Category Advisor - Toys

ZURU•Rogers, AR

9h•Onsite

About The Position

ZURU Toys has been appointed Category Advisor to Walmart US for three toy categories: Exploratory, Plush and Blasters. As our dedicated Category Advisor, you will work side by side with Walmart’s toy buying, merchandising and planning teams in Bentonville as their trusted, category-first partner, shaping assortment, space and shopper strategy for the whole category rather than just ZURU’s brands. You will turn Walmart, POS and syndicated data into clear recommendations for line reviews, modular resets and seasonal plans, and help grow all three categories in stores and on Walmart.com. A category advisorship is won on objectivity and insight, and you will be the person who keeps it. Walmart’s buyers will lean on your point of view to decide what goes on shelf, how much space each category earns and how the aisle works across the year, from the summer outdoor peak in Blasters to the holiday and gifting peak across Plush and Exploratory. By bringing balanced, fact-based recommendations that grow the total category, you will build lasting trust with Walmart’s merchants and planners, protect and extend the advisorship for ZURU, and give our brand teams a sharper read on where these categories are heading.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree essential; an MBA or advanced degree in Analytics is highly advantageous.
5+ years of experience in category management, category advisory/captaincy, shopper insights or merchandising analytics, ideally with a toy, entertainment or CPG supplier or a major retailer.
Toy industry experience strongly preferred, particularly in Plush, Blasters/outdoor play or STEM, learning and creative play.
Hands-on Walmart experience, including Walmart Scintilla, modular cycles and line reviews.
Strong command of retailer POS and syndicated data; experience with Circana toy tracking data is a plus.
Advanced Excel and PowerPoint; Power BI or Tableau and JDA / Blue Yonder space planning experience are a plus.
Proven ability to influence senior retail buyers through objective, fact-based storytelling, with the judgement to stay vendor-neutral across the category.

Nice To Haves

MBA or advanced degree in Analytics
Experience with Circana toy tracking data
Power BI or Tableau and JDA / Blue Yonder space planning experience

Responsibilities

Build and own the annual category plan for Exploratory, Plush and Blasters with Walmart’s buyers, defining each category’s role, growth priorities and seasonal calendar.
Lead the analysis behind Walmart’s line reviews across every supplier in the three categories, recommending adds, deletes and item productivity improvements from a vendor-neutral, total-category view.
Build and recommend modulars and planograms for in-line, seasonal and feature space, including the summer outdoor and Blaster sets and the Q4 toy reset, using space-to-sales and store-cluster analysis.
Understand how kids, parents and gift-givers shop each category, from licensed, collectible and trend-driven plush, to age and price-point ladders in Blasters, to discovery and creative play in Exploratory, and translate that into navigation, adjacencies and price architecture.
Combine Walmart Scintilla (formerly Luminate) POS, syndicated toy tracking data and competitive insights to size opportunities, monitor category share and flag risks early.
Read fast-moving trend cycles, particularly social-driven plush crazes and blaster innovation, and help Walmart plan buy depth, in-stocks and feature timing for Summer, Back to School and Holiday.
Partner with the Walmart.com and Walmart Connect teams to align online assortment, item content and search and browse navigation with the store strategy and lift online conversion.
Run a regular cadence of category scorecards, dashboards and post-season reviews that give buyers, planners and ZURU leadership a clear, shared view of performance.
Lead data-led modular walk-throughs with Walmart’s teams and get into stores to check execution, compliance and the shopper experience.
Keep a strict firewall between category advisor data and ZURU’s own commercial teams, in line with Walmart’s category advisor guidelines, so every supplier in the category is treated fairly.