Overview:The Outlet Women's & Girls Merchant is responsible for defining and executing the merchandising strategy for the Women's and Girls businesses across the Outlet channel. This role owns the seasonal product vision, assortment architecture, and category strategies that drive profitable growth while delivering a compelling customer experience.
As the strategic business owner for the category, the Merchant partners cross-functionally with Design, Planning, Sourcing, Production, Marketing, Visual Merchandising, and Retail Operations to develop customer-focused assortments that align with the Outlet channel strategy, financial objectives, and brand standards. This role leverages customer insights, market trends, and business analytics to identify growth opportunities, optimize assortments, and influence future product investments.
Key Responsibilities:- Own the seasonal merchandising strategy for the Women's and Girls Outlet businesses, ensuring assortments support customer needs, financial goals, and brand positioning.
- Develop category strategies that balance key item programs, fashion newness, pricing architecture, depth, breadth, and lifecycle management to maximize productivity.
- Partner closely with Planning to drive assortment decisions, SKU productivity, inventory optimization, and financial performance.
- Analyze weekly, monthly, and seasonal business performance to identify risks, opportunities, and actionable strategies to improve sales, margin, and productivity.
- Use customer insights, competitive intelligence, and marketplace trends to identify assortment gaps and recommend future product and category growth opportunities.
- Lead seasonal assortment planning, ensuring the right mix of core, fashion, and trend-right product across all classifications.
- Drive channel differentiation by developing Outlet-specific merchandising strategies while maintaining brand consistency and integrity.
- Partner with Design throughout the product development process to ensure assortments deliver commercial viability, customer relevance, and financial success.
- Lead assortment reviews, line presentations, and seasonal product adoption meetings, providing strategic recommendations supported by data and customer insights.
- Own assortment tools, merchandising documentation, scorecards, rankings, seasonal presentations, and product lifecycle management systems.
- Collaborate with Marketing, Visual Merchandising, and Retail Operations to develop compelling go-to-market strategies, product storytelling, and seasonal launches.
- Continuously evaluate category performance and recommend promotional, pricing, and inventory strategies to maximize business results.
- Lead and develop Merchandising team members by fostering collaboration, accountability, and professional growth.
What You Bring:- 5+ years of merchandising, buying, or merchandise planning experience, preferably within apparel or specialty retail and Outlet background.
- Previous leadership experience managing and developing team members.
- Strong understanding of merchandising strategy, assortment planning, retail math, and financial analysis.
- Proven ability to translate customer insights and business analytics into actionable merchandising strategies.
- Experience partnering cross-functionally across Merchandising, Planning, Design, Sourcing, Marketing, and Retail Operations.
- Strong analytical, strategic thinking, and problem-solving skills.
- Excellent communication, presentation, and influencing skills with the ability to build alignment across multiple stakeholders.
- Advanced proficiency in Excel and merchandising systems (BlueCherry, PLM, or similar).
- Bachelor's degree required.
Every Day Will Feel This Good Because:- We have a fun-spirited entrepreneurial culture filled with truly "good" people
- We offer a generous employee discount so you can rep our lifestyle on-and-off the boat
- We offer a competitive salary package, 401-K, commuter benefits, and paid-family leave, health savings, flex spending accounts, life & disability insurance
- We have an onsite gym as well as health & financial wellness programs to keep you active
- We offer 2 summer Fridays to take off in addition to a competitive vacation policy & holiday calendar
