lululemon

Merchandising | Manager, Merchandising

Who we are

lululemon is a yoga-inspired technical apparel company up to big things. The practice and philosophy of yoga informs our overall purpose to elevate the world through the power of practice. We are proud to be a growing global company with locations all around the world, from Vancouver to Shanghai, and places in between. We owe our success to our innovative product, our emphasis on our stores, our commitment to our people, and the incredible connections we get to make in every community we are in.

About this team:

The Merchandise team lives and breathes all things product! We collectively work together towards getting the right product for our stores and ultimately our guests.

A day in the life:

The Manager, Merchandising is responsible for driving the creation of the product assortment and line plans that delivers on our design vision while delivering best in class sales, inventory and margin results for their assigned product categories. This person will lead effective partnerships with Design, Planning, Allocations, Sourcing, Production, Visual Merchandising, Development, Commercialization and their respective Operations teams to bring our design vision to life. The Manager, Merchandising is responsible for the development of the members of their merchandising team.

-Accountable for driving the successful creation and execution of a line plan for assigned product categories that contribute to the financial success of the company by meeting and exceeding sales, gross margin and inventory productivity goals through all respective channels

-Responsible for the pre-season planning process, breaking down roadmap stories into seasonal line plan and managing style/sku productivity

-Collaborate closely with international buying teams to ensure that global and regional needs are incorporated into the line plan

-Proactively gather, analyze and drive insight from local market knowledge and competitive landscape across all channels

-Manage the product lifecycle for all styles in assigned product categories including introduction, build and retirement of those styles

-Lead the in-season management of your product category, through flow, product education, chase, cancellations, markdowns and exit

-Manage, train, support and mentor the Merchandising team

-Provide leadership for their respective pod to meet key GTM gate deliverables

-Analyze guest data and CRM data with a focus on understanding the guest and business through digital marketing

-Prepare the digital marketing calendar and road map based on the product buy plan

-Collaborate with cross-functional teams with a focus on strategic priorities – brand, regional marketing, digital marketing, ecomm

-Responsible for Merchandise storytelling, marketing and global concepts

Qualifications:

-7-10 years of experience in a Merchandise/buyer role

-Vertical retail experience required.  Omni channel experience highly desirable.

-Mastery of retail mathematics and Open to Buy

-Proven ability to work with and lead a cross functional team

-Excellent communication skills - interpersonal, written and verbal

-Proven ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously; Self-starter approach to work, with an eagerness to consistently meet and exceed objectives and take on more responsibility

-Entrepreneurship – an ability to make decisions and take calculated risks

-Focus on creating an extraordinary guest experience, organizational and time management skills

-Strong knowledge of MS Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Outlook) and working knowledge of Adobe Illustrator

-Willingness to travel (domestic and international) and work on the retail floor

Must haves:

• Acknowledges the presence of choice in every moment and takes personal responsibility for their life.

• Possesses an entrepreneurial spirit and continuously innovates to achieve great results.

• Communicates with honesty and kindness, and creates the space for others to do the same.

• Leads with courage, knowing the possibility of greatness is bigger than the fear of failure.

• Fosters connection by putting people first and building trusting relationships.

• Integrates fun and joy as a way of being and working, aka doesn’t take themselves too seriously.