Assistant Merchandiser - Beauty

Location: Avonmouth, Bristol (Hybrid - 2-3 days in office)

Contract: Permanent

Salary: Competitive + bonus + benefits

Are you an experienced Assistant Merchandiser or an ambitious Merchandising Assistant ready for the next step? Do you enjoy turning data into commercial action, influencing trading decisions, and working with some of the world's most recognised beauty, skincare, fragrance and cosmetics brands?

At Harding+, we’re looking for two Assistant Merchandisers to join our Beauty team. These opportunities offer the chance to work at the heart of a fast-paced international retail business, helping to drive sales, maximise availability and optimise stock performance across our global cruise retail network.

Harding+ is the world’s only dedicated cruise retailer, operating retail environments across leading cruise lines worldwide.

Working alongside Buyers, Merchandisers and supplier partners, you’ll help deliver exceptional retail performance across a portfolio of premium beauty, skincare, fragrance and cosmetics brands. This is an opportunity to join a highly visible category where your analysis, recommendations and decision‑making will directly influence commercial performance.

As Assistant Merchandiser, you will support the Buying and Merchandising teams through forecasting, stock management, trade analysis and inventory planning. You will play a key role in balancing product availability, stock investment and commercial performance across a fast‑paced beauty category.

You will support the management of WSSI plans and Open to Buy (OTB) processes, helping to ensure the right products are available at the right time whilst identifying opportunities to maximise sales and profitability.

Working closely with Buyers, Merchandising Assistants, Operations teams, Warehouse teams and supplier partners, you will contribute to forecasting, seasonal planning, stock flow decisions and promotional activity. Building strong supplier relationships will also form an important part of the role.

You will analyse weekly sales, stock, margin and markdown performance, using data and commercial insight to identify risks, opportunities and areas for improvement. We are looking for someone who can move beyond reporting and proactively contribute to trading decisions and category performance.

The Beauty team operates in a highly collaborative environment, requiring strong communication skills, relationship‑building capability and the confidence to work closely with a range of stakeholders.

Harding+ operates across multiple cruise lines, supplier partners and highly seasonal trading cycles, creating a retail environment unlike traditional high street businesses.

As part of the Beauty team, you’ll gain exposure to globally recognised brands whilst working closely with Buying teams, supplier partners and key stakeholders. The role offers the opportunity to broaden your commercial understanding, strengthen your planning capability and gain valuable international retail experience.

You may already be an Assistant Merchandiser, or you may be a highly capable Merchandising Assistant ready to step into an Assistant Merchandiser role. You will already have experience supporting forecasting, stock planning, trade reporting and inventory management within a retail environment and be confident working with large volumes of trading data.

This role is best suited to candidates who already have practical experience of merchandising processes and are comfortable operating within a commercially focused retail environment.

You will have a strong understanding of WSSI, Open to Buy (OTB), forecasting, promotions, markdowns and sales, stock and margin analysis. Strong Excel capability is essential, including experience using Pivot Tables, XLOOKUP/VLOOKUP and data analysis tools to interpret performance and support decision‑making.

Experience with in beauty, cosmetics, fragrance, skincare or a related retail environment would be…