Merchandise Manager - Women's Footwear

Role Overview

The Merchandise Manager for Women's Footwear holds a critical position in defining product vision, assortment planning, and commercial outcomes for the category. This role demands a blend of strong intuition for product trends and thorough analytical skills to uncover market potential, optimize assortment, and deliver collections that cater to consumer demand and meet brand and financial targets.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop seasonal line plans for footwear, aligning product mixes with brand identity, consumer preferences, and commercial goals.
• Formulate category strategies based on historical data, trend analysis, consumer insights, and market opportunities.
• Assess regional assortment plans and collaborate with global teams to tailor assortments by market needs.
• Spot assortment gaps, identify growth avenues, and enhance productivity within the footwear range.
• Maintain and adjust assortment structure to ensure suitable variety, depth, and price segmentation.
• Act as primary coordinator between Merchandising, Design, Product Development, Technical Design, Production, Sales, Retail, and Planning teams throughout the product lifecycle.
• Lead cross-functional meetings to guide decisions on product updates, development priorities, timelines, and launch readiness.
• Encourage team collaboration to meet product, financial, and operational goals.
• Communicate seasonal strategies, line modifications, milestones, and assortment information to all internal and global stakeholders.
• Oversee footwear development from concept to market launch, ensuring timely completion of milestones aligned with category strategy.
• Work closely with Design and Product Development to refine product assortments, evaluate prototypes, and maintain product quality.
• Manage assortment tools and product data within Centric PLM, guaranteeing accuracy and timely updates during development.
• Prepare go-to-market materials by effectively sharing product information and assortment strategy with global teams.
• Control seasonal pricing frameworks balancing brand positioning, consumer value, margins, and competitive environment.
• Collaborate with Product Development and Production to examine cost and profitability across product development stages.
• Lead pricing evaluations and deliver final assortment, pricing, and margin plans to leadership.
• Drive attainment of category sales, margin, and productivity targets through strategic product and assortment oversight.

Required Qualifications and Skills

• Bachelor's degree.
• Industry experience within a fashion brand.
• At least five years of relevant experience, preferably in women's footwear merchandising.
• Deep understanding of the women's footwear market across luxury and affordable segments.
• Comprehensive knowledge of the women's footwear consumer, including regional differences.
• Ability to translate data analysis into actionable business strategies.
• Excellent communication, organizational, and analytical capabilities.
• Comfort in engaging with all management levels and influencing decisions.
• Proficiency with retail math and merchandise buying metrics.
• Strong skills in Microsoft Office applications, especially Excel and PowerPoint.
• Expertise in presenting, particularly in visual setups such as showroom displays.
• Capacity to excel in a fast-paced work environment.

Employee Benefits

• Generous paid time off and holiday schedule.
• Reduced work hours on summer Fridays.
• Opportunities for internal career progression within group brands.
• Discounts across multiple brands.
• Exclusive employee sales events.
• Special discount cards for friends and family.
• 401(k) retirement savings match.
• Paid parental leave.
• Wellness programs promoting employee health.
• Commuter benefit plans.
• Discounted gym memberships.

Equal Employment Opportunity & Accessibility

The employer is committed to fair hiring practices and prohibits discrimination based on race, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, nationality, age, military status, disability, genetic information, or other protected characteristics. Harassment on any of these grounds is also forbidden. Accessibility accommodations for interviews or application procedures are available upon request through the talent acquisition team.

Compensation Transparency

Compensation for this role varies depending on experience, qualifications, and role-specific demands.