Position Overview

Position Summary

The Chief Merchandising & Supply Chain Officer (CMSCO) is a key member of the executive leadership team responsible for leading the company's end-to-end product, merchandising, and supply chain strategy.

This role brings together Product Design & Development, Merchandising, Forecasting & Planning, Purchasing, Distribution, Logistics, and Customer Service under one executive leader, creating clear accountability across the entire product and customer journey-from product concept and assortment strategy through purchasing, inventory management, fulfillment, delivery, and post-purchase customer experience.

The CMSCO will ensure that product and merchandising strategies are closely connected to customer demand, inventory investments, operational capabilities, and financial objectives. This leader will balance growth, VCM, customer experience, inventory productivity, and operational efficiency while building scalable processes that support the company's long-term growth.

Essential Job Functions

Key Responsibilities

Product Design & Development
• Lead the overall Product Design & Development strategy, ensuring products align with the company's brand, customer needs, merchandising strategy, and financial objectives.
• Oversee the product development lifecycle from concept and design through sourcing, development, costing, and commercialization.
• Partner with Merchandising to translate customer insights, market trends, and category opportunities into compelling product assortments.
• Establish clear product development calendars, milestones, and processes to ensure products are delivered on time and within target costs.
• Partner with vendors and suppliers to drive product quality, innovation, value, and speed to market.
• Ensure new product development supports company VCM objectives and overall assortment productivity.
• Continuously evaluate opportunities for product innovation, differentiation, and expansion.

Merchandising
• Develop and lead the overall merchandising strategy in alignment with the company's brand, financial, and growth objectives.
• Oversee product assortment, category strategy, pricing, promotional strategy, product lifecycle management, and assortment productivity.
• Identify customer, competitive, and market trends to inform product and category opportunities.
• Partner closely with Product Design & Development, Marketing, Creative, E-Commerce, Finance, and other business leaders to ensure merchandising strategies support company objectives.
• Establish clear category and product performance metrics, including sales, VCM, inventory turns, sell-through, and productivity.
• Drive strategies to maximize VCM while maintaining a compelling customer value proposition.
• Identify opportunities to expand, optimize, or rationalize product categories and assortments.

Forecasting & Planning
• Lead demand forecasting, inventory planning, merchandise planning, and replenishment strategies.
• Ensure inventory investments are aligned with sales forecasts, customer demand, seasonality, promotional plans, product launches, and financial targets.
• Improve forecasting accuracy and establish disciplined planning processes across the organization.
• Develop inventory strategies that balance product availability with working capital, VCM, and inventory risk.
• Partner with Finance on annual plans, forecasts, inventory budgets, and performance against plan.
• Establish processes to proactively identify and address excess inventory, out-of-stocks, slow-moving inventory, and other inventory risks.
• Partner with Merchandising and Product Design & Development to ensure assortment and product decisions are supported by demand and inventory insights.

Purchasing & Vendor Management
• Provide executive oversight of purchasing and procurement activities related to merchandise and inventory.
• Develop strategic supplier relationships and negotiate favorable pricing, terms, lead times, minimum order quantities, and service levels.
• Establish vendor performance standards and scorecards.
• Identify opportunities to improve product costs, payment terms, sourcing flexibility, quality, and overall vendor performance.
• Partner with Merchandising, Product Design & Development, and Planning to ensure purchasing decisions support customer demand, VCM, and inventory objectives.
• Develop sourcing and purchasing strategies that balance cost, quality, speed, inventory requirements, and business risk.

Distribution & Logistics
• Lead the company's distribution, warehousing, fulfillment, transportation, and logistics strategy.
• Ensure distribution operations deliver against service, cost, productivity, quality, and safety expectations.
• Optimize the company's distribution network to support growth and changing customer expectations.
• Develop strategies to improve fulfillment speed, delivery performance, transportation costs, and overall operational efficiency.
• Establish and monitor key operational metrics, including fulfillment costs, order accuracy, on-time shipment, delivery performance, warehouse productivity, and inventory accuracy.
• Evaluate third-party logistics providers, carriers, technology, automation, and other opportunities to improve scalability, service, and efficiency.
• Partner across Merchandising, Planning, Purchasing, and Customer Service to ensure inventory is positioned appropriately to meet customer demand.

