POSITION SUMMARY:

Responsible for merchandising activities coordination for Calvin Klein Brand

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES/ACCOUNTABILITIES OF THE JOB:

- To manage purchases, inventory and delivery status of merchandising for Calvin Klein apparel and accessories categories

- Coordinate with shops, warehouse and planning/allocation team for stock replenishment and arrange transfers

- To prepare various reports and to analyze merchandise performance

- Preparing product training materials and provide product training to store staffs and sales team

- Coordinate the preparation of all materials related to new collections, including price list preparation and maintenance and various analysis. Additionally, arrange immediate manager review of the collection prior to Market Week

- Coordinate the preparation of the presentation package materials for each market week

- Coordinate activities related to price lists before and after market week. Maintain up to date records regarding all changes and keep related parties informed

- Assist in the preparation of the seasonal merchandising plans

- Have a deep understanding of our consumers, products, brand values, current trends and upcoming trends. Consolidate all of those to define personal POV on how Calvin Klein women's merchandising should be, and input/propose to MD Director.

- Support the MD Director to consolidate local needs and create briefs for the regional design team so they can develop products that support specific local needs which can't be covered by the global range.

- Liaise with and follow up in-season issues with distributors and affiliated officers

- Drives continuous improvement of Merchandising systems and processes (sales and sell-through analysis; OTB management; sales modeling and forecasting; hindsight studies; style and size analysis; competitive/market intelligence; pricing research) to optimize the business.

- Ensure the financial success of the product group by meeting or exceeding sales, gross profit and inventory turn goals on an annual basis.

- Manage the preparation of the seasonal merchandising plans

- Build allocation strategies within the team and support the team to coordinate timing of initial allocation

- To meet merchandising KPI by collaborating with related divisions.

- Interaction with APAC merchandising team regarding women's merchandising.

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INTERNAL & EXTERNAL CONTACTS:

Internal: Merchandising (JPN & APAC), Planning/Allocation, Marketing, Direct retail, Wholesale, E-COM, VMD, Supply Chain and shared service departments

External: Supply chain partners, Distributors buyer

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PRODUCT

- Partners with Merchandising Director in developing product vision, strategies and assortment plans for the Japanese market.

- Directs and manages product assortment by developing plans for Calvin Klein using analytical data such as trends, sell-through and consumer insights.

- Identifies potential gaps in the line plan, make recommendations for improving the assortment for the market

- Acts as the cross-functional team lead working in close collaboration with Go-To-Market functions (Marketing, VMD) to ensure orchestration of integrated product launches, seasonal campaigns and other brand/sales initiatives

- Assist the team members of merchandising and coordinate providing core and seasonal product knowledge support to Retail Operations and Commercial Team to drive sales and service, and generate excitement within our retail channels.

- Coordinate quality issues, support immediate action to be taken.

TEAMWORK:

- Builds good working relationships; collaborates toward deadlines and deliverables.

- Able to communicate effectively across the team and organization; effectively works at long distances.

- Collaborative and supportive with ability to work across functions and in concert with region and global counterparts

ORGANIZING:

- Works according to defined schedules and deadlines;

- Takes direction well and able to work with high accountability

- Manages own work and tracks progress.

- Seeks out resources to get things done

- Able to multi-task and adapt to changing priorities

- Self-initiative, good interpersonal skills and able to work independently

- Strong focus on speed. Works with sense of urgency.

LEADERSHIP

- Lead and communicate effectively with a team of merchandising at varying levels; responsible for team building, coaching, and training.

- Build a high performing team through development of talent; create individual and team goals based on performance metrics; monitor performance and give clear and frequent feedback.

- Anticipate and plan for future business/organizational needs.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE:

- At least 3 years experiences in merchandising or buying

- Technical knowledge, experiences in Jeans and Accessories industry

- Solid understanding of retail buying and the product creation process

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES:

- Intense interest and passion in fashion branding / retailing

- Creative, visionary and able to clearly articulate product point of view

- Strong analytical, interpersonal, and communication skills

- Strong at numbers

- Proficient in MS Office (Excel/Word/PowerPoint)

- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills

- Strong commercial sense and knowledge of consumer/fashion trends

- Able to travel at least 10 to 15% of the time

- Fluency in Japanese and business level of English