Head of Category

Responsibilities

• End to end responsibility of Category commercial performance
• Owner of all customer and commercial KPIs
• Lead Monday trade reporting meeting with category team on all key metrics
• Report to Category Director and other senior management team on category KPIs

Budget, Forecast Development & Reporting

• Develop annual budget + targets for category KPIs
• Deliver intermittent re-forecasts as required for business purposes
• Cascade KPIs and targets (including re-forecasts) to category team

Product Assortment Development

• Responsible for commercial performance of product portfolio
• Oversight of Buyers to ensure product assortment is delivering maximum customer and commercial output
• Identify new trends, brands, products, and range gaps; work with brand partners & identify new brands to bring newness in to address.
• Execute Market Week with all brands to review performance and product pipeline
• Ensure all ongoing brands in portfolio have a joint business plan in place including customer, sales, and margin targets and two-way support plans
• Manage underperforming brands and products through range actions, stock initiatives, marketing initiatives, or e-commerce / store led initiatives
• Develop strategic brand relationships, securing incremental support and investment

Customer Journey

• Oversight of Category Co-Ordinator within category team to ensure they continuously deliver improvements of the onsite customer journey
• Analyse and optimise customer journey within category pages and PDPs
• Identify opportunities for improvements (assets, navigation, descriptions, placements) within owned category pages; this includes but is not limited to PDPs, PLPs, customer navigation, home page placements, or other landing pages
• Ensure new product launches, brand launches, or other collection / landing pages are developed, merchandised, tested and launched accurately and on time
• Develop and report on brand commercial performance during Market Week to identify asks for further improvement (e.g. assets, samples, offers)
• Collaborate with digital marketing, content, and technology departments to identify these opportunities and execute tests and/or site improvements

Weekly OTB Sign Off

• Review department WSSIs weekly with category Merchandiser including all metrics
• Review OTB weekly to ensure intake flow into the business is in line with target

Stock efficiency & Stock Health Management

• Oversight of category Merchandiser to ensure stock is managed efficiently and effectively to deliver a positive customer experience within the stock investment targets
• Ensure category stock ownership is in line with target
• Identify availability challenges and risks and develop solutions to improve availability – by brand, by channel, by SKU grade
• Identify areas of overstock or excess within each channel and develop strategies to move or exit underperforming stock
• Work with stores, warehouse, finance to execute stock initiatives
• Partner with e-commerce team to identify quick win actions to impact stock health
• Execute audits with brands to review stock performance and identify asks and targets
• Report on supplier compliance and lead claims process

Marketing, Promotional Planning & Reporting

• Create single category view of product and brand pipeline post Market Week – collaborating with category team and prioritising commercial and customer metrics
• Pitch A-launch priorities to Category Director, Chief Commercial Officer and Chief Marketing Officer in 2x per year pitch process for marketing prioritisation
• Collaborate with Marketing department to develop business Trading / Marketing Calendar including promotional and marketing plans
• Create briefs required for any category-led initiatives to inform total business
• Measure and report on performance of category-led initiatives

Margin Management

• Monitor and report weekly on Intake Margin, Discount Spend, Trading Margin
• Continuously identify opportunities for margin enhancement – buy in negotiations; marketing or promotional income; cost savings initiatives; assortment mix optimisation

Internal Leadership & Stakeholder Management

• Ensure all key category initiatives are proactively communicated to other key departments
• Partner with other departments to deliver on their objectives as needed
• Proactively identify opportunities for business improvement
• Actively participate in wider Heads of group sessions such as away days, monthly stand ups, period review

Team Development

• Establish team culture which is entrepreneurial and action-oriented supported by analytics
• Establish clear KPIs and objectives for each member of the team
• Ensure clear development plans are in place for each individual
• Hold regular development meetings with direct reports; ensure all team members are receiving regular development feedback
• Strong leadership capability and ability to strategically direct for your area and cascade business objectives through the team and wider business
• Strong commercial acumen – comfortable with analysing data, identifying patterns, and brainstorming solutions
• Strong people skills with a focus and drive to build strong relationships both internally and externally
• Proactive, entrepreneurial, self-starter who can identify opportunities and think end-to-end on delivery
• Comfortable with ambiguity and openness to change; will step into a role to help change and drive new ways of thinking and new processes
• Actively seeks feedback from peers, managers, and team to improve operating model and experience and culture for everyone involved
• Team Builder Development and Leadership
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office including Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook

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