About the RoleThe Assortment Strategist is the commercial and product voice for a specific market or channel, such as Canada or Outlet. This role develops a deep understanding of the market's customer, product preferences, competitive landscape, pricing dynamics, seasonality and commercial opportunities, and translates those insights into actionable assortment and investment recommendations.
Working in close partnership with Omni Merchandising and Planning, the Assortment Strategist ensures market- and channel-specific opportunities are identified early, quantified and advanced through the seasonal product, assortment and planning process.
While Omni Merchandising and Planning own the line assortment and financial plan, the Assortment Strategist brings a clear market point of view, identifies incremental growth opportunities and builds the commercial case to influence assortment, investment and pricing decisions.
The role connects market insight, assortment strategy and commercial opportunity, ensuring the Omni assortment reflects the unique needs and growth potential of the market or channel.
What You'll Do- Develop a clear point of view on the market/channel customer, competitive landscape and commercial opportunity.
- Identify market-specific needs versus the broader Omni assortment, including product, category, climate/seasonality, local holidays, price/value and channel behavior.
- Bring market insights into seasonal milestones and connect market/channel and Omni teams, translating local needs into actionable recommendations.
- Partner with Omni Merchandising, Product and Planning to shape assortment architecture, identify gaps and determine where incremental or market-specific solutions are needed.
- Identify and advance opportunities including incremental buys, market extensions, holiday/special product, exclusive or channel-specific assortments and additional depth in proven winners.
- Use sales, margin, inventory, sell-through, customer and competitive data to quantify opportunities, build business cases and prioritize investments based on return and risk.
- Develop a market-specific pricing and value point of view, incorporating customer expectations, competitive positioning, currency and market economics across price architecture, promotions and markdowns.
- Identify whitespace and emerging opportunities beyond the core Omni process, including local holidays, cultural moments, climate differences, product attributes and competitive dynamics.
- Monitor in-season trends, customer behavior, competition, pricing and promotions, translating insights into timely assortment and investment recommendations.
- Develop the seasonal market/channel strategy and ensure opportunities are incorporated into Omni decisions. Escalate material gaps and recommend actions when opportunities are at risk.
Who You Are- Experience in Buying, Merchandising, Assortment Planning or Merchandise Planning, ideally supporting Canada and/or Outlet.
- Strong understanding of merchandising fundamentals, including assortment, product lifecycle, pricing, promotion, inventory, sales and margin.
- Strong product, customer and commercial instinct with the ability to turn insights into actionable recommendations.
- Strong analytical and financial acumen, with the ability to interpret business data and build fact-based business cases.
- Ability to identify emerging product, customer and competitive trends and assess their market/channel relevance.
- Strong influencing, communication and presentation skills, with the ability to drive outcomes without direct authority.
- Highly collaborative, with experience partnering across Merchandising, Planning, Product, Pricing, Inventory Management and Finance.
- Curious, customer-focused and commercially minded, balancing strategic thinking with agility in changing market conditions.
