Department Manager - Category Management

The Job

The principal function of the Department Manager – Category Management is to lead, motivate, oversee and direct the development of consumer centric, localized, highly productive retail assortments that drive category growth, profitability, and customer satisfaction.

The Category Management process determines and analyzes Ace’s most successful retailers in conjunction with consumer research and industry trends to develop fact-based programs, which focuses on product selection, product/category placement, while partnering with other cross functional teams to optimize category growth and planogram development. The Department Manager is responsible for leading and developing the team of analysts that drive both analytical and space planning functions of assortment review and selection. This individual will be relied on to drive strategic initiatives, improve efficiencies and processes, and above all improve the profitability of planograms through retailer acceptance of our recommended assortments.

What you’ll do

Category Management

• Integrate with Merchandising to influence the category review and strategic planning process- developing end-to-end strategies for assortments
• Support Merchant team with category performance analytics, consumer insights, key trends and root cause; communicate effectively across all levels of Ace – Officer down to Retailer 
• Partner with Merchandising and Field leadership to define and manage to corporate and retailer performance targets of key category metrics and improved Discovery Acceptance 
• Develop critical retail execution plans for updated assortments and strategic plans with specific implementation guidance for New Stores, Remodels and Mult-Store chains

Macro & Micro Assortment Analytics & Space Management 

• Build, maintain and grow strategic and analytically driven approach to space optimization, including profitability analysis, competitive analysis, retail positioning, & inventory position
• Create locally relevant planograms, utilizing clustering and customer segmentation to identify regional, demographic or niche assortment opportunities
• Develop strategic approach to macro assortment strategies, including reduction of unproductive Discovery inventory across all categories
• Own, manage and communicate all assortment and space planning strategies, systems and processes 

Cross-functional Relationships

• Partner with the visual team (fixtures, décor and signage) to deliver retail ready planograms that maximize use of space yet remain shoppable for the consumer
• In conjunction with Merchandising manage the yearly Category Review schedule and process and determine category review candidates
• Work with analyst teams to ensure category, strategy, goals and KPIs are met and that we are considering all cluster/regional opportunities
• Partner with vendors to gain industry knowledge and access to customer data
• Connect cross-functionally to get analysts access to all relevant data points required for analysis
• The development and implementation of our programs requires buy in, support and substantial teamwork between numerous departments; including IT, Retail Dev, Store Systems and Ops, Marketing, Merchandising, Order Entry, Inventory, Distribution and Credit.  A considerable amount of communication, networking and understanding is necessary.  A consistent appeal to the mission and vision of the company and group is required to impede department barriers

Consumer Trends/Merchandising Trends/Techniques

• Leverage internal and external data sources, including rich Ace Rewards customer data, to identify emerging consumer trends and opportunities within various customer segments
• Study competitors & industry best practices to stay on top of trending merchandising techniques and visual merchandising opportunities
• Work closely with the Store Environment team to identify space saving fixtures/alternatives to improve linear foot productivity

Convention Readiness

• Ace has two Retailer conventions every year and the planning and execution of the Discovery Edge Booth will require considerable leadership and involvement from the Department Manager
• The coordination of show efforts is a shared responsibility, but the Department Manager will play a key role in the planning, space allocation and launch of the assortments in the Discovery Edge booth
• Lead the development of tools to execute and market all planogram rese