Perigold Category Merchant Manager
We are seeking a General Merchandise Manager (GMM) to help drive Perigold’s physical retail agenda. The Perigold brand offers a unique opportunity to drive strategy for Wayfair’s newest brand, targeting the luxury home market. We are focused on providing an unparalleled assortment of luxury home goods through an elevated omnichannel shopping experience for our customers. We believe there is a white space in the brick-and-mortar market and an opportunity to create a differentiated retail experience that showcases the breadth and depth of our online catalog. The Head Merchant will play a key role in the overall Physical Retail merchandising team that will help craft and execute Perigold’s strategy as we stand up and scale stores across North America.
The Head Merchant will set the merchandise direction and strategy for the furniture categories, a high visibility, high revenue category that is central to the overall business goals and brand expression of the Wayfair store. As the category expert, (s)he will be responsible for owning the category vision and execution, from conceptualizing the overall strategy, defining product assortments and in-store presentation, and regularly analyzing and optimizing the offering in the categories they manage as well as those managed by their direct reports. The successful candidate will balance an understanding of Perigold’s customer, market, and business with elevated creative and trend leadership, agile strategic thinking, and a bias to action in order to drive success in a highly entrepreneurial environment.
This role reports to the Chief Merchant of Perigold’s Physical Retail team and will have significant cross-functional responsibility and exposure to leaders across Perigold and Wayfair. As Perigold’s physical retail portfolio grows, the GMM should expect to oversee their categories across an increasing fleet of stores. This role offers exciting potential for accelerated professional career growth and ability to make an outsized impact in a fast growing part of the company.
What You’ll Do
- Set category strategy for how to bring our brand pillars to life in a physical retail environment
- Build and maintain category assortment strategies, inclusive of developing a space plan and actively selecting, developing and iterating on the product offering
- Identify opportunities for category growth, utilizing competitive analysis, trend research, and internal performance monitoring as data points
- Partner closely with broader physical retail merchandising team to bring compelling vignettes to life in store across multiple categories within and outside your direct purview
- Partner closely with Visual Merchandising, Creative, and Store Operations to establish department layouts, select fixtures, and bring selection to life in the store
- Partner closely with Planning & Allocation and Supply Chain leadership to accurately forecast SKU performance, monitor replenishment, and ensure inventory needs are met
- Maintain a close pulse on trends and customer needs to identify new assortment opportunities. Partner with vendors on line reviews to find products that deliver compelling newness
- Own the financial outcomes for the performance of the furniture categories in the Perigold physical retail store. Regularly assess performance and revise assortment and space allocation strategy as needed
- Hire, manage, and develop team of direct report(s) who will support category ownership
Who You Are
- 7+ years of experience within a retail brick and mortar and/or omni-channel buying role with demonstrated growth trajectory of P&L size and scope of category/team responsibility
- Experience buying furniture categories, curating assortments from a wide range of vendors and classifications, and developing compelling in-store presentations are all highly preferred.
- 3+ years of experience managing people
- Strong ability to analyze data and think critically about the business, understand and interpret performance trends, and apply learnings to the business
- Strong creative sense, elevated taste level, and love of product. A genuine passion for industry trends, product design, and home decorating is a plus.
- Excellent communication/persuasion skills and ability to influence internal and external stakeholders to align behind and execute against a common goal
- Capable of thriving in a high-growth environment in which defining clarity amidst ambiguity and operating in “scrappy start-up building mode” are everyday activities. Demonstrated experience piloting and implementing new processes and hiring/staffing new teams are a plus.
- Self-starter motivated by the potential to define a creative and strategic vision and have an outsized impact within a team and company
- Ability to work from Wayfair’s Boston headquarters 4 days per week (remote 1 day a week), with occasional additional travel for competitor diligence, trade shows, vendor meetings, and/or store visits
Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities
Wayfair is fully committed to providing equal opportunities for all individuals, including individuals with disabilities. As part of this commitment, Wayfair will make reasonable accommodations to the known physical or mental limitations of qualified individuals with disabilities, unless doing so would impose an undue hardship on business operations. If you require a reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, please let us know by completing our Accomodations for Applicants form.
Need Assistance?
For more information about applying for a career at Wayfair, visit our FAQ page here.About Wayfair Inc.Wayfair is one of the world’s largest online destinations for the home. Whether you work in our global headquarters in Boston or Berlin, or in our warehouses or offices throughout the world, we’re reinventing the way people shop for their homes. Through our commitment to industry-leading technology and creative problem-solving, we are confident that Wayfair will be home to the most rewarding work of your career. If you’re looking for rapid growth, constant learning, and dynamic challenges, then you’ll find that amazing career opportunities are knocking.
No matter who you are, Wayfair is a place you can call home. We’re a community of innovators, risk-takers, and trailblazers who celebrate our differences, and know that our unique perspectives make us stronger, smarter, and well-positioned for success. We value and rely on the collective voices of our employees, customers, community, and suppliers to help guide us as we build a better Wayfair – and world – for all. Every voice, every perspective matters. That’s why we’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship status, marital status, disability, gender identity, gender expression, veteran status, genetic information, or any other legally protected characteristic.
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