Category Manager

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Category Manager is responsible for product sourcing, cost negotiating, inventory management, vendor relations, planning product launches, incremental sales and promotional activities.

Duties and Responsibilities

Communication

• Meets with existing and potential vendors to maintain awareness of products, promotions, category performance and growth relative to competitors/industry.
• Communicate professionally, both verbally and in writing to internal and external customers/clients.
• Reduce inventory through successful renegotiations of minimum order quantity.
• Collaborate with A/P to rectify pricing discrepancies between PO and Invoice.
• Field and respond to relevant customer service inquiries and complaints forwarded by the customer service team.

Process Improvement

• Work with vendors to refine current strategies and develop and implement additional strategies to attract and motivate customer purchases, realize maximum profitability, grow market share, and increase customer loyalty.
• Develops strategy to track and monitor performance of products and categories (refining product assortment) including merchandising, buying plans and packaging, pricing, promotions and advertising to ensure continued growth and maximize sales potential.
• Participates in department meetings to develop strategies, trouble shoot and actively pursue innovative items and merchandising ideas.

Project/Task Management

• In consultation with Manager, responsible to develop and issue updates for plan-o-grams while ensuring item assortment and presentation reflects market trends.
• Monitors product mix to ensure timely acquisition of products, appropriate initial orders, suggest changes in purchasing and provide solutions to minimize the impact of backorders.
• Complete various weekly and monthly reports as required.
• Regular monitoring and tracking of vendor performance.
• Prepare regular weekly, monthly and quarterly reports for categories of responsibility.
• Prepare all documentation required for item maintenance and new item introduction.

Detail Oriented

• Reviews and monitors listing and product changes to ensure accurate and timely processing, protect the integrity of all product related data (supplied from vendor), and ensure all administrative requirements are completed and processed as required.

Job Knowledge

• Researches the market, completes financial feasibility, supplier and product selection, sales projections, costing negotiations, pricing recommendations, advertising, and merchandising promotions to successfully develop and deliver category line extensions.
• Source new and existing trends by shopping competition and attending tradeshows to develop and deliver category line extensions.

Teamwork

• Collaborate with Supply Chain and Inventory to minimize out of stock positions.

Education & Skills

• Post-secondary education in Business, Administration and/or related field
• 3 - 5 years' related buying experience in a retail environment
• 3 - 5 years' experience working in a team driven environment with good interpersonal skills
• 3 - 5 years' experience working with organizational, analytical, negotiations, planning, and communication
• 3 - 5 years' experience with problem solving
• 3 - 5 years' experience working under pressure and meeting tight deadline in a standard driven environment
• Intermediate knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite
• Basic experience with Microsoft Navision, an asset