Assistant Merchandiser

London, England, United Kingdom

12/2/2024

The IWM Retail and Admissions Department sources and develops products for all branches of the IWM family, playing a vital role in generating profit for the organisation.

Reporting to the Merchandising Manager, the Assistant Merchandiser helps the Retail department to meet its financial targets by ensuring that each branch has sufficient stock to maximise sales. A key part of the role is to accurately send and record all purchase orders for gift and printed product, and to ensure they are delivered at the correct time in the correct quantity. Once an order has arrived at IWM’s Distribution Centre, the Assistant Merchandiser is responsible for transferring the stock to IWM’s branches and for generating sales reports, analysis, and assisting in the implementation of promotions as required.

The Assistant Merchandiser is also responsible for several key administrative duties within the department. This includes setting up new products and updating existing information and ensuring the stock file for each branch is correct. To assist in resolving stock discrepancies, the Assistant Merchandiser is responsible for compiling the results of weekly stock-checks and making appropriate adjustments on the EPOS system as required.

Stock Management

• Assisting the Merchandising Manager in ensuring that all shops, Ecommerce and Trade Sales are adequately stocked with the correct merchandise at all
• Organising weekly stock transfers between the Distribution Centre and IWM’s five shops to ensure that stock levels meet demand, factoring in peak and off-peak trading periods, special events, and exhibitions.
• Organising ad-hoc transfers of stock between the branches and Distribution Centre to meet customer demand and resolve any over/under stock
• Managing weekly stock checks and making appropriate stock adjustments on the EPOS
• Assisting with the bi-annual stocktake.
• Managing the return of faulty stock to suppliers and ensuring that credit notes are received, recorded, and processed in a timely
• Assisting the Merchandising Manager in implementing and monitoring mark downs and promotions.
• Assisting the Merchandising Manager in assessing faulty stock and write Processing approved write offs on the EPOS system and accurately updating the write off report when required.
  
  

Ordering

• Raising and sending purchase orders for all gift and printed product, and on some occasions book stock, within agreed authorisation limits.
• Ensuring that stock is delivered at the right time and in the right way to maximise sales and minimise costs.
• Maintaining an accurate delivery schedule, liaising with key contacts to resolve any supply chain issues, and ensuring timely
• Managing the ‘IWM Merchandising Spreadsheet’, ensuring information g. costs, pack sizes, and minimum order quantities, is kept up to date.
• Providing an accurate record of the cost of purchase orders sent on a monthly basis to feed into the retail ‘Open to Buy’ report.
  
  

Analysis

• Be proactive in providing data to highlight successes, opportunities, and issues to the Merchandising
• Preparing analysis reports to participate in departmental meetings and presentations when required.
• Reviewing the pricing structure on a regular basis, benchmarking externally and making recommendations to the Buying and Merchandising
• Updating royalty payment analysis records and arrange purchase orders to be raised and sent accordingly.
• Assisting the Merchandising Manager in monitoring the performance of seasonal and temporary exhibition
• Updating branch layouts and planograms with the Merchandising Manager, Operations Manager, and Buying team to ensure the accurate planning of ranges according to space available.
  
  

Communication

• Developing and maintaining strong relationships with suppliers, the central Retail team, branch managers, Distribution Centre and Ecommerce. This involves daily communication via meetings, email, and telephone.
• Participating in departmental and supplier presentations as and when
• Collating and issuing a weekly “Actions and Info” report, to provide branches with relevant information e.g. out of stock products, price
• Work with Trade Sales Manager to update Wholesale customers on the status of their orders, ensuring any out of stock of stock issues are communicated in a timely fashion.
  
  

General

• Ensuring the accurate input and maintenance of information entered into the EPOS system and any departmental documents. Resolving any anomalies as they
• Working closely with the Trade Sales and Ecommerce team to ensure stock availability.
• Where appropriate, attending trade shows and comparative shopping trips with buyers to build supplier relationships and extend product
• Taking on other related duties as and when reasonably required by the Merchandising Manager and Head of Department.
  
  

For a full person specification which your application will be scored against, please see the attached job description.