Associate Merchant

Job Description Details

Are you a passionate merchant who wants to join the exciting world of home furniture and décor? Merchandising is the hub for setting the course for our brands’ product and ensures all teams are moving together to deliver a proprietary, curated, compelling and profitable assortment. Working in partnership with our design, planning, sourcing, e-comm and creative team, merchants bridge the strategy and creative direction of their line. The place where Art and Science combine, our merchandising teams possess a blend of analytical ability and creative thinking, drawing from historical date, competitive intelligence, market trends, macro trends and customer intimacy to deliver an assortment that stays true to the brand DNA, and both inspires and exceeds for our customer.

As an Associate Merchant with Frontgate, you will be responsible for supporting both the execution of the creative product development and creation of the growth-driving business strategies and assortment plans for specific categories. You will support in the delivery of sales and profit goals by analyzing performance and sharing result driving insights, while managing daily business operations.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Support the Merchant in development of business strategy of the department and subcategories, based upon a detailed knowledge of the brand, intimate understanding of the customer, and studied analysis of the competition and overall marketplace.
• Develops an understanding of the connection between financial strategies and related merchandise objectives.
• Assist in teaching and training Assistant Merchants.
• Develop a unique, proprietary and focused product assortment that delivers on quality within the brand ethos, excites/inspires and delivers on customer needs while delivering the financial goals for a sub-category or product category. Drives the financial results through partnering with Planning, E-Comm merchants and with support of the Merchant.
• Partners with Design throughout product development process.
• Communicates accurate and up-to-date information regarding product information in a timely manner and supports the Merchant in cross-functional and vendor communication.
• Support the creation of internal presentations to executives and cross-functional teams, from concept brainstorming to drafting documents to preparing meeting materials.
• Analyzes data weekly and shares result driving insights, customer feedback, and merchandising opportunities.
• Support in meeting preparation, sample management, report evaluation and analysis and share their POV and recommendations based on current results, category strategy to mitigate risk and maximize opportunity.
• Become the expert in competitive intelligence – understanding other retailer’s assortments, pricing and promotional strategy for their category.
• Write copy stories to clearly communicate product details that articulate the emotional, technical and functional benefits of the product.
• Deliver timely and accurate data across all applications.
• Clear and accurate vendor communication.
• Build an understanding of retail math, merchandise driven financials and their applications.
• Responsible for knowing, understand and adhering to all corporate calendar meetings or events.
• Manage daily business operations.
• Executes tasks/responsibilities of Assistant Merchant as applicable or as needed.

EXPERIENCE & QUALIFICATIONS:

• 1-3 years merchandising experience with demonstrable success.
• Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing, Merchandising or related field or Associate’s Degree and equivalent experience.
• Ability to manage processes and projects with minimal direction.
• Detail-oriented and organized.
• Shows leadership and problem-solving capabilities.
• Ability to work as a team.
• Ability to function in a fast-paced, ever-changing environment.
• Excellent phone, verbal and written communications skills.
• Proficient in Word, Excel, Outlook and Internet Explorer.
• Ability to push, pull, and lift a minimum of 25lbs

About Cornerstone Brands

Cornerstone is comprised of four interactive, aspirational home and apparel lifestyle brands: Ballard Designs, Frontgate, Grandin Road, and Garnet Hill. Cornerstone operates separate ecommerce sites for all the brands, distributes more than 265 million catalogs annually, and has 16 retail and outlet stores. The Cornerstone brands are part of Qurate Retail, Inc. (NASDAQ: QRTEA, QRTEB), which includes QVC, HSN, zulily and the Cornerstone brands (collectively, “Qurate Retail Group”), as well as other minority investments. Qurate Retail Group believes in a third way to shop - beyond transactional ecommerce or traditional brick-and-mortar stores - and is #1 in video commerce, #3 in ecommerce in North America and #3 in mobile commerce in the U.S. (according to Internet Retailer). For more information, visit www.qurateretailgroup.com .

EEO

As an equal opportunity employer, Qurate Retail Group is committed to a diverse workforce and is also committed to a barrier-free employment process. In order to ensure reasonable accommodations for individuals pursuant to applicable law, individuals that require accommodation in the job application process for a posted position may contact us at CareersUS@QVC.com for assistance.