Merchant - Experienced Graduates (Spring/Summer 2025 Start)

Additional Details:

• This is a Boston based opportunity with a 4 day in office expectation (Monday - Thursday) with 1 day remote (Friday).
• At this time, Wayfair will not sponsor applicants for employment authorization for this position for the following work visas: STEM OPT EAD, H-1B, H-1B1, E-3, O-1, J-1, or TN

As a Merchant, you will develop, execute and drive annual and seasonal assortment strategies for your categories. In this role, you will be responsible for category ownership and product curation, influencing how your category comes to life across all Wayfair marketing channels (catalog, digital, social media, and Physical Retail), ensuring accurate product representation and appropriate shelf placement. As a Merchant you will foster strong cross functional relationships to ensure all strategies and goals are achieved, acting as the representative of the customer in strategic decisions on the cross-functional team. The Merchant will partner with teams across Brand Management, Category Management, Creative, Marketing, Analytics & Operations, and external suppliers to ensure the strategic vision is executed all the way to the customer. Leveraging both data-driven qualitative and quantitative insights, you'll make a direct impact on overall sales, Wayfair share gains, and inspire and empower customers to create a home just right for them.  

What you'll do on any given day as a merchant...

As a Merchant, you will build, curate, and maintain category assortment strategies for our marketing channels, inclusive of developing a shelf space plan and actively selecting and iterating on the product offering (own identifying and filling assortment gaps from strategic supplier catalogs). You will ultimately decide what products should be highlighted and amplified across all marketing channels with crisp business justification to support your selections and in alignment with key stakeholders. You will study the competitive market and collaborate with cross-functional partners in order to shape and solidify the direction for your category and to ensure it is competitive in product and price.  You are the product expert - you know our customer’s needs better than anyone else for your category and are constantly thinking about what tomorrow’s best sellers will be to continue to surprise and delight our target market.

Your success requires tenacity, agility, speed, an analytical mindset, collaboration, influence, and a competitive spirit. You'll use your executive presence to work with and influence stakeholders at all levels and navigate interesting, complex assortment challenges. You will own the performance results though regularly monitoring assortment health though various KPIs and OKRs. 

What You’ll Do 

• Build and maintain category assortment strategies, inclusive of developing a shelf 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 Category Management, Creative, and Brand teams, as well as external suppliers, to determine how best to bring the selection to life in digital, print, and stores.
• Maintain a close pulse on trends and customer needs to identify new assortment opportunities. Find products that deliver compelling newness and have potential to be tomorrow’s best sellers.
• Own the financial outcomes for the performance of the products you placed on the premium shelf spaces. Regularly assess performance and revise assortment and shelf space allocation strategy as needed.  
• Challenge the status quo and always be on the lookout for ways to streamline and improve the efficiency of existing processes while effectively managing multiple stakeholders.
• Support market research opportunities for category growth, utilizing competitive analysis, competitor shopping, and internal performance monitoring as data points.
• Manage sample requests to our retail lab and inspect products for quality control.
• Travel 2-4 times per year to attend industry trade shows relevant to your categories to partner with strategic suppliers, visit Wayfair stores, and competitive shop.

What You’ll Need

Basic Qualifications

• 1-3 years of transferable experience in a corporate environment, including internship and co-op experience.
• Authorization to work in the United States without visa sponsorship by Wayfair now or in the future. 

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience within a retail and/or omni-channel buying role with demonstrated growth trajectory of P&L size and scope of category/team responsibility.
• Ex