Senior Manager Buying EMC

This role is critical to supporting the profitability of EMC DTC by focusing on assortment planning and forecasting, in-season trading, maximising profit through agile, data-driven decision-making and overall category strategy for DTC channels. It contributes to the execution of the buying strategy by leveraging comprehensive views of marketplace trends and trading performance, with quick action to capitalise on opportunities and drive revenue and margin improvement across the EMC DTC business, including Retail, ecom and Franchise. The role sits within Merchandising & Planning and works with partners including Planning, Operations, Brand, Finance, Supply Chain, Franchise sales, and EM Hub Merchandising, Ecom and Franchise teams.

• Drive overall buying strategy and execution for DTC, meeting KPIs including net sales, margin, range efficiency, productivity and range overlap.
• Drive compelling Performance category range/concept selection for each market by balancing brand and commercial considerations and supporting overall business strategy.
• Contribute to pre-season planning, including OTB, product, option and ranging plans, and create buying forecasts based on the OTB and assortment plan consistent with marketing strategy and historical data.
• Drive Country Range enhancements through assortment planning that reflects localisation and differentiation in the DTC marketplace, and analyse sell-through performance to contribute to strategic planning.
• Ensure product availability with supply chain, develop action plans to mitigate risks, and create a seasonal/phasing framework aligned to consumer consumption peaks and category launch requirements.
• Monitor evolving consumer behaviour and preferences, leverage marketplace trends and customer feedback to tailor trading actions and improve the shopping experience, and identify market opportunities to capture unmet consumer demand, improving customer satisfaction and market share.
• Identify improvements to ways of working, systems and tools to streamline trading and inventory management, and build scalable foundations for future growth through best practice and innovation.
• Plan the brand and commercial calendar in line with consumer and market trends, and work with Planning, Finance, Demand planning, SCM and operations teams to align trading actions with broader business strategies.
• Establish and monitor KPIs for trading and inventory actions, providing actionable insights and regular updates to stakeholders to ensure alignment and transparency.
• Lead and manage a diverse team, evaluating competencies and providing prompt feedback and guidance to drive high performance, taking ownership of talent management processes to grow, develop and retain talent and build a solid succession pipeline
• Promote a high-performance culture by setting clear expectations and individual goals, translating company goals into team-specific actions and business plans, and controlling and monitoring performance and results.

• University degree in business, finance or merchandising.
• 10–12 years of merchandising experience.
• 5 years of management experience.
• High degree of commercial and business acumen.
• Strong time-management, planning and organisational skills.
• Ability to multi-task in a dynamic environment and challenge the status quo.
• Leadership and influencing skills.
• Advanced user of the MS Office suite of products.
• Fluent in English.
• Advanced knowledge of retail management systems.
• Strong analytical skills.
• Structured, organised and process-orientated.
• Attention to detail, as errors in analysis can have a crucial impact on the business.
• Ability to work effectively within a team environment and under pressure.

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