Vice President, Retail

The Vice President, Retail plays a crucial role in shaping the company's North America retail strategy, driving growth, and ensuring that the organization's commercial operations are aligned with its overall business objectives. This is a hybrid role; we work on site 4 days and remotely 1 day weekly.

Responsibilities:

• This candidate should be an engaging leader who develops the leadership abilities of retail leaders through a combination of goal setting, delegation, training, coaching, and mentoring.
• Oversee and provide strategic leadership to a team of retail managers, directors, and other team members.
• Provide thought leadership that creates a seamless brand experience across retail, leveraging shared functions between the channels and creating a high-performing, collaborative, and customer-focused culture within the organization.
• Inspire team to meet business objectives and goals including sales volume, merchandise planning, profitability, customer service/client engagement and brand image.
• Create strong leaders via coaching, training and development and recruitment, create retention and career path strategies for the team.
• Demonstrate passion for product and people, develop talent and have actionable succession plans.
• Model great communication, relationship building and leadership skills and will ensure team is engaged, connecting with the customer and delivering results.
• Coordinate with all business partners and allocate resources to drive business and meet goals.
• Evolve productivity through best practices and continuous learning.
• Partner with HR to conduct semi-annual manpower meetings.

Driving Performance:

• Develop and implement a comprehensive retail strategy to drive sales, profitability, and growth. This includes identifying market trends, consumer preferences, and competitive dynamics.
• Ensure team has tools and can make decisions to drive their business.
• Work collaboratively with cross-functional partners to drive consistent brand development and distribution strategy.
• Ensure creative and effective execution of corporate merchandising and marketing strategy.
• Continue to evolve the effectiveness of visual merchandising and marketing strategy.
• Manage the retail budgets and ensure financial goals are met. This may include setting sales targets, monitoring expenses, and optimizing cost-efficiency.
• Support financial planning of capex and expense budgets related to real estate activities.
• Ensure the smooth operation of retail stores, including inventory management, visual merchandising, staffing, and customer service. Implement best practices to enhance the customer experience.
• Work with product planning and merchandising teams to ensure product assortment and inventory that meets the needs of target customers and sales goals.
• Prioritize an excellent customer experience by implementing policies and strategies that enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Collaborate with e-commerce and IT teams to ensure online and offline retail channels offer a seamless shopping experience.
• Identify opportunities for retail expansion, whether through new store openings or remodels.
• Lead training team to ensure brand messaging, vision and best in class customer experience are incorporated into employee training initiatives.

Operations:

• Drive operational excellence through leadership and thoughtful decision making.
• Lead team to develop and implement long-range operational strategies.
• Stay informed about market trends, consumer behavior, and competition. Use data and insights to make informed decisions and adjust strategies as needed.
• Ensure that all operations comply with relevant laws and regulations, such as labor laws, safety standards, and licensing requirements.
• Develop and track key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of business. Regularly report to the executive team and board of directors on progress and results.

Qualifications:

• Strategic Vision: Strong strategic thinker with the ability to develop and execute a long-term retail strategy. Maintains a cross functional approach to running the business.
• Leadership Skills: Excellent leadership and team management skills, with the ability to inspire and motivate teams. Thrives in a collaborative, hands on environment.
• Integrity: Demonstrates a high degree of integrity and trust.
• Financial Acumen: Strong financial management skills, including budgeting, forecasting, and cost control. Strong analytical skills in retail, real estate, finance and feasibility proformas preferred.