategy for category to increase website conversion images, copy, attribution, tech specs, video, buying guides, etc. Make recommendations on merchandise assortments by category and continually evaluate, analyze, and adjust these assortments. Helps manage vendor relations, vendor compliance and partnership development to promote key product lines and brand exposure by developing a marketing and merchandising plan to support. Accountable for managing web KPI s: category conversion, bounce rates, AOV, abandon cart etc. Will partner with Buying team to manage category sales, margin and marketing strategy, as well as analyze, forecast and interpret consumer trends to communicate recommendations.

JOB DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Optimizes category online merchandising strategy: Partners with eCommerce and Marketing Teams to optimize category online strategy for growing sales while maximizing margin and inventory turn. Translates in-store category strategy and overall eCommerce strategy into online experience; including decisions that improve product page views and conversion rates and impact category & family pages (e.g. which products to highlight, creative to launch), product pages (e.g. which attributes must be listed), and online taxonomy, navigation, & sorting functions.
• Formulates category strategies in creating differentiated omnichannel and website shopping experiences for key customer segments, leveraging a deep understanding of key customer needs
• Examines category merchandising strategies of key competitors and best-in-class online retailers to understand emerging online trends and web developments.
• Recommends changes (e.g., promotions) to online category strategy based on customer and competitive insights, understanding of brand and vendor strategies, DSG company initiatives.
• Provides input on category's online assortment plan and online assortment alignment strategy (vs. in-store assortment)
• Customizes product attribution as necessary to enhance product pages and drive conversion
• Responsible for reviewing preview site and pushing live products online.
• Executes category site promotions and analytics: Executes daily and weekly site promotions and tab advertising preparations. Recommends changes (e.g. assortments, promotions, pricing action) of category online strategy to leadership on weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis based on results of site analytics & promotional review (will perform adhoc analysis in Omniture, microstrategy and KPI). Bids for homepage and email space to increase visibility during peak season.

• Strong team-building skills - thrives in a team-oriented environment where we all support each other to achieve our goals
• Copywriting or other writing experience, a plus
• Ability to work across multiple deliverables simultaneously while meeting deadlines
• Curious, action-oriented and flexible - driven to understand the "why" and then make fact-based decisions and implement recommendations quickly to drive for continuous improvement
• Experience and comfort with technical systems, understands data integrity and implications of system settings, capabilities and limitations
• Ability to work independently as well as with cross-functional teams to accomplish goals and objectives
• Ability to communicate effectively - verbally and in-writing across all levels of the organization.
• Driven to solve problems, thinks outside the box and gets satisfaction from seeing the tangible impact of decisions
• Actions and attitude aligned with Murdoch’s Mission, Values and Principles
• B.S. in Marketing, Advertising, Communications, or related field of study
• Prior eCommerce and online merchandising experience preferred
• Expert use and application of Microsoft Excel for manipulating and managing large data sets
• Proficiency with Shopify platform a plus