Visual Merchandiser (Garden Center Buyer)

Blooming Garden Center Retail Buyer: Merchandising Architect to Drive Growth and Engagement

We are searching for a results-driven individual with an upbeat temperament and a genuine commitment to exceptional customer service. This candidate should possess a keen creative eye for retail merchandising, demonstrating the ability to drive sales through innovative product presentation. The ideal candidate is a proactive planner and coordinator, a strong communicator, and someone who thrives on collaboration with both internal and external stakeholders in a fast-paced environment.

As a Merchandising Coordinator, you will play a pivotal role in delivering an outstanding shopping experience at our Garden Center. Your focus will be on maximizing inventory productivity, optimizing garden center presentation both visually and seasonally, and providing insightful reporting on category performance at the product level to inform strategic decisions that drive sales. You’ll collaborate with both internal teams and external stakeholders, building lasting relationships while bringing fresh ideas to the table. By analyzing inventory performance and trends, you will ensure our displays not only showcase our vibrant offerings but also drive profitability and customer satisfaction.

This is a customer facing role that will primarily work at Colonial Garden’s in Blue Springs, Missouri and will also travel to tradeshows throughout the year with the Retail Manager.

Hourly Rate in lieu of experience: $18.00-$24.00 and hour

About Us:

Colonial Gardens, located in Blue Springs, MO, was added to our brand family in 2016. Founded in 1969, renovations began in 2017 to create an agritourism destination. It is the garden center, reimagined! We offer a greenhouse, nursery, café and coffee shop, event space, and farmer’s market. It’s where plants, food and farms connect. Educational classes promoting local agriculture and sustainability as well as private events are also offered.

Colonial Gardens is part of the DCA Outdoor family of brands. We are vertically integrated and take pride in being an industry leader. We’re not only streamlining the production and distribution of landscape products, but we are also working to reduce the carbon footprint. Through our continued growth and innovation, we will have the highest impact on our world.

Key Responsibilities:

• Buyer/Merchandising – Responsible for merchandise assortment in the Garden Center. Buying to Gross Margin targets, with a focus to know trends, purchase unique product lines that express Colonial Garden’s vision and purpose. Responsible for vendor relationships.
• Visual Merchandising - Maintain the visual merchandising of the Garden Center spaces, including overall appearance, displays, signage, and planograms. This involves cross merchandising within the Garden Center to maximize AOV within other departments.
• Inventory Management– Responsible for managing store inventory levels at the vendor and category level to maximize inventory turns, sell through, and customer satisfaction.
• Sales & Customer Service – Meeting and exceeding sales targets through proper merchandise, seasonality, and visual planning. Focus on exceptional customer service, internally and externally.

Essential Job Duties:

• Develop and execute approved merchandising plans, store layouts and planograms. Ownership over retail product lines, attention at the category, sub-category, and vendor levels.
• Utilize Reports and Sales Analysis to forecast and anticipate product flow, responsible for promotion planning in conjunction with Marketing and store teams
• Build relationships with vendors and negotiate prices, terms and sales agreements
• Decide initial buy quantities, along with replenishment quantities to ensure an optimal stock position, keeping in mind lead-times, vendor issues and shipping delays, along with seasonal builds
• Create the visual aspects of product in signage, display and overall presentation
• Ensure the highest level of customer satisfaction by providing excellent customer service and product knowledge.

Other Duties and Responsibilities:

• Work as a team member with store employees, other managers, and supporting events
• Actively promote our products on the web, by writing blog posts, presenting YouTube videos, Social media posts, and our website.
• Assist with facilitating classes and workshops.
• Follow protocol of inventory including ordering and receiving new products, as well as cycle counts and annual physical counts. • Analyze weekly and monthly sales, stock and on-order with the goal of optimizing sales and minimizing markdowns, aligning promotions and sales for marketing purposes.
• Assist with point of sale in the retail store.
• Assist in opening and closing duties of the store.
• Other duties as assigned.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Must work well under pressure and be able to make decisions quickly.
• Organized and ability to prioritize projects well and in timely manner.
• An inclusive nature with a strong value of teamwork and collaboration
• Excellent communications skills, both verbal and in writing, in person and via phone.
• The capacity to weigh customer needs with value propositions in the store
• Computer skills necessary in MS Office Suite, POS system, planogram optimization and graphic design experience.
• Self-motivated, positive attitude and work ethic

Minimum Qualifications:

• Required: 1-3 years merchandising and buying experience
• Preferred: 3-5 years Customer Service experience
• Preferred: 1-3 years visual merchandising and planogram
• Must be 18 years of age

Benefits you will Enjoy:

• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• Generous 401k match with immediate vesting
• Company paid life insurance, STD, & LTD
• PTO and paid holidays
• Company culture centered around growth and innovation
• Career development & recognition

We honor our core values and expect our employees to as well. They are work hard, take pride in your work, be optimistic and respectful, show commitment, and continually grow.

We invite individuals who think like we do and will position us for major organizational growth to apply today. Join us in revolutionizing the green industry!

All applicants will be required to take the Culture Index survey. If you’d like to be considered faster, please copy and paste the following into your browser to complete the survey now: https://go.apply.ci/s/A550CC0000
Please select the one named, Colonial Gardens - Buyer -Visual Merchandiser.

Salary : $18 - $24