The Atlanta Retailers Association is now hiring an experienced Convenience Store Category Manager. The ideal candidate will have 3-5 years of experience in convenience retail marketing/operations and/or 2-3 years of proven buying experience in the convenience retail industry. Experience in the convenience retail industry is a must.
Job DescriptionProvides insights and recommendations to optimize new product introductions, distribution, shelving, price, and promotional mix by analyzing marketing and customer data. Analyzes and assesses category/brand performance to develop enhanced marketing and sales plans and promotions. This position helps in building vendor alliances and programs that can be expected to build long-term profitability. The Category Manager’s primary responsibilities include.Responsibilities

• Utilize data to Identify business trends, competitive market activity, shopper trends and product performance.
• Collaborate with multiple stakeholders to track performance of business objectives (shelf performance, product effectiveness, retailer initiatives)
• Build, update and refresh weekly and monthly dashboards (weekly POS monthly category recaps)
• Provide ad hoc support as needed.
• As a category analyst you will play a critical role in supporting the team and building a strong partnership with our customer(s)
• You will conduct high quality analysis and synthesis of multi-source data to evaluate item performance, assortment planning and store clustering, while leveraging effective communication & influencing to orchestrate action.
• You are responsible for negotiating contracts, agreements, and terms of engagements with the suppliers. This includes discussing pricing, payment terms, delivery schedules, quality standards, and any other relevant terms beneficial to the association and its members.
• You work to secure the best possible prices for the products and services by analyzing pricing structures, identifying cost saving opportunities, and negotiating bulk discounts or volume incentives.
• Maintaining positive relationships with vendors is crucial, working closely with the vendors to understand their offerings, capabilities, and limitations, to establish open lines of communication to address concerns and facilitate transactions.
• Addressing issues related to delivery schedules, quality control, and complaints. Review and manage the terms and conditions of contracts, ensuring that they align with the guidelines laid by the current Board of Directors.
• To stay informed about the market trends, competitors’ pricing, and industry benchmarks, thereby negotiating more effectively by understanding the competitive landscape.
• Collaborating with various internal teams such as Territory Development Managers (TDM), Finance, and Legal, to gather information, align on requirements, to ensure contract compliance.
• To monitor contract expiration and or modifications. To re-negotiate the terms taking into consideration changes in the market conditions and the evolving needs of the C-store industries. To analyze data related to procurement activities, supplier’s performance and market trends for negotiation strategies.
• Participate in the development of category presentations incorporating syndicated data and other sources of data that address business issues.
• Work closely with the marketing & promotions team to ensure sales and gross profit budgets are exceeded.
• Keep abreast of customer(s) KPIs, strategies, and other important information.
• Develop marketing recommendations based on quantitative analysis and forecasting.
• Data mining, product level sales reporting, margin projection, market basket analysis, trend analysis, category forecasting, market benchmarking, and promotional analysis.
• Ensure effective communication and recapping of all programs for key stakeholders including field sales teams and key distributor personnel.

Requirements

• 3-5 years of experience in retail marketing/operations and/or 2-3 years of proven buying experience in the convenience retail industry.
• BS/BA Degree in Marketing, Business, or related field.
• Robust and proven experience with Negotiation of Contracts
• Vendor Management experience
• Complex, longer-term strategic business planning experience required.
• Retail account management and retail marketing preferred.
• Experience with category development / management
• Ability to effectively influence key stakeholders to deliver business results.
• Exposure to distributor management or multi-tier distribution network preferred.
• Strong data and technical skills to include scan data, space management software, consumer demographic data, and
• Microsoft Office products (Excel, Access, Word, PowerPoint).
• Strong analytical and information processing ability with the ability to extract business intelligence from data sources.