Director, Merchandising Strategy

This role is responsible for shaping the holistic Product Strategy across Merchandising, Inventory Planning, and Visual Merchandising culminating in the execution through dedicated Go To Market activities.

• Lead weekly and monthly performance full price analysis across all channels (US, Canada, Central America, South America, Ecommerce), identifying business trends, risks, and opportunities across divisions and typologies.
• Own weekly in-season sell-through tracking by category and collection, monitoring weekly performance against EOS targets.
• Proactively identify underperformance risks and recommendations to protect collection productivity.
• Present forward looking comp planning ahead of Buys for seasonal planning. Summarize exclusive strategy and historicals (Digital, Flagships) and capsules (LNY, Valentines Day, Summer/Holiday Packages) to ensure buy exceeds LY sales plan, capitalizes on market opportunities, and synergy of product distribution across 24 categories.
• Coordinates deployment of GTM in season.
• Develop monthly and weekly sales phasing for Newness typology (4 collections/year: Cruise, Spring/Summer, Prefall, Fall/Winter) in partnership with Business Planning and Retail Performance. Flow monthly targets to store-level ambitions, considering commercial targets, total store investments and planned ST%.
• Lead feedback loop and communication to Retail leadership.
• Monitor performance on a daily and weekly basis, reporting actuals vs. target to leadership while highlighting risks/opportunities and recommended actions to optimize performance.
• Lead weekly omnichannel analysis to evaluate channel performance, identify trends, and assess performance across key business metrics.
• Conduct monthly Order-In-Store (iPad) analysis and share insights with Merchandising and Inventory Planning teams to identify opportunities for stock rebalancing and assortment optimization.

• Lead seasonal price change analysis and regional communication with HQ.
• Build price analysis model for each currency, identifying psychological pricing thresholds and potential commercial risks.
• Partner with Merchandising leadership to evaluate regional pricing exceptions and communicate recommendations to global.
• Own seasonal SKU evolution across categories to ensure assortment productivity, considering sku capacities and budget / location.
• Recommend target SKU counts by department to maintain efficiency and impact.
• Lead SKU count proposals for store projects (openings, renovations, modifications, etc.) in collaboration with Store Planning, Visual Merchandising, and Commercial Leadership, ensuring alignment between assortment strategy, physical space, and business opportunities to provide an optimal client experience.
• Leads full selection and deployment of Light Boxes 8x/year, reviewing assortments by door and OOH media strategy to ensure visual implementation supports key programs and consistent brand messaging.
• Consults with Visual Merchandising on budget management.

Project Management for Executive Deliverables

• Leads Product workstream (across Merchandising & Inventory Planning) and establishes cross-functional owner for executive projects including monthly Business Reviews, quarterly Town Hall/Corporate Gathering presentations, annual Budget analysis and presentation, and annual Store Directors Meeting. Ad hoc content creation for COMEX meeting and Executive visits.
• Represents Merchandising function as a point-person to Channel leaders and Corporate functions on urgent priority requests during Market time frames.
• Synergizes product investment with communications approach – inclusive of 360 campaign launch planning (post-buy), ensuring key investments are…