Associate Merchant

Office Depot•Boca Raton, FL

18h

About The Position

The Merchant, Associate at The ODP Group works cross-functionally to support strategic category plans, improve profitability, and drive product strategy and innovation. This role develops and maintains pricing strategies in coordination with the strategic pricing team, negotiates with suppliers to secure funding for customer acquisition and retention, and maximizes margin through effective SKU mix, promotional activities, and vendor partnerships. Responsibilities include analyzing product assortments to identify gaps and opportunities, managing the end-to-end product lifecycle including inventory clearance, running and evaluating assortment promotions, and presenting key findings and corrective actions to merchandising leadership. The Merchant, Associate collaborates with pricing and inventory teams to optimize forecasting and promotional effectiveness, stays updated on industry trends and competitors, and tracks key performance indicators. This position requires a comprehensive understanding of retail optimization, digital experience, B2B sales, pricing strategies, and customer segmentation, and has decision-making authority within their assigned scope to drive product success across all channels.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience
Business Administration, Marketing, Merchandising
4 years of experience in Product Selection and Assortment Planning
Vendor and Supplier Negotiation
Market and Consumer Trend Analysis
Pricing Strategy Development
Promotional Planning and Execution
Inventory Management
Sales and Performance Analysis
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Category Management
Retail Operations Understanding
Intermediate PC software skills using Excel, Word and PowerPoint.
Analytical Skills
Negotiation Skills
Financial Acumen
Strategic Thinking
Communication Skills
Project Management
Problem-Solving Skills

Nice To Haves

Initiative
Resilience
Integrity
Curiosity
Passion for Retail
Empathy
Decisiveness
Adaptability
Collaboration
Attention to Detail

Responsibilities

Defines and manages process for running assortment promotions and postmortem against key sales, margin and inventory metrics; incorporates and communicates learnings to leader for assortment, promotion and purchasing decisions
Makes recommendation on a SKU level basis to help with decisions related to SKU additions, promotional activity and aged inventory promotional strategy
Partners with B2B pricing team to maximize margin on bid responses through SKU mix, negotiating vendor funding, and understanding market competition.
Negotiates/collects vendor funding for new customer bids and promotions
Provides product forecasting to the inventory teams to maximize promotional effectiveness. Influences and evaluates inventory health for promotional effectiveness.
Performs competitive price shop to ensure we are market competitive on web, in store and large customer bids. Evaluates and implements corrective action.
Works with Solution Insight team to improve profitability.
Partners with category team members to fulfill category management objectives.
Develops and maintains pricing relationships in good/better/best pricing and private brand vs national brand pricing in coordination with strategic pricing teams.