Customer Service
• Provide executive leadership for the Customer Service organization and overall customer experience.
• Establish service standards and KPIs focused on customer satisfaction, responsiveness, resolution time, and operational efficiency.
• Ensure customer feedback, trends, and insights are communicated back to Product Design & Development, Merchandising, Distribution, Logistics, Marketing, and other functions to drive continuous improvement.
• Identify and address root causes of customer contacts related to product quality, product information, fulfillment, delivery, returns, cancellations, and other customer pain points.
• Use customer insights to influence product, merchandising, and operational decisions.
• Balance an exceptional customer experience with efficient and scalable service operations.
• Develop strategies to continuously improve the end-to-end customer journey and strengthen customer loyalty.

Executive Leadership & Business Strategy
• Serve as a strategic member of the executive leadership team and contribute to overall company strategy and long-term planning.
• Build an integrated organization that connects product creation, merchandising, forecasting, purchasing, inventory, distribution, logistics, and customer experience.
• Develop annual operating plans, budgets, KPIs, and strategic priorities for all areas of responsibility.
• Partner closely with the CEO, CFO, and other executives on revenue, VCM, inventory, working capital, customer experience, and profitability objectives.
• Establish clear financial and operational accountability across all functions within the organization.
• Use data and analytics to identify growth opportunities, operational risks, customer trends, and areas for improvement.
• Recruit, develop, and retain high-performing leadership teams across all functions within the organization.
• Establish clear accountability, succession planning, and organizational structures capable of supporting continued company growth.
• Lead major transformation initiatives involving processes, systems, technology, organizational design, and ways of working.
• Ensure cross-functional alignment and accountability across the full product lifecycle and customer journey.

Key Performance Indicators

Success in this role will be measured through a combination of financial, product, merchandising, operational, inventory, and customer metrics, including:
• Revenue and VCM performance
• Product and category performance
• New product development and speed to market
• Inventory turns and inventory productivity
• Forecast accuracy
• In-stock and product availability rates
• Sell-through and aged/excess inventory
• Product and purchasing cost improvements
• Distribution and fulfillment costs
• Warehouse productivity and order accuracy
• On-time shipment and delivery performance
• Customer satisfaction and service levels
• Return and cancellation rates
• Product quality and return trends
• Working capital efficiency
• Vendor and carrier performance

You Have

15+ years of progressive leadership experience across merchandising, product development, supply chain, operations, planning, purchasing, or related functions, with significant executive-level responsibility.
• Demonstrated experience leading multiple functions within a complex retail, e-commerce, consumer products, home furnishings, or omnichannel organization.
• Strong merchandising and product background with experience in assortment strategy, product development, category management, pricing, VCM management, and inventory productivity.
• Deep understanding of demand planning, forecasting, purchasing, inventory management, distribution, transportation, and logistics.
• Demonstrated understanding of the connection between product strategy, customer demand, inventory investments, VCM, and operational execution.
• Proven ability to manage large-scale operations while improving service levels, costs, productivity, and profitability.
• Strong financial and analytical skills with demonstrated ability to manage budgets, inventory investments, VCM, and working capital.
• Experience developing and managing domestic and international vendor and supplier relationships preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to lead organizational transformation and build scalable processes.
• Strong executive presence with the ability to communicate effectively with senior leadership and the Board.
• Proven track record of building, developing, and leading high-performing teams.
• Bachelor's degree in Business, Merchandising, Supply Chain, Operations, Finance, or a related discipline required; MBA or advanced degree preferred.

Preferred Skills

The successful candidate will be a commercially minded, product-focused, and operationally strong executive who understands that Product Design & Development, Merchandising, Planning, Supply Chain, and Customer Service must operate as an integrated organization.

This individual will combine strong customer and product instincts with financial discipline, operational expertise, and data-driven decision-making. The CMSCO should be equally comfortable discussing product and assortment strategy, VCM, inventory investments, vendor negotiations, forecasting, warehouse productivity, transportation costs, and customer experience.

Most importantly, this leader will create accountability and alignment across the entire product and customer journey-from designing and developing the right products, to forecasting and purchasing the right inventory, to delivering those products efficiently and providing an exceptional customer experience.

Your Life and Career at RugsUSA

• A culture that promotes a healthy work/life balance
• Benefits package offered to all eligible full-time employees (including medical, dental, vision, PTO, 401(k)
• Exposure to career advancement opportunities across all departments
• Generous employee discount that can be used across our house of brands!