Merchandise Manager, Footwear
michael korsJersey City (NJ)
Merchandise Manager, Footwear
Posted 12 days ago
michael korsJersey City (NJ)
SENIORITY
Manager
About the role
Who You Are:
The Global Merchandise Manager, Women's Footwear, plays a pivotal role in shaping the product vision, assortment strategy, and commercial success of the category. This individual combines a strong product instinct with analytical rigor to identify market opportunities, drive assortment decisions, and deliver consumer-relevant collections that support brand and financial objectives. Working cross-functionally across Merchandising, Design, Product Development, Production, Sales, Planning, and Global Retail teams. The Merchandise Manager will lead the footwear lifecycle from seasonal concept and line planning through market execution. The ideal candidate is a strategic thinker, passionate about product and fashion trends, highly collaborative, and skilled at translating insights into actionable product strategies that drive growth and profitability.
What You’ll Do:
- Product Strategy & Line Planning
- Develop and manage seasonal footwear line plans, ensuring product assortments align with brand vision, consumer needs, and business objectives.
- Build category strategies informed by historical performance, trend analysis, consumer insights, and market opportunities.
- Evaluate regional line plans and partner with global teams to identify assortment opportunities and market-specific needs.
- Identify assortment gaps, white-space opportunities, and key growth drivers to optimize productivity across the footwear portfolio.
- Maintain and evolve assortment architecture, ensuring appropriate breadth, depth, and pricing segmentation across the collection.
Cross-Functional Leadership:
Serve as the primary liaison between Merchandising, Design, Product Development, Technical Design, Production, Sales, Retail, and Planning teams throughout the product lifecycle.
Lead cross-functional alignment meetings, driving decisions on product revisions, development priorities, timelines, and market readiness.
Foster collaboration across teams to ensure product, financial, and operational objectives are achieved.
Communicate seasonal product strategies, line changes, key milestones, and assortment updates to internal and global stakeholders.
Product Development & Execution:
Guide the footwear development process from concept through commercialization, ensuring milestone deliverables are achieved on time and in line with category strategy.
Partner closely with Design and Product Development to refine assortments, evaluate prototypes, and ensure product integrity.
Manage assortment tools, line plans, and product data within Centric PLM, ensuring accuracy and timely updates throughout the development process.
Support go-to-market preparation by ensuring product information, positioning, and assortment strategies are communicated effectively to global partners.
Financial & Pricing Management:
- Own seasonal pricing architecture, balancing brand positioning, consumer value, margin objectives, and competitive market dynamics.
- Partner with Product Development and Production teams to review costing and profitability opportunities throughout the development process.
- Lead pricing reviews and present final assortment, pricing, and margin recommendations to leadership teams.
- Support achievement of category sales, margin, and productivity goals through strategic product and assortment management. You’ll Need to Have: Bachelor’s Degree
- Experience working in a fashion brand
- Minimum of 5+ years’ experience (Women’s Footwear Merchandising preferred)A strong sense of the women’s footwear market across luxury and accessible tiers
- Solid comprehension of the women’s footwear consumer base, including geographical nuance
- The ability to translate analysis into actionable business opportunities
- Strong communication, organization, and analytical skills
- The ability to interact with all levels of management and influence others
- Strong skills in Retail Math, Merchandising/Buying metrics
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office programs – Specifically Excel & Power PointStrong presentation skills, especially visual presentation (Showroom set up)
- The ability to thrive in a fast-paced environmentMK Perks: Generous Paid Time Off & Holiday Calendar
- Summer Fridays
- Internal Mobility Across BrandsCross-brand Discount
- Exclusive Employee SalesFav 5 Cards (MK Discount for friends and family)401k MatchPaid Parental LeaveThrive Wellness Program
- Commuter Benefits
- Gym Discounts
The Company is an equal employment opportunity employer. The Company’s policy is not to unlawfully discriminate against any applicant or employee on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, age, military status, disability, genetic information or any other consideration made unlawful by applicable federal, state, or local laws. The Company also prohibits harassment of applicants and employees based on any of these protected categories. At Capri Holdings Limited, we are committed to providing a fair and accessible recruitment process. If you require a reasonable accommodation for the interview or application process, please contact our Talent Acquisition team at. In compliance with certain Pay Transparency laws, employers are required to disclose a salary range. The salary for this position will vary based on role requirements, skill set and years of experience.
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