Assistant Merchandiser - Brands in Knowsley

As an Assistant Merchandiser you will support the Senior Merchandiser in managing our brand partners across various product categories online, helping to deliver new and existing initiatives to achieve our sales and profit plans. You will drive timely and accurate actions to support and deliver planning, product setup, and promotional administration, and work closely with partners to deliver the best product, at the best price, at the right time.

Key Responsibilities

• Day-to-day management of our online brand partners, building strong working relationships with partners and working with the wider brands team to ensure an effective and speedy response and resolution to any queries.
• Attend regular trade and operational meetings, collating and presenting trade and performance information and managing actions on any opportunities or risks/issues identified.
• Manage WSSI, planning and forecasting sales and profit in alignment with partner plans, and building the budget from the bottom up by brand.
• Support the full end-to-end process to set up dropship products online and maintain awareness of the process for concessions in store, supporting suppliers with any issues they may experience, troubleshooting and escalating where required.
• Monitor and manage product availability to ensure full range availability online, utilising systems such as BI, e-commerce reporting, and Mirakl to achieve sales, and communicating potential issues to management to highlight risk and propose mitigating actions.
• Review option productivity, tracking each brand against planned options and ROS to ensure optimum performance and reduce the tail on options where needed, working alongside our brand partners to ensure our offer is relevant and maximising overperforming categories or brands.
• Manage key analytical reporting for the department, such as category analysis and CTD/BTA brand tracking, to ensure we make informed decisions.
• Use our Mirakl platform and use the dashboard to ensure suppliers are meeting delivery SLAs, while monitoring supplier incident and returns rates and managing options.
• Review P&L alongside the Merchandiser to ensure profitability by brand, supporting the investigation of low-profit brands, recommending actions to improve performance, and implementing them where needed.
• Maintain the trading calendar, with promotional activity aligned to the sales plan and successful historic events, as well as company promotions where suitable.
• Take an active role in strategy planning and meetings, demonstrating your understanding of lessons learned and how to move forward.
• Create strong working relationships with key functions across the business, such as E-commerce, Marketing, Retail, Customer Services, and Finance teams, to ensure alignment across Matalan on the end-to-end process.
• Act as a role model for personal growth while supporting and encouraging career development and progression.

To find the best people for our Merchandising teams, we’d like you to have the following:

• Knowledge of dropship or experience of working with external brands is desirable but not essential.
• Ability to think commercially.
• Strong analytical skills.
• Experience of development and coaching.
• Ability to work independently with a proactive mindset.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, with the ability and confidence to communicate at all levels.

In addition to competitive salaries, we also offer the below core benefits:

• 20% staff discount, which increases with length of service.
• Thrive Recognition Scheme.
• Wellbeing support provided by the Retail Trust.
• Life Assurance.
• Retail Rewards platform offering discounts for other retailers.
• Pension Scheme.
• Access to a wide range of career development.
• Additional benefits may apply depending on your role and area of the business.